One of the aspects of roulette that makes it so much fun, is the fact that each individual game only lasts about a minute from placing bets to seeing the result and being paid out. The next potential win is only ever a heartbeat away and the action in pretty much non-stop.
However, this also means that you can burn through a bankroll pretty quickly if you have a bad a run and are not handling your stake levels properly. For players with limited funds to spare, this is a problem.
This is where low stakes roulette comes into its own. A player with only £10 in their account wouldn’t last very long betting £5 per game, but if they could bet pennies, that £10 would last an awful lot longer.
The downside is that roulette has set pay outs depending on the bet that you make, with the highest being 35:1 for a straight. That means a winning 10p stake would return the grand old sum of £3.50, which would just about cover a bust ticket.
So where can you play roulette at such low stakes, what actually constitutes low stakes, and what would be the reasons for playing at those levels?
Low Stakes Online Roulette
If you were to play roulette in a real casino you would struggle to find a table that accepted much less than a 50p minimum bet. However, that minimum would not apply to all bet types.
Generally, the table minimum would apply to straight ups – bets on a single number – because they have the lowest odds of coming in. If you wanted to make an outside bet, on red for example, you would likely have to stake at least £5.
This is because a real casino has overheads like staff, the costs of running a building, public liability insurance, etc. Allowing minute bets would not bring in enough to make the enterprise worthwhile.
Online however, the costs are reduced, and once a game is developed and released it can be more or less left to its own devices.
Believe it or not, there are online roulette games where you can bet as little as 1 penny. Playtech’s Penny Roulette is an obvious example, and it allows 1p stakes on all bets except red/black, odd/even, high/low, columns, and dozens; so basically on anything that pays out 5:1 or more.
Put another way:
| Inside Bets | Outside Bets |
|---|---|
| 1p | 10p |
Some RNG based games might operate on more of a sliding scale, so the minimum bet will increase in 3 or 4 stages rather than being split between inside and outside bets.
When it comes to live casino roulette, you will usually find that the table minimum is a little bit higher, but not much, at around 10p. The difference here though, is that the minimum often applies to all bets, including the outside bets. You can even play some of the special games like Quantum Roulette for these low stakes, and on all bets too.
Auto Roulette is another option, serving as a sort of hybrid between an RNG game and a live casino game. The wheel is real but it operates automatically using air jets to release the ball, so there is no dealer. Again, the minimum bet is 10p across the board.
This creates loads of choice for low stakes players.
Online Roulette Games with Low Stakes
If you want to go directly to a low stakes roulette game then you could do a lot worse than trying a few of those mentioned in the table below:
| Game Name | Game Type | Min Bet | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penny Roulette | RNG | 1p – 10p | Playtech |
| Auto Roulette | Live | 10p | Evolution Gaming |
| Roulette Nouveau | RNG | 10p | Relax Gaming |
| Quantum Roulette | Live | 10p | Playtech |
| Classic Roulette | RNG | 10p – £1 | Playtech |
| Lightning Roulette | Live | 20p | Evolution Gaming |
| Multifire Roulette | RNG | 25p | Switch Studios |
| Immersive Roulette | Live | 50p | Evolution Gaming |
We have included a few titles for anyone wanting to play at slightly higher stakes too, such as 20p roulette and 50p roulette, as this could still probably be considered low stakes by many. There are also a few variations with special features to spice things up a bit, just check the payout changes that have been made to accommodate the features.
There are many more roulette games with low minimum bets out there of course, we can’t list them all, but once you have tried a few you will begin to understand how to find more.
Why Play Low Stakes Roulette?
It’s clear from the information above that even the luckiest of winning streaks while playing 10p roulette wouldn’t bag you enough to buy much more than an evening out, so why should you consider playing it?
Well, it’s an excellent way to get to know the game and build confidence if you are new to it, without the scary possibility of losing a lot of money; and even if you are more experienced you can play roulette for pennies while trying out new staking strategies to see how you get on with them.
The great thing about staking strategies is that they break whatever money you have into units rather than a monetary value, so whether you have £10 or £100, you can break it into 100 units of either 10p a unit or £1 a unit and play the same staking strategy. It’s a great equaliser.
Perhaps you have always placed outside bets and want to progress to those with higher odds, or to use the racetrack? Penny roulette et al is a brilliant place to start without risking losing your shirt.
Of course, there are also players who simply don’t have all that much spare cash but enjoy the game, so cheap roulette games are ideal for them and help to keep the game inclusive – gambling shouldn’t just be for the well off after all, and it might even enable them to build their bankroll.