For many decades already, roulette stays one of the most popular and demanded casino games among gamblers worldwide. However, not all roulettes are the same.
This article tells about La Partage and En Prison roulette rules. As they are very beneficial for players, we recommend you to play the roulette that has one of these rules.
European roulette – the most popular roulette variation in today’s casinos - features a wheel with one zero cell. Mathematicians have calculated, that with this type of wheel the house retains a 2.7 percent advantage. This means that you lose $2.7 out of every $100 you bet.
When roulette crossed the Atlantic ocean and conquered America, it was modified to become highly unbeneficial for players. In the first casinos of New Orleans, California, and Nevada, roulettes had numbers from 1 to 28, as well as 0 and 00 cells.
At that time, unspoiled American gamblers were still eager to play at this roulette variation with whopping 10% house edge.
Although the amount of numbers on the wheel was later increased up to 38 (0, 00 and 1 through 36), American roulette still was less favorable than its European counterpart.
Tough competition in the European gambling market forced casinos to make some concessions. This is how extra rules - En Prison and La Partage - were introduced. These rules are typical for French roulette. Further differences between French and European roulettes are mostly visual (table layout, inscriptions in French, etc.)
En Prison and La Partage rules kick in when you make even-money bet and zero is spun. In this case, players that bet red/black, small/large or odd/even numbers, get a compensation from the casino. The rules don’t extend to inner, column, dozen, sector, neighbor bets.
Let’s see what the differences between the two rules are.
When the ball lands on zero, and all even-money bets lose and are immediately divided by two. This is done automatically and requires no intervention from the players. This rule reduces the house edge twice, i.e. to just 1.35 percent.
This rule is a little bit more complicated and uses a slightly different principle. When a zero is spun, the dealer places a marker over each even-money bet, placing the wager in prison for the next spin. This means the player is again betting on the same wager, however, if it wins, only the original bet is returned.
Although this rule may seem more beneficial for players that La Partage, this is not true. From mathematical point of view, they have the same house edge.En Prison decreases it down to 1.35% as well.
The En Prison rule is further complicated by the "second spin zero" rule. If zero is followed by a second zero, the bet may be lost, won, or left for additional spins. We recommend you to specify this information.
What concerns En Prison and La Partage rules, it doesn’t matter whether you make equal-money bets or follow some strategy (for example, the Martingale system). The maximum theoretical index you can reach is 1.35%. We recommend you to find the roulette with one of these rules. However, it’s up to you to decide whether or not to use a strategy. Remember that no strategy can help you win at roulette.