Online casinos offer players a wide range of card and table games in many shapes and forms. This is especially true for the game of Roulette. Along with classic European Roulette, players can try their hand at American Roulette, French Roulette, speed Roulette, double ball Roulette and live casino Roulette.
Of these, European and American are probably the most popular; depending on which side of the world you are based. For European players, American Roulette or double zero Roulette is not fully understood and generally avoided. But how exactly does this game differ from classic European Roulette?
American Roulette, otherwise known as double zero Roulette, is played in the exact same way as classic European Roulette. The rules are the same, the table layout is the same and the betting options are all the same.
The only difference between the two games is the Roulette wheel and the addition of a second zero. In classic Roulette, the Roulette wheel is split into 37 pockets and numbered from 1 to 36 with alternating colours of red and black. The final slot is reserved for the zero which is coloured in green.
In classic Roulette, any standard bet that lands on the green zero is a losing bet. This is how the game gets its house edge. For example, if you place a bet on red or black, odds or evens, or a specific number such as 16 or 19; if the ball lands on the green zero, it doesn’t matter how many bets you have in play, they will all lose. The only way a player can win when the ball lands on the zero is to place a bet specifically on the zero itself. This would be an individual bet that would cancel out any of the other bets on the table. If a player wanted to bet on the zero, it would be a single bet with payout odds of 36:1.
In double zero Roulette the wheel has one extra slot. In this game, the wheel is numbered from 1 to 36 with red and black numbers, the same as classic Roulette. Instead of having just a single zero, the wheel has an extra slot for a second zero marked as 00, or double zero. This double zero plays the same role as the single zero in that it acts as losing slot for any standard bet on the table.
So how does the double zero effect the game? The only effect it really has is to provide an extra opportunity for the house to win. What is really happening is the house edge is increasing and the chance of players landing a winning spin is slightly reduced. Double zero Roulette has a house edge of 5.26%, compared to French and European’s more favourable 2.70%.
For this reason, most players tend to avoid American Roulette since it is the exact same game as classic Roulette with more ways to lose. It is also possible to place bets on the zero as well as the double zero. But as with classic Roulette, these bets would cancel out any of the other bets at the table if they were to win.
