European Roulette

European roulette is a form of roulette that was originally offered only in casinos across Europe. Nowadays, this form of the game is available at almost all casinos across the world. The European form of the game is especially popular among patrons, since it carries the additional advantage of having a much lower house advantage.
The game of European roulette is similar to its counterpart, the American roulette game, however the main difference is the fact that the wheel in the European game has 37 slots instead of 38 in the American version. These games are both based on pure chance because each of the numbered slots has an equal chance of winning.

Understanding European Roulette

The European Roulette game is played using a circular wheel with 37 numbered slots. The wheel also has a slanted track running along its circumference. Each of the slots in the roulette wheel carries a certain number that ranges from 1 to 36. The table in the European game also has an additional ‘0’. Each number except the 0 has a color associated with it. They can be either red or black. All the numbers on the wheel ranging from 1 up to 10 have odd numbers marked in red. Numbers from 11 to 18 have even numbers marked in red. For numbers from 19 to 28, the even numbers are black and finally from 29 to 36 the numbers that are odd are marked in black. The 0 pocket is colored green and when a player makes a bet on a color and the ball lands on 0, the player loses. The slots are all marked in a certain order on the European roulette wheel. They follow the sequence: 0;32;15;19;4;21;2;25;17;34;6;27;13;36;11;30;8;23;10;5;24;16;33;1;20;14;31;9;22;18;29;7;28;12;35;3;26

The table of the European Roulette game contains an inner and an outer region. In the inner region, the numbers from 1 to 36 are arranged in order in a 3×12 grid. On top of the grid is the number 0. The inside bets are placed in this area. The outer region of the table contains the red or black bets, the odd or even bets, the first, second and third dozens, the first and second 18 as well as the 2 to 1 column bets. This is the region where the players place the lower risk bets. These bets, while they have a lower risk, their payout is also subsequently lower.

House Advantage in European Roulette

The house advantage of the European roulette game is also known as the expected value and it refers to the average value of the amount of money that a player will lose when playing the game. When this is a positive number, the house is said to have an edge over the players. In the case of European roulette, the house has an advantage of 2.63%, which is about half the edge of an American roulette game. This means that the player will get $97.37 for every $100 wagered.