Luke Schoeman
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Many people who play roulette are curious about the answer to this question. To answer your question in a nutshell, the short answer is that they are almost never fixed. The distinction lies in how each individual understands the word “rigged.” It is generally understood to imply that the roulette wheel has been calibrated appropriately. Changing the geometry of the wheel and adjusting the dominant diamond patterns on the wheel are two examples of the various strategies that fall under this category. The subsequent adjustment will make the video stream appear jumbled, creating the false impression that the wheel has been fixed.

Are the Roulette Wheels Under the Control of the Casino?

In order to remove the ball from the roulette wheel, it must enter each of the pockets at the same time and at the same rate. In addition, the wheel needs to be beautiful and polished so that the ball will have an easy time landing on it. If a roulette wheel does not meet all of these criteria each and every time, then the wheel is either rigged or it has a defect that causes it to be biased. This is something that an experienced roulette player can use to their benefit. When it comes down to it, the tactic that has the highest chance of success is to completely abstain from gambling and instead play roulette using a method that is completely objective.

It is the responsibility of the croupier to relay the message that it is against the law to interfere with the wheel in any way. It is strictly forbidden to employ a magnet in any attempt to control the wheel in any way; however, the wheel itself is subject to modification. If the pockets on the roulette wheel are not securely fastened, it may be possible to cheat the system using a magnetic rotor. Another way to make it more difficult to beat it is to make the pocket separators in the wheel rotor a little bit looser. If the casino is known for taking advantage of its patrons on a regular basis, playing roulette without making any bets is not a prudent choice, despite how alluring it may seem.

Some people are under the impression that a casino can rig a roulette wheel by erecting a plastic barrier around it in order to protect it. However, this is not always the case, and there are some wheel rigging methods that have been rendered obsolete as a consequence of this. On the other hand, there are rumors that certain people working the roulette tables engage in this activity. A player may be able to anticipate where the ball will land during the course of the game by paying attention to the dealer’s signature, which may have an impact on the roulette wheel in unusual circumstances.

In the past, there was a significant issue with players trying to manipulate the roulette wheels in order to win. After that, there were live dealer versions of the game that switched dealers at regular intervals, as well as computer-dealer games that were controlled by random number generators. Even though the outcome of each spin of the wheel is completely unpredictable, casinos almost always keep track of the wagers that are placed. They are able to draw conclusions and recognize trends as a result of having access to this data. There is a possibility that the casino will have an advantage due to the fact that each spin of the roulette wheel is different. The casino may manipulate the roulette wheel in order to increase the amount of money it takes in.

The number of balls that are contained within the roulette wheel is directly proportional to the overall diameter of the wheel. The frets that are closer together make the job of the player more difficult. If the wheel has fewer frets, the balls will jump higher and more frequently than if it has more frets. On the other hand, a wheel with more frets will cause the balls to jump lower and less frequently. A smaller roulette wheel, as opposed to a larger one, might be more appealing to some players. And this is the way to go if you are looking for a roulette wheel that will provide you with a consistent payout over the course of time.

Casinos Can Take Steps to Prevent Roulette Wheel Bias

Everyone who plays roulette has the chance to win big. This is especially true when you consider that you have a good chance of winning in both French roulette (1.35% house edge) and European roulette (2.70% house edge). When compared to the casino, the average player has a significant disadvantage. By continuing to play roulette, you increase the likelihood that you will lose rather than win.

However, some players are so skilled that they have beaten the odds at casinos while making a fortune playing roulette. These gamblers have gained an advantage by exploiting the wheel’s bias. Over the course of their careers, certain gamblers have made millions of dollars thanks to wheel bias. As a result of these events, casinos have done everything they can to reduce the effectiveness of this advantage play technique.

I’m going to discuss three different strategies that casinos use to try to eliminate wheel bias. But first, let’s go over the mechanics of this strategy and some of the players who have found success with it.

What Does a Biased Roulette Wheel Indicate?

In roulette, the wheel bias strategy entails looking for a wheel with pockets and/or sections that are predisposed to certain outcomes. The goal is to find these skewed numbers or sections and then bet on them to gain an advantage.

Over time, roulette wheels can become damaged, causing them to favor certain pockets. This phenomenon can be caused by a variety of factors, including a shaky wheel, a deformed ball, different-sized pockets, and loose frets (which are pocket dividers).

These flaws and tendencies are invisible to the naked eye, making detection impossible. Instead, record the outcomes and then analyze the data to identify any biases. Finding section bias is the simplest way to achieve this goal. If you discover that the wheel favors half of a side, you may gain an advantage in the long run.

This is just one example:

  • You keep track of 500 roulette spins.
  • You organized all of the findings into a spreadsheet for future reference.
  • You conclude that a set of 19 numbers ranging from 0 to 5 contains some form of bias.

The best part about looking for section bias is that you only need a few hundred spins to be confident in your findings. Because the wheel is biased toward a large group of numbers, identifying the bias will require fewer data points. When compared to looking for preferred pockets, which necessitates a lot more data and analysis, this activity necessitates very little. You’re looking for a bias in one or more pockets out of a possible total of 37 (European wheel) or 38 numbers (American wheel).

