Lightning Roulette: what the lightning costs on a straight-up bet

A normal wheel with a twist

Evolution launched Lightning Roulette in 2018 and it quickly became one of the most played live tables anywhere. The wheel is standard European roulette, one zero and 37 pockets, spun by a real dealer in an art-deco studio. Outside bets work exactly as you know them: red or black, odd or even, dozens and columns, paid at the usual odds.

The twist comes after betting closes. Lightning strikes between one and five 'lucky numbers' each round and attaches a multiplier to each, from 50x to 500x. If the ball lands on a lucky number and you have a straight-up bet on it, that bet is paid at the multiplier instead of the usual odds.

The trade-off in one line

To fund the lightning, Evolution trims the ordinary straight-up payout from 35 to 1 down to 29 to 1. Most rounds, your number does not get struck, so most straight-up wins pay less than they would on a standard table. Occasionally a struck number lands and you are paid 50, 100 or even 500 times.

The return, by bet type

Evolution publishes a return to player of about 97.3% for most bets, the same as ordinary European roulette, and slightly less, about 97.1%, for straight-up numbers once the reduced payout and the multipliers are balanced out. Some casinos add a small extra charge or run different settings on straight-up bets; the game's help screen shows the figures in force.

The practical upshot: if you mostly play outside bets, Lightning Roulette is essentially standard European roulette with better scenery. If you mostly play straight-up numbers, you are swapping steady 35-to-1 wins for a lower payout with a rare jackpot-like upside.

Who it suits

• Number pickers who enjoy the long shot. Spreading a few straight-ups each round is the only way to meet the lightning at all.
• Outside-bet players who like the show. For you, nothing much changes except the atmosphere.
• Not system players. Doubling up on red after a loss works no better here than anywhere else, and the table limits will stop the sequence long before the wheel does.

Three habits of people who enjoy this table

Talk to regular players and the same habits come up. They keep their straight-up numbers to a handful rather than covering half the layout, because covering twenty numbers at 29 to 1 simply guarantees a slow leak. They decide in advance whether they are at the table for the lightning or for the outside bets, and they size the two differently. And they ignore the history board. The last twenty results are on screen for atmosphere, not information: a number that has not come up for an hour is exactly as likely as any other on the next spin, and the lightning picks its lucky numbers afresh every round.

There is a quieter point too. Because the multipliers are drawn after betting closes, there is no way to choose a struck number. Anyone claiming a pattern in where the lightning lands is reading tea leaves.

Pacing a session

A round takes around forty-five seconds to a minute, so you see perhaps 60 spins an hour. Five straight-up numbers at €1 each is €300 staked an hour, and at a 97% return the average cost is around €9, though a single struck number can swing the evening. A stake you could repeat sixty times without flinching is the right size.

There is normally no free demo, because the game is live. Watching a few rounds costs nothing and shows you how rarely a struck number is the one that lands.

For the wider picture on dealers, studios and table limits, read live casino in Ireland. The studio is profiled on Evolution, and its money-wheel show is Crazy Time. For a quick game with a published return a shade under this one, see Aviator; every trending title is on popular casino games.

Where to find live roulette tables

The five casinos we cover, on referral terms. For a roulette player the size of the live floor is the thing to compare.