Is Roulette Rigged: Everything You Need to Know

If you’re playing at a legitimate or regulated casino, online or land-based, the tables almost always work as they’re supposed to. These tables have been checked over for irregularities and continously monitored by governing bodies that the casinos have to answer to.

If there are any signs that the roulette tables are rigged, the casinos can lose their license and face all sorts of legal issue. That’s why roulette rarely is rigged in the sense that it works as intended.

However, you should consider that the tables are designed to not work in your favor in the first place, which leads us to the next point.

Each roulette table features an inherent advantage for the casino, called the house edge. This means the casino expects to make a profit over the long run. For example, the house edge for roulette is American 5.26%. That is the percentage of each bet the casino expects to collect from each bet in the long run.

That’s why I said that it depends on your definition of “rigged”. It’s rigged in the sense that the house always wins, one way or another. They get their cut of your bet via the house edge, which you’ll find in mostly all casino games.

The best online roulette sites and land-based casinos are transparent about their house edge, and most good gamblers know about it going into the game.

Of course, there are exceptions to that rule, which I’ll explain next.

Given all the regulations on casinos today, it can be almost impossible to rig roulette tables, whether online or brick-and-mortar. But there are a few ways casinos can try to distort the outcomes on roulette tables.

• Manipulating the RNG (Random Number Generator) at online casinos, so that the outcomes aren’t truly random.
• Integrating more rules, terms, and conditions that are biased towards the casinos, and not being transparent about it.
• Advertising certain bonuses for players, and not living up to those bonuses.

However, these cases are rare, and even more rare nowadays. Casinos have more eyes on them than ever before, and I’ll explain more why roulette tables aren’t rigged in the next two sections.

There are far more regulations on casinos than there ever have been. Casinos are regulated by governing bodies that are always checking up to see if they’re running their games fairly. These regulations also involves the government and it would be a bad look if it were found out they were allowing untrustworthy casinos to operate, which goes into my next point.

Simply put, if a casino is found to be untrustworthy by players, their reputation will be gone, and it’s almost impossible to earn that trust back. Again, most players know about the house edge, and they understand that.

But if it were found that the casino was manipulating the outcomes outside that advantage, word would travel fast. That casino wouldn’t last long in the industry, in terms of financial viability and reputation, even if legal issues are somehow avoided.

Any good casino will test their roulette wheels daily to ensure there is no bias, and they can also track the outcomes to make sure they are random.

Most companies that supply casinos with roulette wheels have been doing so for years, and much like the casino, they don’t want their product to be considered untrustworthy. That ruins their reputation, which is bad for business.

The rise of online casinos meant that regulation had to be swift in handling the idea of rigged online roulette games. The best online casino sites are regulated by governing bodies that audit the games regularly, and ensure that certified RNGs are being used.

The RNGs used at online casinos are usually audited by independent third parties like eCOGRA that doesn’t have a stake in the site’s profitability. These RNGs are put through the ringer by the independent companies to ensure that the outcomes are indeed random as advertised.

These audits can be found online to prove to players that everything is being done by the book. This enhances the trust factor among players, which might be the most important key to a casino’s prominence.

There are more tools players can use than ever before to audit the previous outcomes of spins of online roulette wheels. They can check bet histories, play logs, and more tools to make sure everything is as fair as it can be.

Penalties are harsh if it is found that online roulette wheels are rigged. A casino’s license can be revoked by the governing bodies, and it can even be shut down. They can be sued more easily than in the past as well.

But most importantly, casinos can be blacklisted, and you can find their status online. Much like word travelling fast about shady land-based casinos, online casinos can also receive that type of justice, and quicker. Once your reputation is bad in the online-casino space, it’s very difficult to get back in the good graces of regulatory bodies and players alike.

Online roulette also features the same house edge that land-based casinos do. Therefore, they don’t have to try to rig their roulette wheels to make money. The risk to rig online roulette wheels far outweighs the reward, even if they pull it off.

You should also learn about the different types of roulette, as some have less of a house edge than others. That should be factored into your online roulette strategy.