There is a difference between a roulette simulator and a game. A game is designed to entertain you, where is the simulator is designed to simulate the real thing. If you play roulette only for entertainment, then you probably wouldn’t notice a difference between a simulator and a game. They both look and sound the same. They both give you a bit of a buzz when you win, and you’ll look for systems and strategies to increase your bankroll.
Games for testing systems
Again a game is designed to entertain you, not making money. And it’s important to understand many free online casinos offer games with rigged results. This means that you’re almost guaranteed to increase your bankroll, even with random bets. After all, winning is entertaining, even if it is somewhat delusion.
The algorithm of an entertaining game could quite simply be after a certain amount of losses, a win is due. Or it could be that for every 30 losses that would normally occur with a fair algorithm, a win will replace the result. In any event, such algorithms are not a realistic indicator of what you would earn with real roulette.
Most online casinos allow their games to be tested for free. The Betiton simulator page has some additional information about this. Importantly, if you use the free games provided by online casinos, at least try to establish if it uses the same algorithm as real roulette from the same casino.
RNG simulators
There are various roulette simulators that use RNG, known as random number generators. But don’t assume that all random number generators are the same. For example, older versions of Microsoft Excel used a notoriously predictable random number generator. It would create repeating numbers that were brazenly obvious, which is far removed from the random number generators used by real casinos. Even some of the higher quality RNG software available for home computers have predictable results.
Before an online casino uses random number generators, they are extensively and independently tested to verify results are indeed unpredictable. This involves the generation and study of billions of spin results. There are standardized tests that must be passed, often is a requirement by regulators.
Usually there are two components to RNGs. Firstly, there is the software that contains the algorithm. The algorithm is no more than a mathematical formula. The second component is the time of the physical computer that is running the software. So when the time and date are plugged in to the algorithm, the result is the winning number. In principle, it’s very simplistic. But the problem for gamblers is firstly they don’t know the algorithm. And secondly, they can’t possibly know the precise millisecond that the calculations are made. This makes it nearly impossible to determine or reverse- engineer random number generator software.
Simulators with imported data
Importing real-world data from casinos is the most reliable source of information. This is because you are then testing against actual casinos results, whether casino is in control of the integrity of game results. But there’s more to the story, because every wheel, and every RNG software is unique.
So you could develop a system to beat one particular type of RNG software, at least in theory. In the system may work, but it would only work with that particular RNG. And this is even without consideration to the server’s physical time, when the random result is generated.
Now being more realistic, you might be developing a system to beat physical roulette wheels. And you may import real roulette results into your roulette simulator. It sounds ideal, but the problem is every pattern is unique for each roulette wheel. A pattern is like a fingerprint for a wheel. So even if you uncover patterns in spins from some casino, which occurred years ago, it has virtually no relevance in the present.
Doesn’t this make roulette simulators somewhat pointless? Yes and no. The real value in roulette simulators is to automate testing, which would otherwise manually take potentially months. Roulette simulators are especially valuable to new players, so they can personally see how their ideas are quite useless. This may seem pessimistic, but it’s actually realistic. Most roulette system players start with systems that are based on typical fallacies, which have been thoroughly tested and proven to fail.
Conclusion
Roulette simulators and games may be fun and interesting to use. But the cold reality is that every RNG software is different, and every real physical wheel is different. So any exploitable patterns will be different for every casino, and every individual wheel. So there is much use for roulette simulators of games, other than entertainment, and learning for yourself what doesn’t work. But in the off chance that you discover something new, roulette simulators are an excellent way to test months of data in a matter of seconds. Generally you shouldn’t bother manually testing a strategy, because you won’t be able to test enough spins to be statistically relevant. One exception is if you apply advantage play techniques, where clear proof of effectiveness can be coupled with other real-world data, to validate the effectiveness of a technique.