Why the Roulette House Edge isn’t that Bad

Assuming you know house edges in gambling, you know that the house edge in roulette is among the worst. If you play American roulette, you’re at a 5.26% disadvantage to the casino while European roulette still spots the house a 2.7% edge. Contrast this to blackjack and craps where the house edge is well below 2% if bettors make smart decisions. In the end, the roulette house edge just can’t compete with other games…….or can it? Let’s take a look at whether casino roulette is worth playing with its high house advantage.

In order to determine if casino roulette is a worthwhile game, let’s put it up against blackjack. As you may already know, blackjack is a gambling favorite because you can lower the house edge below 0.5% by using good strategy. You don’t have to be a mathematician to figure out that a 0.5% house edge is far more favorable than 2.7% or 5.26%. Even if you’re a relatively bad casino blackjack player, the house edge will only rise to 2%, which isn’t that bad in the overall scheme of things.

But one thing roulette bashers don’t take into account is how many spins per hour are played in roulette versus hands per hour in blackjack. In a typical roulette game, the most spins you are going to see in an hour is 60; if you’re at a crowded casino game, the number of spins per hour is most likely going to be 30-40. But in blackjack, the lowest amount of bets you’ll make per hour is 60 while the top amount will be around 200 per hour.

To put this into a monetary amount, let’s say you are making $5 bets in European roulette on a wheel that’s averaging 40 spins per hour. With $200 in play and a 2.7% house edge, you’ll only be losing $5.40 an hour ($200 X 0.027). Now let’s assume you are a decent blackjack player who plays well enough to lower the house edge to around 1%; if your table was averaging 100 hands per hour and you bet $5 each hand, you would be losing $5 an hour ($500 X 0.01).

Sure you’re saving $0.40 an hour with blackjack, but the point is that the roulette casino house edge isn’t that bad when you take into account how many more bets you’ll have to make in other casino games.

While it’s comforting to know that less roulette spins means less money spent, another comforting thought in regards to the roulette house edge is that you can lower it even more through the en prison rule. The en prison rule applies to even money bets in European casino roulette such as red/black, odd/even and high/low.

If the ball lands on 0 during your even money bet, you can leave your bet in prison. Assuming you win the original wager on the next spin, you get the bet back; if your original wager loses on the next spin, the bet is lost. This one tiny rule change lowers the house edge even further from 2.7% to 1.35%, which makes playing roulette even more attractive. You should look for games that offer the en prison rule whenever possible.

Now that we’ve established roulette can be just as competitive (if not more competitive) in terms of offering a low house edge, any fears of playing roulette should be eased. You can mix it into your normal rotation of casino games without worrying about losing more money because of the high house edge.

In addition to this, you can also earn lots of bonuses through roulette at online casinos, which means you could make major profits after going on a hot streak. Above all, just remember that roulette is a fun game to play, and you shouldn’t let the high house edge keep you from playing it.