The Roulette wheel layout is one of the most important areas of the game. It contains all of the numbers that players can bet on, however, they are not in ascending or descending order, nor are they randomly ordered. The roulette wheel layout has its purpose.The purpose of the roulette wheel layout is to spread the numbers as evenly as possible:
Red and black numbers alternate in both single- ...

Single zero roulette (European and French) has only 37 numbers in total (1 less than double zero roulette, the American roulette), while the payout ratios remain the same, which indicates to us that the American roulette RTP is the worst to the player. European and French roulette have a higher RTP and therefore a lower house edge.The European roulette RTP is 97.3%, while the American roulette RTP ...

American, European and French roulette games are quite similar. All are played by spinning a roulette wheel, where a small ball spins, on which players bet where it will land when the wheel stops spinning. However, there are some differences between the different versions of roulette.In particular, the roulette wheels used:
European and French roulette uses a single zero wheel that has number ...

Constant Proportion strategy consists in betting a certain percentage of your bankroll on each spin of the roulette wheel. This means that the value of the bets will change, but their value when compared to your bankroll at the time will be constant. This gives the strategy its name.The Constant Proportion strategy is very similar to the Constant Bet strategy but with an extra element. In the Cons ...

The Constant Bet strategy has a special place among all the strategies. It is unintentionally used by many roulette players who just want to have fun and don't think about how they should play to maximize their chances of profit.The Constant betting strategy is just one of the basic ways to play roulette. This strategy involves placing the same bet over and over again. It is a simple strategy ...

There is no single strategy that is suitable for all players to bet on roulette. Each player has their own roulette strategy, despite the advantages and disadvantages of each:The Constant Bet strategy for roulette can be used in all situations, as well as being very flexible it is extremely easy to use, however, it will not bring you big wins. The possibility of winning huge amounts also considera ...

The Progressive Bet roulette strategy was created as a spin-off to the Inverted Martingale strategy. While the Inverted Martingale strategy is mathematically excellent, it may not be the preferred choice for players who don't like the idea of putting the entire win from previous spins into a single bet.The Progressive Betting strategy is also based on increasing the bet size after a win, but ...

The reverse Martingale strategy for roulette is quite interesting. It allows the player to have a really fair chance of winning a high prize while enjoying the game for a considerable period of time. This strategy is ideal for many players as it can offer a good balance between expected value (i.e. the return on your stake), the possibility of winning big prizes, a game with excitement, and an ext ...

As the name suggests this roulette strategy is about going all-in. It is an extremely volatile strategy, which means there is a high probability of losing your entire bankroll in just one round. Despite this, it maintains the highest expected return of all roulette betting strategies.How does this strategy work? Basically, you bet your entire bankroll in a single round, at least once, or multiple ...

The constant proportion strategy in roulette is very similar to the constant bet strategy, but instead of placing bets in constant amounts, the value of your bet will correspond to a certain percentage of your bankroll.For instance, a player has a bankroll of €100 and wants to bet 10% on a certain colour on each round of the game. On the first round he makes a bet of €10 (10% of €100) and wins. Th ...

The constant betting strategy in roulette is quite basic. We can say that it is the 'strategy' used by most roulette players, often without even realising it. As its name suggests, this strategy consists in constantly placing the same bet. In other words, it consists in continually betting the same amount of money.Although it is a basic strategy of playing roulette, it is not a totally b ...

There are many different ways of playing roulette, each of which have theiradvantages and disadvantages. Let’s take a look at these two examples:You could go to a roulette table with €100 and keep betting €1 on black. You could spend hours playing like this, but you will definitely not win any substantial amounts of money, and you will very likely end up losing at least part of your bankroll. And ...

As you may already know, the expected return to player (RTP) of any type of roulette bet is the same. The RTP of American roulette is 94.74%, whereas the RTP of European roulette is 97.3%. This means that you statistically get the same percentage of your money back, regardless of which type of bet you place.In reality, all bets are not the same. In American roulette there is a bet called top line ...

The game of roulette is quite simple and enables us to easily demonstrate why volatility matters.Volatility (variance) is used to describe how often you tend to win in a game of chance, and how big the individual wins are.High volatility means that you will not win very often, but the individual wins will be larger in order to compensate for this.Low volatility means the opposite. You will win qui ...

