Roulette is one of the archetypal casino games found the world over and enjoying strong popularity. Consequently, Australian players will find plenty of online casinos offering a good variety of different roulette variations. To help you sort the wheat from the chaff we've put together a list of the best online casinos where Australians can play roulette. We've used several factors in making our list: wagering conditions, game variety, the ability to deposit and play with Australian dollars (a major deciding factor), whether there is a mobile casino option and security, among others.
But that's not all you'll find in this article. We also cover these aspects of Australian online roulette casinos:
- A list of our most favoured Australian online casinos for roulette
- The best real money roulette casinos for Australians
- Playing roulette on smartphone or tablet
- The various types of online roulette bets
- The experience of live dealer roulette for Australian players
- The different types of roulette games you'll find online
- The various roulette betting systems
Online roulette casinos for Australians - The Shortlist
Before we get into any detail, if you want to just get on with playing roulette immediately, here's a list of the best online roulette casinos for Australians:
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1st
best
deal
A$3200 Match Bonus
Accepted
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2nd
$300 Match Bonus
Accepted
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3rd
A$160 Match Bonus
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Featured Site
There are plenty of Australian casinos that offer roulette, both for free play and for real money play. Our pick for the best Australian roulette casino is Casino.com. You'll be able to play in Australian dollars without having to convert currencies, and they offer some really great roulette games for you to play. Not only that, but the casino has a good look and feel, downloadable casino software, instant play and a mobile casino version, and plenty of other games.
There's a very good library of roulette games, totalling 15 in all. They all have attractive graphics and interfaces. There are even two 3D roulette games: 3D Roulette and 3D Roulette Premium.
Here's the full list of roulette games:
- American Roulette
- French Roulette
- Premium American Roulette
- Premium European Roulette
- Premium French Roulette
- Premium Roulette Pro
- European Roulette
- Club Roulette
- 3D Roulette
- Roulette Pro
- Video Roulette
- NewAR Roulette
- Multi Wheel Roulette
- Marvel Roulette
- 3D Roulette Premium
These games have various betting limits. For instance, the minimum bet for the progressive Marvel Roulette game is $1, with a maximum bet of $50. European Roulette has a minimum bet of $1, with the maximum varying, dependent on what type of bet you wish to make. It varies from $100 for a Straight Up bet to $600 for a Line bet. The casino also does a good job of providing general roulette information as well as articles on the various types of roulette games that it provides.
You'll also find some great live roulette games at Casino.com. They are accessible via a Live Dealer tab. These games include Live Exclusive Roulette, Live Dual Roulette, Live French Roulette and Live Roulette.
The other Australian casinos that we've listed also offer a great selection of roulette games. For example, Bet365 Casino offers a particularly good list that includes Roulette Pro, Premium European Roulette, the massively popular progressive Marvel Roulette, and Multi Wheel Roulette. The casinos also offer a great selection of live roulette games.
Playing Roulette on Smartphones and Tablets
The most convenient way to play online roulette is using your smartphone or tablet. Advances in technology have resulted in software providers releasing mobile versions of their online casinos, so you'll find a lot of online casinos offering a mobile gaming option.
This is true of Australian online casinos as well, particularly the five top casinos that we've listed. The game catalogue is a little more limited than the desktop version, but the choice is still good, and roulette is always a featured game. So if you're a roulette fan, this is good news - you can play roulette on your mobile device.
These mobile casinos are usually compatible with all the mobile device platforms - Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. Just note that to play on an iOS (Apple) device you need to use the Safari browser. You can also use Internet Explorer on Windows and Google Chrome on Android devices.
These casinos all use a single account for you across all the platforms that you play on. You can open a real money account directly from the mobile casino or, if you already have an account, you just log in on your mobile device and play using that account. Some of the casinos have a downloadable app that you need to install on your device, while others allow you to simply play directly in your browser on your mobile device.
The Basics of Roulette and Betting Options
The "layout" of a roulette table is the betting area. It's usually a green surface in an online casino, because at a real world casino the physical roulette table is usually covered in green cloth. The type of roulette game determines the layout - in American Roulette there is a double zero and a single zero place; European Roulette only has a single zero.
To start a game of roulette you must place bets on the number or numbers that you thing the ball will land on when the wheel stops spinning. There are various types of bets in roulette, divided into "outside" bets and "inside" bets. The former give you better winning odds, but the payouts are lower. The latter give you lower winning odds, but higher payouts.
Outside Bets
There are six different types of outside bets:
- 1 to 18: any number between 1 and 18, i.e. the first 18 numbers on the table.
- 19 to 36: any number between 19 and 36.
- Red or black: a bet on which of the two colors the roulette ball will land on.
- Even or odd: a bet on whether the ball will land on an even number or an odd number.
- Dozen bets: a bet on a batch of a dozen numbers - the first 12 numbers (1-12), the second 12 numbers (13-24), or the last 12 numbers (25-36).
- Column bets: a bet on numbers by column. For example, you can bet on all the 12 numbers on any one of the columns on the table - the first, second, or third column.
