19 Jan

How to play The Big Wheel at Mac Online Casinos

The Big Wheel at Mac CasinosThe casual gamer who visits Mac casinos once in a blue moon is probably going to stick to the basics – pokies, blackjack, maybe a spin of roulette here and there. But for more avid players, these games can become tiresome after awhile. These are the players who are more likely to visit less commonly played (but equally entertaining) games, like The Big Wheel.

If you’ve ever patronized a land-based casino, you’ve surely seen The Big Wheel. Some casinos give it another name, like The Money Wheel, Lucky Wheel or Big Six. Whatever they want to call the game, it’s an enormous disc that can be easily seen from afar. At Mac casinos, however, you’ll have to delve deeper into the games menu, often listed under Specialties, Casual Games or something of that nature.

The game won’t always have the same features, either. In the case of Money Wheel, the symbols are generally made up of various dollar notes – $1, $5, $10, $20, etc. The Big Wheel, on the other hand, features a series of numbers, 1 through 30, with various group bets that can be placed (very much like roulette, to be honest).

How To Play The Big Wheel at Mac Casinos

The majority of today’s Mac casinos are designed for compatibility with all operating systems by optimizing the website with HTML5, and providing the games in Flash or Java for instant play. This means players don’t have to download anything to play. Simply visit the online casino’s website, login to your account, scroll through the games menu and press on The Big Wheel.

How To Play The Big Wheel

The specific version of The Big Wheel I’ll be talking about today was created by SkillOnNet, and is themed around a big-top circus. As the above  shows, there are 30 numbers (1-30) around the outside of the wheel, followed by a color-coded section (blue, yellow, purple and red), a trio of number groups, and so on.

How To Play The Big Wheel – Bets, Pays & Odds

Straight Number Bets: Betting on any single number to hit pays 28.6x your bet. The odds of winning this bet are 1 to 30, or 3.33%.

Color Bets: The colors on the wheel are Blue, Yellow, Purple and Red, and as you can see, they are not evenly dispersed, therefore the odds and payouts will differ greatly.

  • Blue: The Blue section makes up almost half of the wheel, covering numbers 1-14. A winning bet on Blue pays even money, or 2x your bet. The odds of winning this bet are 46.66%.
  • Yellow: This section is a bit smaller, covering nine numbers in all, 15 to 23. A win pays 3x your bet. The odds of winning are 30.00%.
  • Purple: You’ll find five numbers in this area, 24 to 28. A win here pays 4x your bet. The odds of winning are
  • Red: This section contains only the last two numbers, 29 and 30. The payout is 5x your bet, while the odds of wining are just 6.66%.

Groups of 10: Following he circle inward, the next area covers three groups of ten numbers each, 1-10, 11-20 and 21-30. Each section pays 2.8x your bet. The odds are 33.33%.

Odd/Even, Lower/Higher: The Odd/Even bet is just like what you’ll find in Roulette, but learning how to play The Big Wheel is a bit more complicated when it comes to Lower/Higher bets.

  • Odd/Even: This is a basic 50/50 wager on whether the next number will be Odd or Even. It carries a payout of 1.9x your bet. The odds of winning are 50.00%.
  • Lower/Higher: Instead of choosing a low or high section of the wheel – low being 1-15, high 16-30 – the player is actually betting on whether the next number will be lower or higher than the previous winning number. For this reason, the payouts and odds will change with each new spin of the wheel. Mac casinos allow players to hover their mouse cursor over each section to find out what the current payouts are.

How To Play The Big Wheel – Strategy

The best possible wager you can make in The Big Wheel is the Lower / Higher, but only when the time is right.

If the last number was 16, the Lower pays 1.8x, with odds of 50%, while the Higher pays 1.9x at odds of 46.66%. Because one number is removed from the overall pool of 30, the player’s odds are always reduced. If 16 were to land again, neither bet would win, which makes this one of the worst bets the game offers.

Obviously, when the last number to win is in the median range, you do not want to place this bet.

However, if the last number happens to be something like 28, your odds of winning a Lower bet would skyrocket to 93.10%. Of course, the payout falls to just 1.06x your bet (or $0.06 per $1). But placing the max $350 bet will still pay out a $21 profit.

If a 28, 29 or 30 does land, though, you’ll be out $350. Ouch! Such is the risk we all take gambling on The Big Wheel at Mac casinos.