The game of roulette is relatively simple, which means that its RTP (return to player) and house edge are quite easy to calculate.For the calculation, we will use the European roulette with no special rules. However, the same calculation can be used for other types of roulette with just a few changes.Expected value (€1 straight up bet) = Possible win * Chance of winning = €36 * (1/37) = €36/37 = € ...

House edge is the long term advantage the casino has over players, and it can be easily calculated (for any game) as: House edge = 100 % - RTP (Return to Player)Therefore, the standard house edge for roulette is:
European roulette (single zero roulette) – 2.7 %American roulette (double zero roulette) – 5.26 %However, there are some bets that are exceptions, as well as special ...

The term Return To Player or RTP is used to describe the game's theoretical payout percentage, or how much of the money you bet will be paid back over time. For example, if a particular game has an RTP of 95%, it means that players can expect to receive back €95 in winnings for every €100 they wager, at least theoretically.However, players need to take two things into consideration. Firstly, ...

In roulette, there are many different types of bets. Players can bet on a single number or on a number of different groups of numbers.Roulette bets are divided into three categories:
Inside betsOutside betsAnnounced bets
Inside and outside bets are all the standard bets that all players should be familiar with. The announced bets are a bit more advanced and are not even available at all ...

"En Prison" ruleThis is a more complicated variant of the "La Partage" rule. Here, instead of half of the bet being returned to the player, each bet remains on the table after the ball has landed on 0. The dealer places a marker, which signals that the bet is "in jail".The bet is then evaluated in the next round. If a "in jail" bet wins, the original bet is ...

Apart from the basic rules, there are some special roulette rules that change the way roulette is played. The most commonly used and known rules are the following:
"La Partage" (Sharing)"En Prison""Surrender''
These special roulette rules are beneficial for the player as they reduce the house advantage and make the player lose less money in the long run ...

Roulette is one of the most popular casino games. It is a game known to most people and also relatively simple.Most probably you can sit down and play at a roulette table without even reading about the game. However, proper preparation should not be neglected. If you want to play roulette (whether in a land-based casino or online), you should know the basic roulette rules and the types of bets you ...

Using a random number in "an easy to exploit" way
Let’s now assume that there was a 64-bit RNG state in use. How do you use a 64-bit number to deterministically stop 5 reels by 50 symbols each? The easiest approach which preserves uniformity would be the following:Pos1 = RND modulo 50
Pos2 = (RND / 50) modulo 50
Pos3 = (RND / (50*50)) modulo 50
Pos4 = (RND / (50*50*50 ...

Too short (32 bit) RNG (Random Number Generator)
Aristocrat MK IV cabinets were developed on a 32-bit ARM 250 processor. If the slot developers decided to also use a 32-bit random number seed, then there are just 4,294,967,296 possible RNG states. It may look like a lot, but current computers are very fast and this number of options can easily be examined by brute force (taking a few seconds ...

Finding the current RNG value
The LCG PRNG (Linear Congruential Generator Pseudo Random Number Generator) algorithm is generally characterized as easily predictable. This means that just by knowing 3 random numbers you are able to calculate a, c, m parameters and easily predict the next numbers in the sequence.Alex already knew a, c, and m parameters from the decompilation, but he didn’t know ...

Now let’s speculate on how bold Alex could have exploited this algorithm.Decompilation
The first step is to get to know the exact parameters of the algorithm (parameters a, c and m). This is the easy part, as these parameters are written in every slot machine. Alex just had to read the binary code from the cabinet memory and decompile it. This is a task which any specialist in microelectronic ...

Let's start by summarising everything we know about his strategy:
Alex required results from about 24 spins in order to predict future outcomes.Agents would wait for the right moment to press the spin button.Brendan Koerner was able to trace the origins of the PRNG algorithm - pseudo random number generator (from the mathematical proofs provided by Alex) to the book The Art of Computer P ...

This way of cheating slots is not technically a fraud or scam. However, slots are programmed by people, who can make mistakes. A programming error can lead to a software glitch, which can later (consciously or unconsciously) be explored by players.There are many documented instances of software glitches that have resulted in huge wins:
In 2015, a 90-year-old woman from Illinois won $41 millio ...

