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Review of European Roulette by Microgaming
There’s absolutely no doubt that Roulette is the most popular casino gambling game in the world. Probably everyone has played roulette at least once in their lives, and you can even get roulette sets that are designed for children (or at least you used to be able to – it’s doubtful whether you can in this more gambling-aware age).
You’d be hard-pressed to find a real-world casino without at least one roulette table, and you’d also be hard-pressed to find an online casino that did not offer at least one version of roulette. Even slots sites usually stretch as far as having a spinning roulette wheel. Roulette is also a popular and commonly-found pastime at live casinos.
Here we have a faithful rendering of the most classic of classic casino titles, brought to you by the kings of online casino software, Microgaming.
How to Play Roulette
The first thing to note about this game is that it is European Roulette as opposed to American Roulette. The key difference between the two main versions of roulette is that in European Roulette you have a wheel with 36 red/black numbers and a green ‘0’. In American Roulette, you also have 36 red/black numbers, but a green ‘0’ and a green ‘00’. You may not think that this makes not much difference but it does. In European Roulette, the house has an advantage of 2.7%, while in American roulette that house advantage doubles to 5.4%. If you are wondering how the house maintains this advantage, it’s because all outside bets (odd/even, red/black, high/low) lose when the ball lands in ‘0’ or ‘00’. You can bet on these numbers just like any others, but they are not included in outside bets.
This game from Microgaming also allows racetrack bets. These are bets placed on the numbers via their position on the wheel, and not just by their numerical sequence. If you want to place a racetrack bet just click the ‘Racetrack’ button underneath the main betting table. Just select the type of racetrack bet you want to place and the game will lay your chips accordingly. Note that all racetracks bets are combinations of other bets. If you are not familiar with these types of bets it’s best you stick to the normal betting table until you’re a little more familiar with roulette as a whole.
To place a bet you need first to select your chip size. This is done by using the small arrows either side of the chip until the chip size you desires appears in the centre. You then click on the areas of the board that you want to bet upon. As a help, a small indicator appears informing you of the specific bet you are trying to place. You can add more chips to increase the value of your wager.
You can combine as many bets and chip sizes as you want. When you are ready to see the ball rolling, hit the spin button.
The ball will be spent spinning around the reels anti-clockwise. The wheel itself is, just like real-world casino roulette wheels, inconstant, clockwise motion. Once the ball has landed, the winning number and colour are announced. If you have been lucky, then the amount of money you’ve won appears onscreen.
There are a few additional controls:
Statistics: See the areas of the board the ball has landed in, with a list of ‘hot’ numbers and ‘cold’ numbers. If you know anything about roulette, then you will know that this information can safely be ignored!
Favourites: If you have a specific bet or bet combination that you like, you can save it to your favourites list. You can then easily place this bet whenever you need to via just one single click.
Racetrack: Racetrack betting table, as described above.
Clear: Clears the betting table of all chips.
Double: Keeps the current bet on, but doubles the stake.
Autoplay: Play the same bet and stake up to 100 times (can be stopped at any time).
Turbo: In this mode you cut out the ball animation, meaning that each ‘spin’ takes less than half a second!
Game Rules:
· Game type: European/French
· Min bet: 0.25
· Max bet (single): 400.0
- Max bet (table): 250.00
Graphics and Sounds
Sounds-wise, there is very little to listen to. The ball makes a slight sound when spinning around the reels, and the winning number and colour are read out in a pleasing female voice, but that is about it. The sounds of chips being gathered and ‘no more bets!’ would both have nice additions, but both are missing.
The action of the ball around the wheel is smooth and pleasing to the eye, as is the wheel itself which seems recently to have had a reassuring polish.
Final Thoughts
This is a faithful rendering of the traditional casino game that simply does all that you need it to do, and nothing more. It will really appeal to all lovers of the game and is likely to give hours of pleasing casino entertainment.