In the UK and countless other countries, there are eight basic house games (as opposed to Card Room games or machines) that can be called casino games. The five games on this page, on the other hand, are the mainstay of the casino industry. Roulette accounts for more than half of all casino action in the UK. Blackjack is up 20% and Baccarat Punto Banco is also on the rise. Because it is such a complicated game, craps has not become as popular anymore. The top three games are available in all casinos, but Craps is available exclusively in London.
The casino world has gone online as a result of deregulation and technological advancements, and you can now play online casino games with the click of a mouse from the comfort of your own home or by touching the screen on a mobile device. A guide to casino games and online gambling websites in the UK can be found here.
What to do and how to play
While the changes are minor, there are three basic variations of the roulette theme in casinos around the world: Roulette Wheel, Roulette Table and Roulette Chips. They come from the United Kingdom, the United States and France. English Roulette, which is more accurate in France, is the name given to the American roulette game.
Predicting where a small white ball will land after spinning around the edge of a roulette wheel is the object of the game. The ball makes a total of 40 revolutions as the carousel (the middle bit with the slots or hub) spins in the opposite direction. When the ball and the carousel collide, the ball bounces around randomly before landing in a number marked slot. That’s the winning number.
The roulette wheel is placed on a roulette table with a “layout” of a cloth. Numbers corresponding to those in the wheel (0-36) are drawn on the layout design. A prize payout in casino chips is awarded to money placed on or linked to the winning number on the sheet layout. Different number selections are associated with different odds payments. (Full instructions for playing roulette can be found here.)
It is a fast paced action game that brings out both the best and the worst in players. A quiet weeknight at a regional casino can be annoying, but Saturday nights are full of cheers and curses. This is not a game for the faint of heart or insane. It has the potential to destroy rational people!
What about the different games? So, here’s the funny part. When you enter a UK casino, the roulette table will almost always be referred to as ‘American Roulette’. It is uniquely American in that it uses different colored chips for each participant at the table to keep their bets separate.
Strategy
In terms of math, it is true that if you double your bet after a loss, you will eventually get all your money back. The problem with applying that concept to reality is that a losing streak can force you to make really big bets. You will eventually reach the house limit even if you don’t have the money to back it up. It is doomed from the start. Don’t get caught up in it; if you try it will probably work for a while before the big crash!
Known Systems: For the record, the Martingale is the basic doubling when your system loses. You start by betting one unit on Red (or an Even Chance bet), then 2,4,8,16 and so on until you lose. You only make a profit of one unit if you win. The anti-Martingale strategy, on the other hand, aims to take advantage of those extended ranges by doubling bets as you win. This is achieved by placing a unit bet on an Even Chance option and letting the winnings run until you reach the number of consecutive wins you expected before you started. (1+1+2+4+8+16=32, or a return of 32 for 1 after five consecutive wins) This one is just as doomed as its older sibling, but it doesn’t have the same risk of catastrophic failure in a single appearance.