Electronic Roulette Terminals
Banks of screens around a single wheel, or around no wheel at all. What electronic roulette is, and which kind you are playing.
Terminals let many players bet small amounts on one physical wheel (dealer or air-launched) or on an RNG result shown as a wheel. The odds are those of the underlying wheel: usually European online, often American on US floors. The screen adds speed, call bets and low minimums.
Three kinds
A terminal bank around a live dealer’s wheel: the dealer spins, players bet on screens, odds as the wheel. A bank around an automatic wheel: compressed-air launch, no dealer, result read by sensor, continuous play. A standalone RNG machine with a wheel animation: no physical wheel, result from software, labeled as such in the rules. The first two are physical roulette with a screen; the third is a slot machine shaped like roulette.
Why casinos like them
One wheel serves thirty players instead of eight. Minimums drop to $1 because there are no chipsmoneyChipA token representing a fixed amount, placed on the layout to make a bet. Also: check.Read full → to handle, and the spins per hour rise because there is no payoutmoneyPayoutWhat a winning bet returns, quoted as “X to 1” on top of the returned stake.Read full → to count. TurnovermoneyTurnoverThe total amount wagered over a session or period, counting re-bet winnings. Also: handle, action.Read full → per wheel rises on every axis. For the operator it is the same 2.70% (or 5.26%) on far more money per hour per square meter.
Why players like them
Low minimums, no crowd, no chip etiquette, call betstableCall betA bet announced to the dealer rather than placed by hand, usually a wheel-sector bet such as voisins or tiers. Also “announced bet”.Read full → and racetrackstableRacetrackThe oval strip on live and electronic layouts showing the numbers in wheel order, used to place neighbors and sector bets in one tap.Read full → on screen, instant payouts and a results board at your elbow. A player who finds the felt intimidating can learn the bets here at $1 a spin. The downside is pace: the terminal makes it easy to bet every spin of a 100-spin-an-hour auto wheel, which at $5 a spin costs $13.51 an hour, the same as $10 a spin at a table dealing 50 spins an hour.
Which wheel
On a US floor, look at the wheel in the middle of the bank: 00 means 5.26%. Some banks offer a choice of wheels on screen; the single-zerowheelZeroThe single green pocket that no even-money, dozen or column bet covers; the source of the house edge. Also: single zero, 0.Read full → one is the better value at any stake. Online and in Europe the wheel is almost always single zero. On an RNG machine, read the RTPmoneyRTPReturn to player: the share of wagers paid back on average. European roulette: 97.30%, which is 100% minus the 2.70% house edge.Read full →: 97.30% means European odds; anything lower is a payout table change.
Auto wheels and the Lab
An automatic wheel is a physical wheel and can in principle be biased like any other; it is also run and logged continuously, which is exactly the data the Lab describes, and operators monitor it. Its launch is mechanical and consistent, which would make a “dealer signature” more plausible, which is why auto wheels vary launch force and timing deliberately.
Read the pay table
A machine can keep the wheel and change the payouts, and electronic games often quote them “for 1”, with the stake included. One electronic American game in Illinois paid a straight upbetStraight upA single number, pays 35:1.Read full → 32 for 1, which is 31 to 1: an edge of 15.79% instead of 5.26%. Its splitsbetSplitTwo adjacent numbers, pays 17:1.Read full → and streetsbetStreetThree numbers in a row of the layout, pays 11:1. French: transversale.Read full → were short too; cornersbetCornerFour numbers sharing a corner on the layout, pays 8:1.Read full → and outside betsbetOutside betA bet on the boxes surrounding the grid: dozens, columns and even-money bets.Read full → were paid as at the table. Lotteries do the same without a wheel. Ohio’s Lucky One, which the Ohio Lottery added to keno in 2018, drew one of 36 numbers, with no zero, every four minutes after each keno game, and looked fairer than any casino roulette. It paid a single number 24 for 1 (an edge of 33.3%) and odd, even, low and high 1.50 for 1 (25%). It was still running in December 2023, when a cyberattack on the Ohio Lottery took its results, and keno’s, off the lottery’s website for a while. The help panel lists the payouts: compare them with 35, 17, 11, 8, 5, 2 and 1 to 1.
A setting, not a feature
Some machines leave the choice to the casino. Interblock’s rules for its electronic roulette, filed in Washington state in 2024, include a pay tablemoneyPay tableThe list of what each bet or result pays. On machines and side bets, it is where the house edge is set.Read full → that pays the straight up and the split “on a for basis”: 35 for 1 and 17 for 1, which are 34 to 1 and 16 to 1. On a single-zero wheel that raises the straight up from 2.70% to 5.41% and the split to 8.11%; on a double-zero wheel, to 7.89% and 10.53%. The rest of the layoutequipmentLayoutThe printed betting grid on the table. Also: table, felt, cloth.Read full → is paid as usual, so most bets keep the wheel’s edge and nothing on the screen looks different. The same rules also list a la partageruleLa partageFrench rule: when zero hits, half of an even-money stake is returned. Halves the house edge on those bets to 1.35%.Read full → table that brings even money on a single-zero wheel down to 1.35%: the setting can cut the price as well as raise it.
A new layout on a standard wheel
Electronic games can also change the layout and leave the wheel alone. Win Systems’ Chinese Roulette (2018) keeps a standard single-zero wheel and draws the layout on screen as a figure eight, a lucky number in Chinese tradition. Each of the twelve zodiac animals owns three numbers and pays 11 to 1, like a street. Each of four elements groups three animals, nine numbers, and pays 3 to 1, which fills a gap: the standard layout has bets on 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12 and 18 numbers but none on 9, though 9 divides 36 as well. The bigger change is at zero. When 0 comes up a card is dealt, and on an 8 or higher (seven ranks of thirteen, ace high) bets that do not include 0 are returned instead of lost. That cuts the edge on every such bet from 2.70% to 6/481, 1.25%, a little below French even money with la partage, and on every bet rather than only on even money.
Questions
The physical kinds are the wheel in the middle. The RNG kind is a certified machine. Check the rules panel for which you have.
No chips, no dealer labor per bet. The operator makes it up on volume.
Usually yes, including on American wheels where the dealer would not take them.
Comic relief
One wheel, thirty screens, the same 2.70% thirty times.
Sources
- UK Gambling Commission. Remote gambling and software technical standards.
- Malta Gaming Authority. Gaming Devices Regulations and technical directives.
- Bollman, M. Mathematics of the Big Four Casino Table Games: Blackjack, Baccarat, Craps, & Roulette.
- Interblock. “Roulette Game & Special Bets: Description”, version 1.2.1.
- FOX19. “Ohio Lottery reports cybersecurity issue on Christmas Eve.”