Online roulette has gained rapid popularity over the past few years, as more and more players seek to enjoy the game from the comfort of their home. Online roulette sites offer you the opportunity to play both European and American roulette with a variety of stakes. The gameplay is pretty much the same. You place bets based where the ball will land, and if the number comes in you get paid. There are, however, some fundamental differences. In this article, we discuss roulette and RNGS, and whether it is possible to beat the game online.
House Edge Explained
If you are new to roulette, the first rule to understand is that the casino has an edge. Even if you believe in fate, playing the game as a normal punter will lose you money in the long run. This is due to the green number ‘0’, which is the 37th number on the roulette wheel. Players are only paid winning odds of 1-36 when their single number hits, even though there are 37 possible outcomes. This gives the house an edge of 2.7% over the game. In the long term, this makes the casino more money than they pay out.
This is also the reason why European roulette is a better option than its American counterpart. An extra number was added when the game reached the USA, the green ’00’, but the payout odds remain the same. This effectively doubles the house edge to 5.26%, giving players less chance of winning and less money back when they do win. If you are playing online roulette, always opt for a European table.
Online Roulette and RNGs
Roulette was invented by Blaise Pascal in the mid-17th century, and since then has gained popularity around the world. Despite a rich history, roulette hasn’t changed much during its lifespan, and the rules and gameplay are still very much the same. Online roulette offers the same gameplay as the live game played centuries ago, but the mechanics underlying it are actually very different.
Online roulette is more like slots. It uses a random number generator (RNG) in order to generate the winning number. What you see on your screen is merely a visual representation of a ball spinning around a wheel. The visual representation serves to make the game more exciting and enjoyable.
An RNG uses a complex algorithm in order to generate a sequence of numbers that is (close to) random. When an action is taken (i.e. when you finalize your bet and press ‘spin’) the RNG pulls out the next number from a seed sequence, and then generates the winning number from this. The winning number is effectively already decided the moment your press ‘spin’.
Is Online Roulette Safe?
Online roulette provides the same outcome as live games for casual recreational players. You place your bets, the wheel spins, the ball lands, and you either win or lose. Some players, however, have questioned the legitimacy of the RNG, and whether it truly is random.
The truth is, even the most sophisticated RNGs are not totally random, but they do come extremely close. Each number is generated from a ‘seed’ number, which adds an extra tier to the process. The algorithms are so complex that they are more reliable in terms of the ‘randomness’ of their outcome than the dealer’s spin of a ball. This can be understood by considering the supposed randomness of shuffling cards – An RNG is much more capable of ‘shuffling’ than a person!
Online casinos are businesses, and their job is to provide a service while still making profit. The house edge provides their profit, and odds should pay out exactly as they are stated. In the case of online roulette, the RNG will have an equal chance of hitting every number, and will pay out the same odds as a physical casino offers.
Of course, it is essential to check the legitimacy of any site that you play on. Rigged odds and other unusual activities have occurred in the past and have cost players serious money. Ideally, the site should have been audited by authorities, independently tested, and have a solid reputation for respecting its players. If you see any signs of fraud, look somewhere else immediately.
Can Online Roulette Be Beaten?
We are all about beating the game at roulette physics, so the questions on our mind’s (and perhaps our reader’s minds) is whether online roulette can be beaten?
We must start this discussion at the beginning; in online roulette, as in live roulette, the odds are in the casino’s favor. If you play roulette over a long period of time, you will lose money. Sure, there are some people who’s streak never ends, but if they continued for long enough they would eventually see their money trickle away… it is built into the game.
Strange and creative betting patterns do not change anything about the game. The odds remain the same, and even if you employ the famous Martingale strategy with an almost bottomless bankroll, it can all still go wrong. Progressive betting is not a winning roulette strategy.
The only way to beat roulette is to be able to predict where the ball will land with great enough accuracy to increase your edge. If you can gain even a small edge using techniques that involve physics, and avoid detection by pit bosses and casino owners, then it is possible to beat the game.
All of our roulette strategies are based on physics in some way or another. We tell you how to gain an edge by using roulette computers to predict spins, computer software to trace patterns, and biases in dealers and wheels. Each of these relies on noting variables that only exist on a physical wheel, including the speed of the wheel rotation and ball spin.
But as we have discovered, online roulette is different. Online roulette relies on RNGs to create a sequence of numbers. There is no ball and there is no wheel. The ball and wheel are only visual representations of an RNG. Physics doesn’t really apply here.
There have been attempts to beat online roulette, and there is information out there that tells you it is possible. RNGs are not truly random, and so ‘bots’ have been built with the intention of tracking the sequence and predicting the outcome. This inevitably fails due to the multi-tiered number generation of the RNG. Unless you know the algorithm and seed already, the code is simply too complex to be predicted, and if it could be cracked developers would simply add in another tier. The only other use for the bots is to use them to automatically input betting systems, but this is just as likely to fail as if you entered your bets manually.
Therefore, there is no way to predict the outcome of an online roulette wheel.
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