Roulette Trainer

This roulette trainer drops a chip somewhere on the layout and asks you one thing about it: what it pays, how often it wins, or how much the house keeps. It’s free, there’s no money involved, and after every answer you get the working, so a split stops being “17 to 1 because someone said so” and turns into 36 shared between two numbers.

Chances are you already know red pays even money. Hardly anyone gets that wrong. Put a chip on the corner of 17, 18, 20 and 21, though, or on the line under 13 to 18, and watch people pause. A bit of roulette practice gets rid of that pause.

How the roulette trainer works

Whatever numbers the chip covers light up. Below them sit four answers; click one, or press 1, 2, 3 or 4. Right, and the next bet shows up by itself. Don’t want that? Untick the box. Wrong, and the screen stays put so you can read why. Honestly, that’s where the learning happens.

Mixed mode hops between payouts, odds and house edge. If one topic keeps getting you, pick it from the menu and stay on it till your streak goes up.

The 36 trick for roulette practice

Nobody at a real table is reciting a payout chart in their head. The players who answer instantly are doing one sum: the wheel pays as though it had 36 numbers, so 36 divided by however many numbers the chip covers gives you everything that comes back to you, stake included. Try it on a corner, which covers four numbers, and you get 9 back, your chip plus 8 to 1. Try it on a dozen and you get 3 back, which is why dozens pay 2 to 1. After twenty or so questions you’ll notice you’ve stopped thinking about it.

The zero is the casino’s cut, and it’s the same size whichever bet you choose. There are 37 pockets on a European wheel, so spreading 37 chips around gets you 36 back on average, a 2.70% edge on almost every bet on the table. Plenty of people think red or black is the careful choice. It wins more often, sure, but it pays less, and over an evening it costs you exactly what a straight-up bet costs.

European, French and American wheels

You can switch wheels under the table rules, and honestly this is the part worth knowing before you sit down anywhere. French tables have la partage. Zero comes up, and anything on red, black, odd, even, high or low only loses half. That knocks those bets down to 1.35% from 2.70%. Walk over to an American wheel and that extra double zero nearly doubles the cost of everything to 5.26%. Worst of the lot is the top line (0, 00, 1, 2, 3) at 7.89%. Expect the CasinoCalcs trainer to quiz you on it.

Got a system you’d like to test over thousands of spins? Run it through the roulette simulator. Every bet and its odds sit together on the roulette odds chart, and anyone learning to deal can drill picture bets in chips with the dealer payout trainer. For other games, head to the casino game trainers page.

Knowing the maths doesn’t remove the house edge. BeGambleAware.org is free and confidential if it stops being fun.