The roulette wheel has emerged as the most prominent symbol for casino gambling in America. It is the third most popular game in modern casinos, right behind slot machines and video poker. Its slower pace tends to attract a more subdued, civilized crowd as compared to other casino games, and although learning to play roulette is a simple task, deriving an effective strategy for winning isnt quite as simple. In roulette, the house has a 5.3 percent edge over the player, but there are still ways to optimize your potential. Here are five roulette tips that should help you increase your winnings.

1. No systems: Dont ever follow any ones system for roulette. Over the years, many have tried to come up with effective systems to win at roulette. Despite the many attempts, some of which are based in sophisticated mathematics, no system has ever been proven effective. In the case of roulette, your system should be the lack of a system.

2. Europe or the internet: your best chance at winning at roulette is in European casinos. American casinos have an extra slot (00), and this makes the odds of winning in this country lower. The house edge in American casinos is 5.3 percent as compared to 2.63 percent in European casinos. Interestingly, online roulette wheels use the European wheel, so youre better off playing online than in an American casino. On occasion, you will be able to find a casino in Vegas with a single-zero wheel, but this is very rare.

3. No more biases: Dont spend your time trying to find the elusive biased roulette wheel. Many years ago, before modern calibration technologies existed, it was possible to find biased wheels that changed the odds of the game. Currently, casinos regularly and very carefully inspect wheels to assure no wheel biases exist. Unfortunately, the biased wheel is outdated.

4. Surrender rules: Seek out a table that offers surrender rules. This refers to allowing outside bets that only pay even money. Betting red/black, high/low, or odd/even are examples of this. Another example is only loosing half of your money when the ball lands in zero or double-zero. These surrender rules cut the house edge down to 2.63 percent, although the winning amounts are two times lower.

5. Prison rule: Look for a roulette rule known as en prison. As the name suggests, this rule is generally only found in Europe. It refers to the situation when the ball lands on zero and losses are temporarily held in prison as opposed to being swept away. Its fate is then determined on the subsequent spin. This rule reduces the house edge on even-money outside bets to 1.35 percent.