Chip replacementDennis Nikrasch used a different method in a different way. He bought a slot machine to "play" at home and discovered that the machine's chip could be reprogrammed to manipulate the outcome of the game. The reprogrammed chips could then be installed into casino slot machines and used to win big money.After this discovery he ordered a load of these chips, reprogrammed ...

Light wandAs slot machines became more technologically advanced and secure, they stopped using mechanical systems to count money. They started using optical sensors, which made the majority of the cheats mentioned before, obsolete. But Carmichael adapted to the change, and figured out a way to fool the new systems.He made a small device that could "blind" the optical sensor, making it un ...

Top-bottom jointA top-bottom joint was a tool that consisted of two parts… you guessed it – the top and the bottom, more specifically a metal rod bent to form a circle (the top) and a long guitar string or some other thin wire (the bottom).The top-bottom joint is one of the most well-known tools used to defraud casinos. It was very popular in the 70s and 80s. It took the term "emptying out a ...

Shaved coinsThe technology used to judge the coins’ validity kept getting better and better, which made tricks like fake coins obsolete, or at least much harder to pull off. Slot machines started using a light sensor to register payments and figure out whether the coins were fake or real.A shaved coin was registered as a valid form of payment, but fell through the physical comparator that was used ...

Fake coins or tokensThis kind of slot fraud is very simple. It includes fake coins or anything else slot machines register as a form of payment. If you are able to manufacture something that the machine "thinks" is a coin, you can use it to make money.Of course, you must be able to manufacture the coins for less than their nominal value. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be very profitable.There i ...

There are numerous illegal ways in which slots have been cheated in the past. Most of the recorded slot machine frauds have something to do with hardware manipulation and/or special tools used to "fool" the slot machine and make money. In case you are playing slot machines with bitcoin on the internet, there are no ways to manipulate it. Only if you are the developer of that slot.It’s im ...

Alex, a true story, or an urban legend?There is a lot of indirect evidence that the story as described by Alex is true. Authorities wouldn’t have arrested and sentenced his agents in 2 countries if it wasn’t true. Novomatic wouldn’t have investigated slot machine manipulation, and wouldn’t have released security updates if it wasn’t true.But don’t slot manufacturers have dedicated security special ...

There is quite a lot of evidence that Alex has managed to successfully apply his strategy on an outdated Aristocrat MK IV slot machine. Aristocrat itself recommends their customers now replace these machines. Despite that, there are still thousands of these machines in many casinos around the world. However, most casinos shouldn’t have any problem replacing them when necessary.Alex claims (and the ...

Alex’s attempt to work with slot manufacturersAlex, recognizing that was becoming too risky for his agents to continue using this system, decided to make last attempt to use his know-how to make money. He contacted Aristocrat – the manufacturer of the slot machines he managed to compromise - directly. Hoping for an 8-digit reward, he offered his services in improving the PRNG (Pseudo Random Number ...

Was Alex’s system legal and morally acceptable?
Alex's developed technique does not include any prohibited slot machine manipulations. His strategy was based on pure mathematics from his own observations, and thus can be considered a valid and clean "how to beat slots" strategy.Many gambling experts consider his actions totally legal and morally acceptable. His strategy can be ...

Alex was working as a freelance programmer and hacker when a Russian casino hired him to manipulate the RTP of some Novomatic slot machines. To do the job, Alex had to learn in detail about how these machines work internally. He also learned about PRNG (Pseudo Random Number Generators), how they work and how they are used in slot machines. The breakthrough happened when he had spotted that slot ma ...

Properly designed slots which work with true Random Number Generators are theoretically unbeatable. But in reality, there are many documented cases of players who managed to trick slots into paying them out much more than the casino owners’ had hoped.Many of these tricks are blatant theft. These usually include tools to manipulate a slot machine’s hardware, namely its coin dispenser or note accept ...

Really useful slot strategies are actually about finding the balance among following factors:
Chance to winSize of the winningsCostThrillPlaying timeEvery player looks for something else, so there is no ideal strategy that fits everyone. There's a lot of strategies, each suitable for a different kind of players. Finding out which of them fits you best is up to you.At first glance it seem ...