The modernisation of casino games brought about significant changes within the industry. The number of new players entering the scene was skyrocketing by the minute as providers rolled out one jaw-dropping title after another. Suffice to say, slot machines and table games have come a long way since their Las Vegas days.
Nowadays, players get to enjoy new bets, more features and totally fresh bonuses — you never know what could happen on your next spin! The features and mechanics online casinos offer are nothing compared to those in land-based casinos.
All of this could definitely be attributed to all the technological advances in casino solutions, which only made the love players had for these games burn brighter. More advancements also meant that there were way more things to learn — but that’s what we’re here for.
We’ve compiled a glossary of roulette terminology to help lay your foundation for your online roulette journey. We’ll run you through all the roulette terms you need to know and ensure you kick off on the right gaming foot.
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1-18/19-36 Bet: A roulette bet that involves betting on the first 18 or the second 18 numbers. The zero is not included.
A
Action: The total amount of funds a player plans on betting in one roulette game. This can also refer to the total amount of money on the roulette table for a given spin.
American Roulette: American Roulette is a variation of roulette that features a higher house edge due to its additional double zero pocket.
American Roulette Wheels: American Roulette wheels feature a total of 38 numbered pockets, including a single zero and a double zero. This additional pocket boosts the house edge to 5.26% from the 2.7% in European Roulette.
Announced Bets: At land-based casinos, players are sometimes allowed to call out their bet to the croupier.
Auto Roulette: Auto Roulette is a European roulette variant played at many casinos around the world. Rolled out by Evolution, this game’s main distinguishing feature is that it does not include a live dealer. Instead, the wheel spins completely on its own.
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Ball Track: The ball track is the area in which the ball spins before settling in a numbered pocket on the roulette wheel.
Bankroll: A bankroll is the amount of funds a player has in their casino wallet to spend at online casinos.
Biased Numbers: If a roulette wheel produces the a set of numbers more often than others, these numbers would be referred to as biased numbers or golden numbers.
Biased Wheel: A biased wheel refers to a roulette wheel that has been tampered with. This generally occurs at land-based casinos or at lesser-known online casinos. Playing at a licensed online casino is the best way to ensure your gaming experience is safe and fair. A biased wheel can also be referred to as a gaffed wheel.
Black Bet: A black bet involves wagering on all black numbers on the roulette wheel and is one of the even-money bets that can be placed.
Bottom Track: The bottom track is the inner part of the wheel that doesn’t spin. When the ball is spun, it will bounce off the bottom track, drop from the back track and land in a numbered pocket on the roulette wheel.
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California Roulette: This roulette table is a variation of roulette that loosely resembles the classic game. While it features a normal roulette table, what makes this game stand out is that the traditional American roulette wheel is replaced with a spinning deck of cards.
Call Bets: Call bets refer to ‘announced bets’.
Carre: A French term used to describe the corner bet.
Chameleon Strategy: A roulette term used to describe a player that is mimicking other players’ strategies when they are successful.
Check Rack: The check rack is the tray where casino chips are kept at a land-based casino. Online casino games do not include a check rack since all chips are virtual.
Cheval: A French term used to refer to a spill bet.
Colonne: A French term used to describe the column bet.
Column Bet: The column bet is a wager that covers 12 numbers in a single column. This wager does not include the zero.
Combination Bet: A combination bet involves placing several bets at once and betting on more than one number on the roulette wheel. Here, players essentially hedge their bets and cover multiple numbers in the hopes of hitting one and making a smaller profit. Hedging bets is often reserved for more knowledgeable players and is not available at online casinos.
Corner Bet: A corner bet involves betting on the intersection of four numbers where all four numbers are covered.
Credits: Some online casino games may refer to your funds as credits.
Croupier: Often used as another term for ‘dealer’. A croupier is a casino employee would be in charge of spinning the roulette wheel, collecting casino chips, and making sure the game runs smoothly.
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D’alembert Strategy: Instead of doubling the wager after a loss, as per the Martingale, one unit is added to the player’s stake. After a winning bet, the stake is decreased by one unit.
Double Zero: The 00 is the additional pocket found on American tables.
Dozen Bet: A dozen bet is a wager where players bet on the first, second or third set of 12 numbers. The dozen bet is among the several outside bets you can place.
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En Prison Rule: The En Prison rule is similar to the La Partage rule found in French roulette. However, where a player loses half their wager with the La Partage rule, players can take advantage of the En Prison rule by placing their even-money bets ‘in prison’ — ‘en prison’ is a French term for prison — when the ball lands on zero. The wheel will be spun again, releasing a player’s bet from ‘prison’ and, if the wager wins, their original bet is returned.
European Roulette: European roulette is one of the most classic forms of typical roulette. It includes a unique European wheel and a house edge of 2.70%.
European Wheel: The European wheel refers to the roulette wheel found on European roulette tables. It features 37 numbered pockets, including a single zero.
Even Bet: A bet that covers all even numbers on a roulette wheel.
Even-money Bet: An ‘even-money’ bet is a wagering proposition with even odds. This implies that the player stands to lose or win the same amount of money, and is sometimes referred to as a 50-50 bet as it pays out 1:1.
Evolution: Established in early 2006 in Stockholm Sweden, Evolution is one of the biggest names in the Live Casino industry. While it was previously known as ‘Evolution Gaming’, the company rebranded in early 2020 to ‘Evolution’. While it has produced many intriguing titles, some of Evolution’s top games include Lightning Roulette, Immersive Roulette and Auto Roulette.
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Fibonacci Strategy: This betting strategy involves wagering on a series of numbers that adhere to the logic of the Fibonacci sequence where every number is the sum of the previous two. The numbers in the sequence correspond to the value of your bet.
