During the 1940s and 1950s, the casino industry in Cuba developed by astute gamblers was aware that all the roulette wheels in the capital city of Havana were rigged. Many of these gamblers decided to go against casual players, as the ball usually settled into sections.

Today we have a reader’s question from Graham in Ireland. He’s got some questions about online roulette, and specifically wants to know “is online roulette rigged?”

Graham, we’re happy to answer your question. It turns out that the answer is sort of. Let us explain. But first, here’s Graham’s email…

Dear Gamblerspro,

I’ve been playing a lot of online roulette this year, and despite trying every roulette strategy in the book, I’m down about 5%. I’ve had some big wins and some great nights, and some absolute wipeouts where I lost my entire bankroll within 10 minutes. Those extremes aside, when I tally it all up I am down 5% or so. What gives? Are online roulette games rigged?

1. The machine spins the ball every 30 - 45 seconds or so. I think IGT makes this and it's called 'Roulette Evoution' or something like that. I am only interested in the version which has a real roulette wheel (NOT the video roulette wheel one where the random computer generator determines the winning number). Any help would be greatly appreciated!
2. Honestly, it’s not that different. Winning at electronic roulette is as likely to happen as at the land-based one. So, what’s the deal? Electronic roulette, unlike the live casino one, is powered by RNG software. RNG stands for Random Number Gener.
3. Live Roulette is Rigged.
4. Players worldwide have been questioning the fairness of the relatively recently introduced automated roulette machines, otherwise known as airball or rapid roulette or even more broadly called electronic roulette. Many heated debates in different online roulette communities over the last years didn’t provide a conclusive answer.

So Is Online Roulette Rigged?

Graham,

The first thing you want to make sure of is that you’re playing at a safe, trusted online casino. There are definitely rogue casinos out there that run fixed roulette games. A good first line of investigation would be to eliminate that possibility. If you’re playing at a known and respected brand, you’re safe.

After you’ve eliminated that possibility, you need to understand roulette house edge. This is why you’re ultimately down 5% despite finding yourself in the green at times. No matter how big you win on the night, if you keep playing roulette over a period of months and years, you’ll end up losing. The house edge is what gives the casino a built-in advantage. It guarantees the casino a profit even if you use the best roulette strategies.

Roulette House Edge Explained

There are many different variants of roulette these days, but they are all played on either a European or an American roulette wheel. Therefore, you only need to know and remember the house edge for both of these wheels.

• American roulette has two zeros. The house edge is 5.26%.
• European roulette has one zero. The house edge is 2.7%.

Once you know this, it becomes immediately obvious that you should choose to play European roulette variants unless there’s a special reason not to. For example, you might play on an American roulette wheel if the terms of a roulette bonus make it necessary.

Despite the differences between the two roulette wheels, the casino has a long-term mathematical advantage either way.

That’s why you’re down 5% or so over a year, Graham. You just can’t win in the long game, so there’s no point in trying.

Is Roulette Rigged? Conclusion

We hope this helps you understand that while it’s unlikely that an online roulette game is rigged specifically to cheat you, they are all rigged in favour of the house. That applies to digital, real-world, and live dealer roulette games.

Does this mean you shouldn’t play roulette? Not at all. It’s still an extremely exciting and fun casino game. Take your wins when they come, spend and enjoy them, and accept it when you lose.

Can Roulette Be Rigged?

Gamblers who don't understand the inner workings of a casino sometimes wonder if the games they play are set up fairly. When a casino patron loses against a slot machine, for example, he or she might wonder if the machine was somehow rigged. Authentic roulette eliminates some of this suspicion because it makes use of a physical wheel that is spun by hand. An electronic roulette game could be rigged, however, as Pierre Coulon proved when he used his laptop recently to remotely help a female friend win a jackpot at the Paris Casino in Blackpool, England.

Coulon was the managing director of the Paris Casino at the time of the incident. Upon investigation, officials discovered that the surveillance cameras normally trained upon the facility's electronic roulette game had been moved. Coulon later admitted to manipulating the outcome of the game via laptop so his female friend could win some cash. He cited a dispute with his business partner and co-owner of the casino as the reason why he committed the crime. Prior to this event, Coulon, who spent 40 years working in the gambling industry, had no instances of criminal activity in his personal record.

