When playing at a local casino there is generally only one type of roulette available to you – which in the UK is usually European Roulette – although some larger brick and mortar casinos may also offer alternative versions of the game, notably French and American roulette.
If you’re playing online, however, it’s a whole different ball game and there are all kinds of weird and whacky variations of the classic game for you to play. Some of these games are just regular roulette but with a bit of a face lift, whilst others introduce new and exciting features that totally change the way the game plays.
Standard Roulette Games
First we’ll take a look at the standard roulette games that are available in pretty much all online casinos – European, French and American. You can play all of the games in this first section at any of the places listed in our Roulette Casinos section.
European Roulette
The most common form of roulette played both online and offline in the UK is European Roulette. This game uses one single zero and has all the basic rules and betting options – including single numbers, columns, dozens as well as the even-money bets (red/black, odd/even and high/low). Because European Roulette uses only one zero, it has half the house edge of American Roulette.
French Roulette
French roulette is very similar to European Roulette, only with a couple of rules and features added. The first is the addition of new bet patterns that can be used to bet on common table layouts – including Voisins Du Zero, Le Tiers du Cylindre and Orphelins. Offline, French Roulette also traditionally has the En Prison or La Partage rule where you receive half of your money back on even-money bets when a zero is spun – but not all online casinos offer this rule.
American Roulette
The American version is one of the worst paying Roulette games you can find thanks to the addition of a second ‘double’ zero (00) which doubles the house edge from 2.7% to 5.4%. Wherever possible this Roulette game is best avoided. Thankfully it isn’t too common in UK brick & mortar casinos, although you will find it at most online casinos.
Non-Traditional Roulette Games
In this next section we’ll take a look at the exotic roulette variations that have been invented – which by their very nature only tend to be found online. Many of the games are also exclusive to specific casino software so you might have to hunt around a little bit to find the game you want. To help you on your way, we’ve included a suggestion of where you can play each of the games.
All of the casinos we recommend offer a Roulette bonus (naturally). But please bear in mind that some games may be excluded when playing with a bonus, so check the terms of any offer before you start playing.
Progressive Roulette
Fancy winning a few hundred grand? Then maybe try your luck at a Progressive Roulette game – these normally use a standard European Roulette base game with an optional side bet that goes into the progressive pool. Then if you spin five of the same number consecutively, you win the jackpot!
Multi-Wheel Roulette
This game is pretty much identical to European Roulette, except that it uses more than one wheel. The exact number of wheels you can play differs by software but usually ranges from 3 to 8. With most multi-wheel games you can choose how many wheels you want to play and your bet is then multiplied accordingly (eg: a £5 wager using three wheels will actually involve you betting £15).
Multi-Ball Roulette
The concept of Multi-Ball Roulette is similar to that of the Multi-Wheel Roulette described above. Except that this time you use multiple balls on the same wheel. Just like the Multi-Wheel version your total bet is multipled by the number of balls – so if you’re playing 8 balls, each £1 bet you place will cost £8. Note: More than one ball can land in the same numbers well.
Double Bonus Spin Roulette
This game features a bonus well that, when hit, triggers a bonus round where two lights rotate around the wheel and payout on whatever numbers they stop on – regardless of whether or not you’ve placed a bet on the bonus. The bonus well is wider than a normal number and is 1.5x more likely to be spun. The trade off for this is the addition of a second zero.
Triple Bonus Spin Roulette
Triple Bonus Spin Roulette is very similar to it’s Double Bonus Spin sibling, and features all of the same bonus round rules. The difference is that there are now three lights that rotate around the wheel instead of two, all of which pay out on whatever numbers they land. To accommodate this extra payout, a third zero (000) has been added.
Hot Streak Roulette
This game offers players the chance at huge payouts in the Hot Streak Bonus. To be in with a chance of winning you need to place an optional Hot Streak side bet on a set of six numbers. If any of those numbers are spun, you receive an instant payout and your Hot Streak bet rides. Then for every number in the set that you spin your payout increases – up to 25,000x!
Pinball Roulette
Pinball Roulette is a novelty game that’s vertically identical to regular European Roulette and the only differences are superficial ones. Here instead of a wheel being spun the ball passes through a pinball machine and lands in a moving numbered well. Bets are placed in the normal way using a standard Roulette layout and the outcome is identical to if you’d been playing the European version.