There is also another bet, called the Snake bet, which is a special dozen bet. This is betting on any of the following numbers: 1, 5, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 23, 27, 30, 32, and 34. If you look at the numbered places on the layout you'll see that these numbers form a snake-like spiral. Not all casinos allow this bet.
Inside Bets
There are also six types of inside bet:
- Straight bet: a bet on a single number only. You win only if the ball lands on this number. This bet has the longest odds against it.
- Split bet: a bet on two adjoining numbers, either vertical or horizontal e.g. 13 and 14 or 15 and 18.
- Street bet: a bet on three numbers aligned horizontally on a single line e.g. 13, 14, and 15.
- Trio bet: a bet three numbers, that must be one of these combinations: 0, 1, and 2 or 0, 2, and 3.
- Corner bet: also known as a square bet, this is a bet on four numbers that are placed together in a square layout e.g. 16, 17, 19, and 20.
- Six-line bet: actually a combination of two street bets, which means you could bet on six numbers instead of three in the same pattern (horizontally) e.g. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.
Live Dealer Roulette for Australians
Live dealer roulette games are not simulations - they're actual live games played out at the casino and streamed to you using video technology. So you get the experience of playing a live roulette game at a casino. This does add an extra layer of thrill to your online roulette playing experience. It's a welcome change from watching a flat graphical representation of a roulette table. Live dealer roulette effectively brings the feel and excitement of a real roulette game into your home.
At the online casinos that Australians can use, the best live roulette games are the ones provided by the Playtech game developer. They all have very high quality graphics. The live game is broadcast using high-specification cameras at partner real world casinos. You get an HD feed and the streaming is very fast.
Let's take a closer look at the live roulette games offered by Casino.com. Once you've logged in with your username and password, you click the Live Games tab. Then you select the type of game you want to play from the list that appears. Let's say you want to play European Premium Roulette.
Click the game of that name and when it opens, choose the amount you want to wager and click the numbers that you want to bet on. The minimum bet is $1, with a maximum of a whopping $20,000, depending on the type of bet that you want to place. Betting is closed as soon as the wheel starts spinning.
Types of Online Roulette Games
As we've said before, there are different types of online roulette games that you can play. The 3 major types of roulette are: French Roulette, European Roulette and American Roulette. Here's a short outline of each.
French roulette
This is the original version of roulette from which other versions developed. The French Roulette wheel has 37 slots, each with its own number, from 1 to 36, plus 0 (known as the bank slot). The 0 slot is green, and the other numbers are equally divided into black and red cells. You bet on which slot or slots you expect the ball to land when the wheel stops spinning. If the ball lands on a number that you bet on, you win. A notable feature of French Roulette is the La Partage bet: half the bets placed burn if zero falls out.
European roulette
European Roulette also has 37 slots - the same as French Roulette. Game play is also the same. A notable feature of European Roulette is the En Prison bet: if the zero falls out when a player bets on chances, the bets remain for the next round; they do not burn out. And if the player wins in the next round, he gets his wager amount back, but minus the winnings. The bet burns if the player loses in the follow-up game as well.
American roulette
American Roulette is very different from the other versions, thanks to one seemingly small variation that has a significant effect on the betting odds. In addition to the numbers that the others have, it also has a double zero slot. This gives the house a higher edge than the others (around double).
About Roulette Betting Systems
Online roulette is of course a game of chance, with no skill involved. To counteract this, however, there are specific betting systems that can theoretically combat the house edge and give you a better chance of winning.
We will look at the three main roulette betting systems: the Martingale system, the Labouchere system, and the D'Alembert system.
Martingale Roulette Betting System
This is one of the most well-known betting systems. It is concerned with betting on red or black slots. If you lose a bet you double your bet on the next round so that, if you win the next round, you get back your first bet.
To be honest, even though it is a really popular system, it doesn't have much chance of working in practice, unless you are at a no-limit table and your bankroll is pretty much unlimited as well.
Labouchere Roulette Betting System
This is a progressive betting system that uses a line of numbers to determine the amount for the next bet. You look at a line of numbers, with each number in the line representing a minimum bet at the table. Then you take the first and last number in the line, add them up and multiply the total by the minimum bet value. This gives you the amount for your next bet.
If you lose a bet using this system, you take the total number of units you wagered, add that number as the new last number in the line, and then follow the same procedure as before to determine the next value.
D'Alembert Roulette Betting System
This system was invented by mathematician Jean le Rond D'Alembert. It is one of the older betting systems. It works on the premise that all the numbers, over a period of time, are likely to come up equally. It is based on the concept of negative expression: bet less after you win and more after you lose and you are most likely to maximise your winnings over time.
The problem with all these betting systems is that they are only theoretical. In practice, it's pretty unlikely for them to work, because there is no absolute way to overcome the fact that roulette is a game of chance. And they also bear the risk of actually increasing the house edge, because you're introducing something systematic that can go against you in a systematic way if you're unlucky.