About Roulette Wheel Bias

Roulette is a game of chance, but a person's chance of winning or losing can definitely be affected by wheel bias. A biased wheel is one that does not select numbers completely at random. Physical irregularities and normal wear and tear can alter a wheel in a way that causes it to favor certain numbers more than others. This irregularity, if discovered by a casino patron, can boost his or her odds of winning tremendously. For this reason, casinos do everything they can to detect such flaws and prevent customers from taking advantage of an edge in their favor.

Bias Caused by Wheel Manufacturers: Not Likely

Gambling equipment manufacturers are aware of the potential for irregularity and the great harm a defective wheel could ultimately do to a casino's bottom line. For this reason, wheels are manufactured to extremely high standards. A concentrated effort is made to ensure that all wheels are perfectly symmetrical and homogenous in weight and texture. A manufacturer of bum equipment would quickly go out of business, after all. Bias caused by the manufacturers is, therefore, highly unlikely.

Bias Caused by Normal Wear and Tear: Likely

A roulette wheel is spun thousands of times per day; it is only natural that wear and tear would gradually break it down. Sometimes the ball hits the wood with such force it becomes chipped, causing weight to be unevenly distributed. Sometimes 'rotor wobble' develops, in which the wheel gradually becomes crooked due to routine cleanings in which the rotor is removed from the spindle. Sometimes 'pocket defects' occur. In this situation, certain number pockets become slightly enlarged due to repeated force, or the felt between the pockets loosens, causing abnormalities in ball recoil. Any or all of these situations can occur during the lifetime of a roulette wheel, causing bias.

Wheel bias in itself is not harmful, or helpful, to anyone. The phenomenon only becomes harmful to the house when patrons discover it and develop their own personal ways to capitalize upon it. Similarly, wheel bias is only helpful to patrons if they realize it's there and seize the opportunity to profit from it.

Joseph Jagger Rips Off the Beaux-Arts Casino in 1873

Roulette wheel bias is nothing new, nor is the casino patron's desire to capitalize upon it. Almost 150 years ago, a man named Joseph Jagger won 65,000 pounds from Monte Carlo's Beaux-Arts casino through his knowledge of the facility's weakest wheel. Jagger spent time studying all six of the casino's wheels and deduced that one of them favored a grouping of nine adjacent numbers. After a fair amount of suspicious winning, the Beaux-Arts caught on to Jagger's tactics and tried to move the games around the room order to confound him. In the end, however, the gambler's profit was much higher than that of the house.

One Century Later: Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo Wins Big in Madrid

Over 100 years later, at the Casino de Madrid in the 1990s, Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo happened upon a defect that won him over a million euros over the course of several days. The casino eventually figured out what Garcia-Pelayo was doing and tried to sue, but the courts ruled in the gambler's favor, saying it was the casino's responsibility to maintain their equipment.

The Dealer Controls the Ball

The outcome of electronic table games can be controlled by computer, as Coulon showed the world in the Blackpool incident. The outcome of authentic games can be capitalized upon by scrutinizing players who have correctly identified an equipment defect. One last question remains: can a roulette dealer, or croupier, purposefully determine where a ball will land?

Debate exists as to whether croupiers can control the outcome of their spins. Anecdotally, some croupiers claim to possess this superior skill. Skeptics are quick to point out, however, that the wheel and its ball are spun in different directions, making it nearly impossible to control the outcome of a spin. It would take an extreme amount of fine motor coordination and muscle memory for a croupier to purposefully dictate this outcome.

For over a century, people have been looking for ways to cheat the roulette wheel and win big money. Whether through electronics or the identification of a physical equipment problem, this goal is occasionally achieved. For those who wonder if casinos sometimes cheat their patrons by rigging machinery, the answer is yes. In the case of roulette wheel bias, it is sometimes the patrons who cheat the casinos.

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