The Many Faces of Roulette – Interesting Variations to Try

Alphabetic Roulette

This bespoke variation debuted in 2007 at Las Vegas’ Fitzgeralds Hotel and Casino (now rebranded as The D Las Vegas). Alphabetic Roulette removes the familiar numbers from the wheel and replaces them with letters.

There are 24 pockets for the letters A through X, plus one 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: pink, orange, green, blue, red, and yellow. Each of the six colors corresponds to four letters.

In this variation, players may wager on individual letters or on groups of two, three, or four letters. If the game has not yet piqued your interest, it likely will when you discover you can bet on letters that combine to form specific words and phrases, such as Party Pit (P, A, R, T, Y, and I) and Roulette (R, O, U, L, E, and T).

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

Prime Time Roulette

Prime Time Roulette is offered by casinos in Nevada, so it follows the American rules and uses a wheel with both single and double zeros. One interesting aspect of 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 – 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 places a marker that reads “1” on top of the Prime Time bets, indicating the number has been spun once.

The count increments again if a prime number occurs on the next spin. The process continues for up to five or seven consecutive spins (depending on the casino’s policy) that produce prime numbers. Only then does the dealer settle the winning Prime Time side bets.

When a non-prime number appears between prime spins, it breaks the cycle and the Prime Time marker is removed. Bets are paid according to the number of successive prime spins achieved before the non-prime number. Keep in mind that you can place this wager 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 consecutively to the maximum of five or seven times.

Below are the three payout schedules for prime numbers that appear on consecutive spins, as listed by the Nevada Gaming Control Board:

Back 2 Back Roulette

Back 2 Back Roulette offers an exciting twist to this old favorite with a side bet that gives players the chance to claim substantial 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 pays whenever the previous winning number repeats on the next spin of the wheel. In essence, you need the same number to appear twice in a row to win.

A random prize of 10x, 50x, or 1,000x your side-bet stake is then awarded. Other than that, Back 2 Back Roulette follows the standard rules: it uses a double-zero wheel and supports the conventional inside and outside bets, which return 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 usual casino odds.

The layout contains alternating red and black numbers (1 through 36) and two green zeros. The twist lies in the fact that each of the 38 numbers is assigned an additional color. The wheel’s inner pockets, where the ball eventually settles, are painted in these extra colors. The table below shows all the numbers associated with each color.

So, essentially, you are presented with seven additional betting options on the extra colors. The payouts for these bets are proportionate to the number of pockets of the respective color. Therefore, a wager on blue (five pockets) has a higher probability of winning than one on teal or yellow (three pockets each).

The game bears some resemblance to craps because bets placed 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 selected, unless it settles in one of the white pockets.

For example, assume you wager $10 on orange but pink hits instead. Your bet remains on the table. This situation is known as a push and also occurs when the ball lands in a green (0, 00), black (26, 35), or red pocket (25, 36). However, if the ball lands on white, your color wager loses immediately – unless, of course, you had bet on white.

When a push occurs, you have three options: leave your chips on the layout for the next spin, take the bet down, or 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. Because color wagers are considered outside bets, they can be placed at the table minimum. The Golden Gate Casino accepts bets from $5 to $2,500 per spin.

The overall house edge of the game is 5.26%, identical to that at all double-zero tables. The casino’s advantage for the color bets varies 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 enjoy twice the action because 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. Players can wager on the outer ring, the inner ring, or both. The game is also available in a single-zero format.

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

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

To collect a payout, the wager must be successful on both 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 single-zero wheel, and it also varies by wager type. On a single-zero wheel, straight-up bets that hit on both rings 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 roulette with a spinning wheel and a tiny white ball. Well, guess what? There is no ball or wheel in Roulette-18. That’s right. In this unique variation, the outcome is determined by the toss of a 20-sided die containing numbers 1 through 18 plus 0 and 00.

If the die shows 00, it is rolled again and wagers neither win nor lose. 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 stakes when the die shows zero, Roulette-18 players recover half of their original wagers on even-money propositions.

However, there is a reduction in payouts for some bets to compensate for the smaller range of possible outcomes, so the probabilities differ from those in standard roulette.

Roulette-18 is available at select 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 just 2.63%. The casino holds an advantage of 5.26% for all of the other available bets.