Is Roulette a Skill or Luck?


by James Smith |
Date of Publishing: 20/04/2023


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The team at Fruity King NZ have always believed in informing their customers about the games they offer, so any choices made are right for them. This article is aimed at the roulette game, specifically about the ongoing discussion about whether the game requires any skill or, as many will say, is all down to Lady Luck. 

Even though many people will say that roulette is all luck, they would be wrong, as most players who say this are casual players. Some players consistently win using a combination of knowledge and the skill of putting that knowledge into play. 

Knowing How to Win

For as long as roulette has been around, mathematicians and physicists have been developing systems and strategies to beat the house edge, with most having little success. Still, in March of 2004, a Croatian, A Serbian and a Hungarian (two men, one woman) sat down at a roulette table set apart from the main playing area, bought chips, and began to play. 

The venue was the upmarket Ritz Club in London’s West End. The Croatian Niko Tosa had already enjoyed winning at roulette over the previous two weeks. One manager is reported as saying that Tosa was the most successful player he had ever witnessed in the 25 years he had worked in the gambling industry. 

Right from the off, the way the trio played roulette stood out as they would wait for a few seconds until the ball began to slow before placing their bets before all bets were halted. They would cover as many as 15 numbers at once and somehow appeared to be working together. 

The roulette game was a standard European layout with a single zero (0). The trio favoured an area of betting felt for those covering pie-sliced segments of the wheel. The sections have names le tiers du cylindre (a third of the wheel) or Orphelins. They also favoured neighbour bets which consist of one number and two on either side. 

Although the trio did not hit a winning number on every spin, their win rate was phenomenal, and in streaks of supposed luck, that defied logic. Sometimes they would have more than ten wins in a row. With the casino’s security watching carefully, the two men who did most of the gambling had turned their initial combined £90.000 worth of chips into more than six figures.

Once they broke six figures, the bets increased. They played on with little emotion without reacting as the casino security carried on. They were winning consistently over hundreds of rounds.

The late, great Stephen Hawking once wrote about roulette, stating that it is practically impossible to predict the number that will come up; he also said that if there was a way of predicting which number was to come up that there would be a lot of physicists making a fortune playing roulette

Well, when the trio finally left the Ritz casino on the 16th of March, Tosa had turned £30,000 worth of chips into £310,000, with his Serbian partner making £684,000 from his initial £60,000. The trio had made about £1.3 million, including all earlier sessions. 

Of course, all video coverage was studied by staff, roulette wheel engineers were brought in to check the wheel, and the police and lawyers were involved. Once the British press heard of the trios run of ‘luck’, a national tabloid reported that the casino had been hit with a ‘laser scam’ which paired a device hidden in a mobile phone with a micro-computer.

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How to Recognise The Different Types of Roulette

There are two main types of roulette games: 

  • RNG roulette, where there is no physical roulette wheel. RNG stand for Random Number Generator, and all winning numbers are determined by an algorithm, like a pokies machine. Beating this type of roulette is very difficult as the RNG determines the winning number. 
  • Real-Wheel Roulette has a physical wheel and ball. Some real roulette does not have a live human croupier; rather, they have automated wheels where an air blower releases the ball. The winning number in real-wheel roulette games is determined by real and measurable physical factors such as the wheel’s speed and the material the ball is made from, making it possible to predict the outcomes of the spins to increase your chances, making them better than random. 

So, let’s look at the above two different types. It is only realistically possible to beat the roulette wheel if it is a physical one. Luckily for roulette lovers, online ‘live’ roulette games take place in real-time, use a physical wheel and are streamed to the comfort of your home via a roulette room or studio. 

Do Popular Roulette Strategies Work?

Many roulette strategies or systems have been devised over the years that claim to make roulette odds work in the gambler’s favour. Of course, over hundreds and thousands of spins, even a losing system will profit because they use what is known as a betting progression. 

A betting progression is where the size of a bet is increased after a loss, which is exactly what one of the most popular betting strategies of all time, The Martingale Betting System uses. Using this method, after each loss, you would double your bet. By repeatedly doing this when you win, you will likely cover your losses and walk away with a profit. 

There are many roulette strategies and systems to research, with some preferring one. The casual roulette player may choose to bet on a special date like an anniversary or birthday.

Conclusion

For most of us, roulette is a game of chance where we can try out our favourite betting strategies or systems to add excitement to our games; however, for some, roulette becomes far more than a simple game of chance where massive amounts of money can be won and lost.

About the Author

Author: James Smith.

James Smith has been writing about casino games and strategies for over a decade. He is an expert in the industry and loves to help people get started with online gambling. In his free time, James enjoys reading books by other successful authors, cycling around town, or playing poker.