What more can casinos offer when it comes to helping players understand their games? We at LV BET decided to take things up to the next level with a comprehensive list of roulette terms.
ROULETTE TERMINOLOGY
To beginners, roulette can be quite a complicated game to get accustomed to, owing to its particular betting layout. In reality, all it takes is a quick understanding of the new bets to start playing roulette with ease, and this list of roulette terms will help you in that regard.
ROULETTE GLOSSARY
A
American Roulette: Refers to a variation of roulette that features a higher house edge (5.25%) due to its additional double zero pocket.
American Roulette Wheels: Refers to the wheel of American Roulette, which feature a total of 38 numbered pockets, including a single zero and a double zero. This additional pocket boosts the house edge to 5.25% from the 2.7% in European Roulette.
Announced Bets: Refers to bets placed following an announcement of a player — a practice that usually happens in land-based casinos
Auto Roulette: Refers to a European roulette variant played at many casinos around the world. The game was developed by Evolution, and its main distinguishing feature is that it does not include a live dealer. Instead, the wheel spins completely on its own.
B
Ball Track: Refers to the area in which the ball spins before settling in a numbered pocket on the roulette wheel.
Bankroll: Refers to the number of funds a player allocates as their gambling budget.
Biased Wheel: Also referred to as a ‘gaffed wheel’, the phrase 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.
Black Bet: Refers to the act of wagering on all black numbers on the roulette wheel, that is, every black, even-money bet.
C
California Roulette: Refers to a roulette game 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: Another term for ‘announced bets’.
Chameleon Strategy: Refers to the act of mimicking other players’ strategies when successful.
Check Rack: Refers to the tray where casino chips are kept at a land-based casino.
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: Refers to the act of placing several bets at once and betting on more than one number. 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: Refers to the act of 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: Refers to the casino employee in charge of operating a casino game.
D
D’alembert Strategy: Refers to a betting strategy in which, instead of doubling the wager after a loss, one unit is added to the player’s stake. After a winning bet, the stake is decreased by one unit.
Double Zero: Refers to the 00 — the additional pocket found at American tables.
Dozen Bet: Refers to a wager where players bet on the first, second or third set of 12 numbers.
E
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.
F
Fibonacci Strategy: Refers to a betting strategy involving 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: Refers to the action of betting on the zero, double zero, one, two and three. This bet is only available at American roulette tables.
French Roulette: Refers to a roulette variant that resembles European roulette. This casino game includes many of the same features as its European counterpart and even offers the same table layout, only that its house edge is 1.35%, owing to some specific rules.
G
Golden Numbers: Also referred to as ‘biased numbers’, the phrase refers to a set of numbers that seem to have a high hit frequency.
H
High or Low Bet: Refers to a bet placed 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: Also referred to as the ‘house advantage’, the phrase refers to the mathematical advantage the casino has over players every time they spin the roulette wheel and place bets. Labelled as a percentage, the house edge is the monetary return that the casino expects to keep and a percentage loss of what a player wagers.
I
Immersive Roulette: Refers to a roulette table released by Evolution which is based on the classic game of European roulette. It is designed to provide a cinematic experience using slow-motion replay mechanics and multiple camera angles.
Inside Bet: Refers to a wager that is placed inside the betting area. Inside bets include: straight up bet, split bet, corner bet and line wager.
J
James Bond Strategy: Refers to a flat betting system which involves wagering the same amount every round.
L
Labouchere Strategy: Refers to a betting strategy which 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 to the sequence at the end, thus complicating your efforts at achieving your initial goal.
La Partage Rule: Refers to an additional rule found at French tables that is similar to En Prison. If a player places a bet and the ball lands on zero, this rule will return a portion of their bet back. Players only lose half their bet.
Lightning Roulette: Refers to a game of roulette based on the European game that features lightning multipliers, which change after every round.
Line Bet: Refers to a six-number bet that involves wagering on six consecutive numbers that form two adjacent lines.
Layout: Usually referred to as the ‘table layout’, the phrase refers to the betting grid where players can select their bets and place their chips.
Losing Streak: Refers to a succession of losing bets.
M
Martingale System: Refers to a negative betting strategy that involves doubling your bet after every loss.
O
Odd Bet: Refers to a wager that covers all odd numbers on a roulette wheel. It is one of roulette’s even-money bets.
Orphans: Refers to a bet on six, 17 and 34. The reason behind this term is that the aforementioned numbers are neighbours on the roulette wheel but are far apart on the table layout.
Orphelins: Refers to a bet covering the three orphan numbers.
Outside Bet: Refers to bets placed outside the betting area.
P
Parlay Strategy: Refers to a 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.
Paroli Strategy: Refers to a positive progression betting system in which a player’s stake is doubled when hitting a winning number.
Pockets: Refers to the small numbered slots on the roulette wheel where the ball can land.
R
Red Bet: Refers to the act of wagering on all of the red numbers on the roulette wheel.
Roulette Table Layout: The roulette layout refers to whether a table features the single zero or double zero. European casinos usually feature the former version of roulette, whereas American ones feature the double-zero wheel.
S
Single-zero Wheel: Refers to the wheel found in French and European games that features 37 numbered pockets, including the solitary zero.
Six Line Bet: Also known as a ‘line bet’, the phrase refers to the act of 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: Refers to a roulette variant with multiple camera angles, high-tech features and very fast gameplay.
Split Bet: Refers to the situation when a player bets on two vertically or horizontally adjacent numbers.
Straight Up Bet: Refers to a single bet placed on a single number.
Street Bet: Refers to the act of 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.
V
Visual Wheel Tracking: Refers to the process of following and tracking the ball and wheel to try and predict where the ball will land.
Voisins du Zero: Refers to 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.
W
Wheel: Refers to the round object on which roulette is played. 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: Refers to special unmarked chips that are used on roulette tables.
Wheel Head: Refers to the section of the roulette wheel that consists of numbers and their respective pockets.
Winning Streaks: Refers to a sequence of winning bets.
Z
Zero: Refers to the pocket on a roulette wheel marked ‘0’. Every roulette wheel must contain at least one zero, while American wheels feature a 00.