How Roulette Works

• How live roulette works — the wheel, the betting window, how the winning number is registered, and how a live table is run from a studio floor.
• What is a live dealer casino? — the cameras, the streaming setup and the software layer that reads the result and settles bets.
• Live casino vs RNG casino games — a physical wheel against a random number generator, and what genuinely differs between them.
• What is casino house edge? — how the zero pockets create the margin, and why it is identical on almost every roulette bet.

Read how live roulette works first. It walks through a full round: the betting window opens, you place chips on the layout, the dealer spins the wheel and releases the ball, the window closes, the ball settles in a numbered pocket, and every bet is settled automatically against that number.

Then read the house edge guide, because roulette is the clearest illustration of the concept in any casino. A European wheel has 37 pockets — numbers 1 to 36 plus a single zero. A straight-up bet on one number pays 35:1, but there are 37 possible outcomes; that gap between the true odds and the payout is the entire house edge, and it applies almost identically to every bet on the table. An American wheel adds a double zero, making 38 pockets while the payouts stay the same, which roughly doubles the margin. Choosing a single-zero table is the one decision in roulette that measurably changes your expected cost.

Finally, live casino vs RNG games explains the format choice. A software roulette wheel uses a random number generator; a live table uses a real wheel and ball. The pocket count and the payouts determine the odds in both cases, so the format affects pace and atmosphere rather than value.

Fuller definitions are in the Lunaris casino glossary.

The distinction that trips up most new players is between inside and outside bets. Inside bets cover few numbers, pay a lot and land rarely; outside bets cover many numbers, pay little and land often. Because both are priced off the same wheel, they cost the same over the long run — what changes is the size and frequency of the swings, and therefore how quickly a given bankroll can rise or disappear in a short session.

Roulette attracts more betting systems than any other casino game, and the guides are direct about them. The Martingale, the d'Alembert, the Fibonacci and every variant of "double after a loss" rearrange when you stake money, not what each spin is worth. The wheel has no memory: after ten reds, the probability of red on the next spin is exactly what it was on the first. Sequences of results that look meaningful are simply what randomness produces over enough spins.

Progression systems also collide with practical limits. Doubling after each loss needs an unbounded bankroll and a table with no maximum, and neither exists — a run of losses that is entirely ordinary over a long session is enough to reach either ceiling. The honest summary is that changing your stake pattern changes the shape of your results, making small frequent wins more likely at the cost of rare large losses, while the long-run expected cost stays fixed by the wheel.

Live roulette tables appear in the live dealer lobby with their bet limits and wheel type shown before you join, and RNG roulette sits in the wider game lobby alongside slots and other table games. The software provider directory shows which studio operates each table.

One published rule shapes how you fund that play. On the Lunaris contribution table, roulette contributes 10% toward bonus wagering and live games contribute 1%, and bonuses are not offered for live casino games. Bonus funds therefore clear slowly at a roulette table compared with slots, which contribute 100% — the wagering requirements guide shows exactly how that arithmetic plays out.