Five-number Bet: A five-number bet involves betting on the zero, double zero, one, two and three. Since it involves wagering on the double zero, this bet is only available at American roulette tables.
French Roulette: French roulette is a roulette variant that closely resembles European roulette. This casino game includes many of the same features as its European counterpart and even offers the same table layout. The only difference is that this table game offers a lower house edge and additional rules that slice the house edge to as low as 1.35%.
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Golden Eagle Strategy: The Golden Eagle technique can be used either defensively or offensively. The offensive mode is used to boost wins, while the defensive mode is used to recover losses. This strategy requires eight buy-ins of eight chips, for a total of 64 chips.
Golden Numbers: Also referred to as ‘biased numbers’, golden numbers are a set of numbers that have a high hit frequency.
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High or Low Bet: Players wager on the ball landing on any number between one and 18 or 19 and 36. Some roulette games refer to this even-money wager as a 1-18/19-39 bet.
House Edge: The house edge is a term used to describe the mathematical advantage the casino has over players every time they spin the roulette wheel and place bets. The house edge is the percentage return the casino expects to keep and a percentage loss of what a player wagers — a casino will always make a profit regardless of the outcome. The house edge may also vary from one roulette table to another, especially when playing different roulette variants.
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Immersive Roulette: Immersive Roulette is an Evolution game based on the classic game of European roulette, designed to provide a cinematic experience using slow-motion replay mechanics and multiple camera angles.
Inside Bet: An inside bet is a wager that is placed inside the betting area. Inside bets include: straight up bet, split bet, corner bet and line wager.
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James Bond Strategy: The James Bond strategy involves wagering 20 units each round. Implementing this method implies that you’ll be betting on 25 numbers leaving a remainder of 12 numbers on the roulette wheel.
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Labouchere Strategy: The Labouchere system, sometimes referred to as the Cancellation technique or the Split Martingale, is a technique tailored to work with even-money bets. It involves deciding on the amount you wish to win and breaking that number up into a series of smaller numbers. The leftmost and rightmost numbers are used to determine the value of your wager and are crossed out as you accumulate the winnings. Losses will be added onto the sequence at the end.
La Partage Rule: The La Partage rule is an additional rule found at French tables and is similar to En Prison. If a player places a bet and the ball lands on zero, the La Partage rule will return a portion of their bet back. Players only lose half their bet.
Lightning Roulette: A game of roulette based on the European game that features lightning multipliers.
Line Bet: A line bet is a six-number bet that involves wagering on six consecutive numbers that form two adjacent lines.
Layout: The table layout refers to the betting grid where players can select their bets and place their chips.
Losing Streak: A succession of losing bets.
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Martingale System: The Martingale betting system is a negative betting strategy that involves doubling your bet after every loss. This method capitalises on the eventual likelihood of breaking a losing streak, making a marginal return when you hit the win. In other words, using the Martingale yields small returns to offset large losses.
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Odd Bet: An odd bet is a wager that covers all odd numbers on a roulette wheel and is one of the even-money bets that can be placed on roulette.
Orphans: The term ‘orphans’ is commonly used in European casinos and refers to a bet on six, 17 and 34. The reason punters use this term is because these numbers are neighbours on the roulette wheel but are far apart on the table layout.
Orphelins: A bet that covers the three orphan numbers — six, 17 and 34.
Outside Bet: Outside bets are roulette wagers that are placed outside the betting area.
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Parlay Strategy: Similar to the Paroli system, the Parlay is among the oldest roulette strategies. It works on positive betting progression, which involves increasing your bet amount after hitting a winning number. On a loss, the player returns to their initial bet size. The goal of the Parlay system is to maximise winnings while allowing players to stop the progression when reaching the desired amount to avoid larger losses.
Paroli Strategy: The Paroli method is a positive progression betting system, also known as the reverse Martingale. With this strategy, your stake is doubled when hitting a winning number.
Pockets: A ‘pocket’ refers to the small numbered slots on the roulette wheel where the ball can land. In roulette, the aim is to successfully predict where the ball will land by wagering on one or more numbered pockets in one betting round.
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Red Bet: A red bet involves wagering on all of the red numbers on the roulette wheel.
Roulette Table Layout: The roulette layout refers to the
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Single-zero Wheel: A single-zero roulette wheel refers to the wheel found in French and European games that features 37 numbered pockets, including the zero.
Six Line Bet: Also known as simple ‘line bet’, this wager involves betting on two adjacent rows of numbers, covering six numbers in total.
Six-Number Bet: Another term used to describe a six line or line bet.
Speed Roulette: Speed Roulette is a cranked up version of classic roulette, featuring multiple camera angles, high-tech features and super speedy gameplay.
Split Bet: When a player bets on two vertically or horizontally adjacent numbers.
Straight Up Bet: A straight up bet is a single bet placed on one number, including the zero.
Street Bet: The street bet involves wagering on a row of three consecutive numbers horizontally. This wager is also sometimes referred to as a trio bet or a three-number bet.
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Visual Wheel Tracking: This is the term to describe the process of following and essentially ‘tracking’ the ball and wheel to try and predict where the ball will land.
Voisins du Zero: A French bet that involves wagering on a particular group of numbers on the section of the roulette wheel that is next to the zero.
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Wheel: A roulette wheel is among the essential equipment used when playing any game of roulette. It typically features 37 numbered pockets (or 38 in American tables) that would be coloured red and black, with the exception of the green zero (and double zero) pocket.
Wheel Checks: Special unmarked chips that are used specifically on roulette tables.
Wheel Head: The wheel head refers to the section of the roulette wheel that consists of numbers and their respective pockets.
Winning Streaks: A succession of winning bets.
Z
Zero: The pocket on a roulette wheel marked ‘0’. Every roulette wheel contains the zero — American wheels also feature a 00.