Because it allows you to narrow down where the biases occur, finding a single favored pocket can be more profitable than finding multiple favored pockets. It takes between 4,000 and 5,000 spins to find a biased number with any degree of certainty.

The disadvantage of using individual pocket biases is that you will waste a significant amount of time if your search yields no results. In my opinion, you should concentrate on preferred sections because it only takes one-tenth of the total effort.

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How Can Casinos Put a Stop to Wheel Cheating?

The use of bias in roulette wheels has been shown to be very effective in experiments conducted by Jagger, Walters, and Garcia. Pelayo’s And, as with any successful strategy for gaining an advantage while playing, casinos work hard to reduce the number of opportunities for wheel bias.

To combat players attempting to gain an advantage at roulette, gambling establishments employ a wide range of countermeasures. You will find information about the three most successful strategies in the section below.

1 – Wheels with Starbursts

Advantage players caused significant financial losses in British casinos in the early 1980s. They eventually informed the authorities of their suspicions of cheating and requested an investigation. The investigations conducted by the authorities determined that wheel bias, not cheating, was to blame for the losses. Although the casinos were unable to take legal action against these players, they did look into other potential deterrents.

Casinos in the United Kingdom commissioned John Huxley to create a more robust roulette wheel that is less prone to bias. Huxley devised a solution in the form of the Starburst wheel, which has shallow pockets and metal frets.

This latter point is critical because wooden frets are notorious for becoming loose and/or worn down over time. Metal frets, on the other hand, are less likely to deteriorate over time.

Starburst slots are so effective that casinos still use them to reduce the prevalence of advantage gambling. These wheels have been used in a variety of countries other than the United Kingdom. Indeed, after their initial success, Walters and the Computer Team returned to Atlantic City, only to discover that every casino in the city had already switched to Starburst wheels.

You will need a wheel that is flawed in some way in order to create wheel bias. This is the most crucial requirement. Casinos value Starburst products because they eliminate any kind of edge that players may have. This is one of the reasons why Starburst products are so popular in casinos.

2 – Monitoring the Outcomes

You may have visited a land-based casino in the past, and you may have noticed that the roulette tables have electronic boards. These boards serve two distinct purposes:

  • For trend betting players, show the most recent ten to twenty results.
  • Keep track of the results so that the casino can identify any unethical behavior.

The first point is advantageous to the company because it increases the likelihood that trend betting roulette players will continue to play. Furthermore, they have no negative impact on the casino’s bottom line as a result of trend betting, which is when bets are placed based on the outcomes of previous events.

An example of trend betting would be as follows:

  • You are betting on the high side in the high/low bet.
  • You’ve noticed that low has been victorious three times in a row.
  • You have a feeling that high will soon triumph.
  • As a result, you decide to triple your next bet.
  • Because the outcomes of previous wagers have no effect on the odds of subsequent wagers, this type of gambling poses no risk to casinos. As a result, trend betting is nothing more than a fun alternative to the game of roulette.

Concerning the second point, casinos use the information gathered from these electronic boards to ensure that the roulette game results are distributed fairly. They can examine the wheel and decide whether or not to keep it on the floor based on whether or not the results are skewed toward a specific pocket or section.

3 – Inspection of Equipment

Routine inspections of casino equipment are performed to ensure that everything is in proper working order. During these audits, roulette wheels are inspected. It is critical that the wheels work properly so that experienced gamblers do not have an advantage. The staff inspects the roulette wheel’s frets, pockets, and wheel shaft, among other things. If even one of these settings is incorrect, the wheel will produce biased results.

The introduction of Starburst wheels has thankfully simplified many aspects of casino operations. However, this does not preclude a wheel from experiencing wear and tear over its lifetime. Inspections provide an extra layer of protection against players looking to exploit gambling situations. If a high-quality when fails for any reason, staff members act as a backup to detect the problem before players exploit it.

Is it possible to remove wheel bias?

Casinos cannot afford to ignore the issue of wheel bias because it has previously cost them too much money. As a result, they take the preventative measures I mentioned earlier to address this problem.

But is it really possible to eliminate wheel bias?

To begin, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to locate a biased wheel in the present day within a reasonable time frame. Even if you recorded every spin on every wheel in a large casino resort, you would still come up with nothing. To ensure that the results produced by the wheels are truly random, gambling establishments use a variety of methods such as Starburst wheels, results tracking, and inspections.

Whatever the case, believing that there are no biased wheels anywhere in the world is naive. Even with updated wheels, I’m willing to bet that biased games can still be found in at least a couple dozen casinos around the world. The question that arises is whether it is worthwhile to search for these wheels. Finding a winning combination in a casino is a lot like looking for a needle in a haystack.

If anyone is currently ruling casinos using wheel bias, they have done an excellent job of staying under the radar in recent years. I haven’t come across any famous accounts of players winning millions of dollars using this strategy since Garcia-Pelayo in the 1990s. The answer to the question posed in this section of the text is “yes,” you can still win with wheel bias. However, given how ineffective this method is, the average gambler should instead look into other methods of beating casinos.

Categories: Roulette

Luke Schoeman

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