Whilst it is (potentially) possible to beat roulette in the short term (and I’ll cover this in more detail in future), it would appear almost impossible to beat roulette on a machine – at least here in the UK. That’s not to say that you can’t win from time to time, but the long term edge against you COULD be far from the typical single-zero 2.63% that would result from a true, unbiased, roulette wheel.

That’s if the forum comments about this in the Winner Online forums are true – which you can read here. I’m not endorsing those comments or otherwise – but they do raise a certain amount of suspicion regarding the programming algorithms used on these machines, and their ultimate payback percentages. (Of course, to be fair to the manufacturers, these are just other people’s personal comments…)

The UK FOBT (Fixed Odds Betting Terminals) machines are just one derivative / type of roulette machine possible. Every machine created will have its own algorithms and ways of establishing winners. I’d like to assume that all machines are subject to law, and that the law insists that games like roulette are played to normal casino rules and hold percentages. But that could be a dangerous assumption.

I’ve played the FOBT machines here in the UK in various bookmakers over the last year, and my experience of them has not been overly favourable. I’ve certainly made money off them from time to time, but I’ve also had a lot of “highly suspicious results” from them – i.e. 4 zeros in a row, 13 red numbers in a row, 6 numbers in one dozen in a row etc… whilst these can of course happen in any gambling session, the odds against them seem exponential. Would they appear as often on a real roulette wheel?

Note: my barring from UK casinos is the ONLY reason I instead play against UK FOBT machines in bookmakers, and against online casino roulette wheels.

So, read and make up your own mind – but my personal advice (from my own personal experience): beware the UK FOBT. They might play fairly, but they might not – and if that’s the case then the returns could be even lower than your typical slot machine payout percentage. With no reliable manufacturer forums found on the Internet in which this is confirmed once and for all, I’m steering clear.

Let me know about your own experience with these terminals if you’ve played them. Leave comments or email me directly here.