The Many Faces of Roulette – Interesting Variations to Try

Alphabetic Roulette

This bespoke variation appeared for the first time in 2007 at Las Vegas’ Fitzgeralds Hotel and Casino (rebranded as The D Las Vegas at the moment). Alphabetic Roulette does away with the numbers fans of the game are accustomed to seeing on the wheel and uses letters instead.

There are 24 pockets with letters A through X plus 1 pocket that contains the last two letters of the English alphabet, Y and Z. Unlike conventional roulette, Alphabetic Roulette uses not three but six colors, namely pink, orange, green, blue, red, and yellow. Each of the 6 colors is meant to represent 4 letters.

In this variation, players have the option to place bets on individual letters or groups of 2, 3, and 4 letters. If the game has not yet piqued your interest, it probably will when you learn it allows you to bet on letters that combine to form specific words and phrases, such as Party Pit (includes letters P, A, R, T, Y, and I) and Roulette (letters R, O, U, L, E, and T).

The game also supports dozen and column bets. The dozen bet in Party Roulette is made on one of two groups consisting of 12 letters each (A through L and M through X). Column bets also feature 12 random letters the way they appear on the layout. Alphabetic Roulette has a house edge of 4% which is still lower than that of double-zero games. Check how it pays in the table below:

Prime Time Roulette

Prime Time Roulette is offered by casinos in Nevada, so we take it in plays according to the American rules and features a wheel with both single and double zeros. One interesting aspect about this variation is that it offers an optional side wager on prime numbers, i.e. whole numbers that are divisible only by themselves and 1.

There are 11 prime numbers on the roulette wheel, namely 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, and 31. The side bet loses when the ball settles on a non-prime number. When a prime number hits, the dealer would place a marker that reads “1” on top of the Prime Time bets, which indicates the number has been spun once.

This is incremented again if a prime number occurs in succession during the next spin. The process continues for up to 5 or 7 consecutive spins (depending on the casino’s policies) that result in prime numbers. Only then would the dealer settle the payouts of the winning Prime Time side bets.

When a non-prime number occurs in between prime spins, it breaks the cycle and the Prime Time marker is removed. The bets are paid out according to the number of successive prime spins before the occurrence of the non-prime number. Keep in mind that you can post this bet only at the beginning of a new Prime Time session, either after a non-prime number has hit or after prime numbers have been spun successively to the allowed maximum of 5 or 7 times.

Below are the three types of available payouts for prime numbers that show on consecutive spins as listed by the Nevada Gaming Control Board:

Back 2 Back Roulette

Back 2 Back Roulette offers an exciting new twist to this old favorite with a side bet that gives players the chance to bag gargantuan payouts. The game is available in Reno and has been approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

The Back 2 Back side bet is optional and earns players a payout whenever the previous winning number repeats on the next spin of the wheel. So in essence, you need the same number to occur twice in a row to win.

A random prize is awarded to the amount of 10x, 50x or 1,000x the winning bet. Other than that, Back 2 Back Roulette pretty much plays according to the game’s standard rules. It utilizes a double-zero wheel and supports the conventional inside/outside bets that yield their usual payouts.

Riverboat Roulette

Riverboat Roulette is offered at the Golden Gate Casino. This variation features a 38-pocket wheel and allows for all the standard inside and outside betting options. Conventional bets pay at their typical casino odds.

The layout consists of alternating red and black numbers (1 through 36) and two green zeros. The twist here results from the fact that each of the 38 numbers is assigned an extra color. The wheel’s inner pockets where the ball eventually settles are of different colors. The table below shows you all the numbers that belong to each additional color.

So essentially here you are presented with 7 additional betting options on the extra colors. The payouts for these bets are proportionate to the number of pockets that use the respective color. Thus, a wager on blue (5 pockets) has a higher probability of winning than one on teal or yellow (with 3 pockets).

The game bears a partial semblance to craps because bets made on the extra colors are sometimes resolved after multiple spins. The player does not immediately lose if the ball lands on a color other than the one they have chosen unless it settles in one of the white pockets.

To give you an example, assume you wager $10 on orange but pink hits instead. Your bet remains on the table. This is known as a push and also occurs when the ball finds its way into a green (0, 00), black (26, 35) or red pocket (25, 36). However, if the ball lands on white, your color wager is an immediate loser unless you bet on white.

There are three different options for the player when a push occurs. They can leave their chips on the layout for the next spin, take the bet down or even increase the wager by adding more chips. If you choose to let the push bet ride, the wheel is re-spun until your chosen color or white hits. The color bets can be posted at the table minimum as they are considered outside wagers. The Golden Gate Casino accepts bets from $5 to $2,500 per spin.

The overall house edge of the game is 5.26%, the same as that at all double-zero tables. The casino’s advantage varies for the color bets as follows: 5.26% for white, 4.21% for purple and pink, 2.63% for orange and blue, and 5.26% for teal and yellow.

Double Action Roulette

With this roulette variation, players get to enjoy twice as much action since the game plays on a wheel that has two rings with numbers instead of only one. The rings rotate in opposite directions and produce two outcomes on each spin. The player has the option to bet on the outer wheel, on the inner wheel or both. The game is available in a single-zero format as well.

The table uses a different layout that contains 6×6 sections instead of the usual 3 sections with 12 numbers each. When players are betting only on the inner or the outer wheel rings, they are paid at the standard odds for all wagers except for the 8-number and the 7-number bets.

The 8-number bet is available in double-zero games and features 0, 00, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The 7-number bet is made at the single-zero tables and covers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Things get trickier when the player parlays their wager by betting both on the outer and the inner wheel.

To collect a payout, the bet must be successful on both wheel rings. Here are the payouts along with the probabilities of winning on both rings. These are accurate for Double Action Roulette with a single zero.

The house edge in Double Action Roulette depends on whether you are playing on a double-zero or a single-zero wheel. It also varies depending on the type of wager you make. On a single-zero wheel, straight up bets with two identical numbers hitting yield a house edge of 12.27%. The outside wagers and the 7-number bet give the house an advantage of 6.94% and 5.33%, respectively.

Roulette-18

Most people associate the game of roulette with its spinning wheel and tiny white ball. Well, guess what? There is no ball or wheel in Roulette-18. Yes, you read that correctly. This is a unique variation of the game where the outcome is determined by the toss of a 20-sided die. The die contains numbers 1 through 18 plus 0 and 00.

If the toss results in 00, the die gets rolled again, with bets neither winning nor losing. The game supports standard roulette wagers such as straight up, split, street, corner, double street, odd/even, red/black, and low/high bets. Instead of losing their entire wagers when the die shows zero, Roulette-18 players recover half of their original stakes on even-money propositions.

However, there is a reduction in the payouts for some bets to make up for the fewer number of possible outcomes. It makes sense the probabilities of the bets are different than those in standard roulette.

Roulette-18 is available at some Grosvenor casinos in the United Kingdom. The house edge for even-money bets on color, range, and parity is lower than that in single-zero roulette at 2.63%. The casino holds an advantage of 5.26% for all of the other available bets.