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Roulette: European and American

Biggest Roulette Difference: The Edge

One of the biggest differences when playing European and American roulette is in the house edge. With the American roulette version, there are 38 slots on the wheel which includes the 0 and the 00 slots. This means that the house edge is up to 5.3 percent. To the player, this may not mean anything but what it states is that in the long term, the casino will take in 5.3 percent of the profit that is being placed in the form of bets by the players of the game.

The European roulette table is different since it has only 37 slots. This means that the house edge is just 2.7 percent. As you can imagine, this does affect the game play considerably. Specifically, it means that you will lose twice as often when playing American roulette than when you are playing European roulette . In other words, you may win more often when playing European roulette!

Although the differences may seem very small and subtle to us, they are in fact very large for the casinos. Just a small percentage can really make a difference to the bottom line over the course of a year. When you have a massive volume of money coming in over the Roulette tables that have a couple of percent more chance of the house winning, then this will add up significantly by the end of the year.

You will also notice on an American roulette game that the numbers on the wheels are in different sequences than the European roulette. Unless you have played a lot of one type of game you will not notice any difference. But many Europeans when they play will be more familiar with the different sections on a roulette wheel, as this is actually a separate bet when playing the European roulette game.

French Roulette

There is also another roulette game played in Europe called French Roulette. This is played at a much slower rate than the American and European roulette games, and the table is also much bigger. The dealers actually need to use long stick to retrieve the chips. In fact, the “chips” are actually tiles that are bigger than the traditional round chips that are found on regular tables.

You will not see this game in many casinos outside of Europe, and there will be very little interest of this game in America, as it is generally too slow. It is mainly played in some of the more established casinos in France and Monte Carlo. If you feel like playing roulette, you can start off at a Microgaming no deposit casino!