All About Roulette Wheel Types.

The Differences between Roulette Wheels

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The first big difference will depend on whether the roulette wheel has been designed for playing American roulette or European roulette. The layout of the numbers on the wheel rotor will be ordered differently and with the American roulette wheel there is one extra number pocket, that being a double zero -00.

The first thing to note is that with the American game the extra number will worsen the odds further for the player. It is a fact that a normal player of roulette will lose more when playing the American game compared to the European game. It affects the professional too but in this instance it would merely slightly reduce the players already high winning roulette advantage.

The same design of wheel can be used for either version of the game whereby the only difference are the number layouts as described above.

There are many manufacturers of roulette wheels though probably the best known is John Huxley who have been supplying wheels for many years and are based in London. Other manufacturers include companies such as Cammegh and TCS.

Let’s look at the specific physical differences in wheel design between one manufacturer and another.

The Roulette Ball Tracks

The roulette ball orbits around the wheel on a near flat ball track. There are mainly two types of track and they differ in that the shape of the outer edge against which the ball runs will either be vertical as with most Huxley wheels or the outer edge may have curvature as in the case with the Cammegh wheels. Each can be taken advantage of in different ways.

With the curved outer edge more of the wooden part of the wheel is touching the ball, causing more friction and resulting in shorter spins, where the ball has stronger deceleration. The normal length of spin for this type track would be about 10 to 16 seconds depending if the ball were teflon or ivorine.

With the more vertical ball track edge the ball is able to spin more freely and consequently decelerate at a slower rate. The normal length of this type of spin will be about 14 seconds to maybe 21 seconds, again depending on the roulette ball type.

Either situation has its own advantages. For example a ball with a more smooth rolling action and less deceleration is more likely to find the true bias of a any wheel, and so for this type of wheel the pin landing dominance may get very powerful. Another advantage with the longer lasting roulette ball spin is that it enables the system player to take more time over his calculations. Perhaps there may be time to clock a double revolution of the wheel to attain maximum accuracy on roulette wheel speed. Perhaps the downside with the longer throw is that the dealers will tend to call no more bets a little earlier, perhaps making the system player bet with slightly less accuracy.

At the end of the day both types of track work for the system player though the best option will depend on the chosen method and objective of the roulette system.

The Roulette Diamonds / Pins

We usually refer to the metal ball stoppers around the wheel as pins or diamonds. These are designed in many shapes and sizes and in turn this will result in wheels that offer up different roulette ball bounce patterns. In general the more the diamond acts as a ball stopper the shorter the ball will bounce. In recent years there has been a tendency to lower the height of the roulette pins in order to promote a longer and more varied ball bounce.This process has worked to an extent but the problem for the wheel manufacturers is a very tricky one because the type of roulette ball bounce we get will in fact depend more on the air conditions than the shape and size of the pin.

Most wheel designs use an eight diamond configuration, positioned on the wheel in a symmetric layout. 4 pins will normally be vertical and act as the main stoppers and 4 horizontal pins which are designed to mix things up a bit.

In reality the ball hits the horizontal pins far less frequently than the vertical pins and so we generally set up to play on the basis that the ball is brought down more by the vertical diamonds.

The diamonds play a very important part in all winning roulette systems apart from the biased number system which is not affected by the action of the pins, unless of course it was the pin it self that was causing the bias. With my visual system we always set up to play with a major consideration to the type of action around the vertical pins.

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The Number Pockets on Roulette Wheels

Roulette number pockets vary in design from wheel to wheel and are usually viewed in terms of their depth and shape. Deep pockets promote a shorter bounce and are being manufactured less and less. Some of you players may well remember the beautiful days of the Huxley MK II wheel which had beautifully deep pockets where once the ball was, in that was it.

Nowadays the pockets are deliberately shallow, again to promote a wider roulette ball scatter.

The number pockets are either forged into a one piece metal block as with The Huxley Starburst wheel and my own TCS Scallop wheel ~ or the roulette number pockets are divided by metal frets which act to hold the ball within the pocket. The idea of using a one piece metal block was because much of the number bias over the past century came from a faulty or cracked metal fret.

With the average ball bounce being longer in today’s game, we as players now need to position our bet positions a little further back from the pin than previously.

The Roulette Wheel Number Plate

The roulette wheel number plate is where the roulette numbers are depicted. All wheels look fairly similar in this area of the wheel but players should always be aware that there are some wheels where the number plate is adjustable and can be rotated during the casino downtime. This is not a problem for our system players but could be very significant for someone who was playing a biased number which would potentially be moved secretly to a different location on the wheel.

The Deceleration Rates of Roulette Wheels

There is an interesting conflict over roulette wheel deceleration between wheel manufacturers, casinos and roulette dealers. Both the dealers and manufacturers want wheels designed with such precision that the slow down is almost non existent. The manufactures want to show off their engineering skills by producing a wheel that is as close to a perpetual motion as possible and the dealers just want a wheel that they don’t have to keep pushing while paying out.

The casinos on the other hand wanted to mix things up and cause the system player problems of having to adjust for varying rates of slow down.

In truth any wheel will decelerate more as it gets older and as the balance wears out. However it appears that the manufacturers won the argument in the end because from what I have observed they don’t seem to now input what I call decelerators which were designed to give wheels a different slow down rate. The outcome is that on reasonably new wheels the deceleration of the wheel is a non issue for the system player.

In reality all our systems can be adjusted to suit any roulette wheel deceleration rate.

Owning A Roulette Wheel

For anyone who is planning to take roulette to the max, it is a fairly good idea to own a roulette wheel. There will be endless things that you will want to practice and try out without having to go into a casino, sitting about and feeling pressurized to play, even though you may only wish to practice. Also with your own wheel you can practice at about 10 times the speed. Second hand wheels can be purchased from about £500 but be sure that your purchase is conditional of seeing the wheel in action first. Ensure that the pins are secure but most important of all check the condition of the ball track. There should be a nice smooth track and anything else will not help. Maintenance is simple with regular dusting and some wd40 oil once or twice a year..

Another way of doing this is to rent wheels from a local supplier if possible. The advantage here is that your short term cost will be far less and you could practice on different roulette wheel designs. This was in fact the way I did things at first and then later I purchased the ones I liked.

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Keywords relating to this roulette article; Roulette wheel numbers, roulette ball tracks, roulette Bankroll

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