Allow us to shed some light on the differences between French Roulette and Microgaming Software's Euorpean Gold version. Not to forget about the two other popular versions - American and European - all four versions can best be categorized by splitting them into two groups, with straight up European being the most similar to American Roulette and Microgaming's European Gold being the most similar to French Roulette.

American and European are exactly the same except that European Roulette does not offer the Double Zero on its wheel, which ultimately helps to bring the Casinos Edge down from 5.26% to about 2.7%. There are two types of bets offered at European and American Roulette - Inside and Outside.

This is where a distinction can be made for the French and European Gold versions. Both of these games offer Call Bets, in addition to Inside Bets and Outside Bets. What distinguishes European Gold from French is that it offers more Call bets as well as a host of pre-determined Neighbor Bets.

Call bets and neighbor bets are groups of bets on multiple numbers placed on the casino Roulette table at the same time. Call bets are derived from the French version of Roulette and are given appropriate French names. In French Roulette, there are thirty-three different call bets to choose from, ranging from three numbers (three chips) to seventeen numbers (nine chips) at once. European Gold offers the same call bets, plus an additional four. These additional four Call Bets include Red Splits (4 chips total on 9/12, 16/19, 18/21, 27/30) Black Splits (7 chips total on 8/11, 10/11, 10/13, 17/20, 26/29, 28/29, 28/31), Orphelin Plein (8 chips total on 1,6,9,14,17,20,31 & 34) and Zero Game (four chips total on 0/3, 12/15, 26, 32/35). In a future tip we shall briefly explain the different types of Call Bets.

Just to clarify, French Roulette has a Call Bet called Les Orphelins, which is the exact same as the Orphelin Cheval bet at European Gold (five chips total on 1, 6/9, 14/17, 17/20, & 31/34). As for neighbor bets, which are similar to Call bets, there are thirty-six different groups of five numbers that can be bet on in the European Gold version.

Neighbor bets are placed on the neighboring numbers of a Straight Up number on the roulette wheel (not on the table). In other words, a single neighbor bet at European Gold will always be on five adjacent numbers on the roulette wheel. For French Roulette, players can bet on an unlimited range of neighbor bets, ranging from three to sixteen neighboring numbers on the wheel at once.

We shall sort out the different Neighbor bets in our next tip as well. We shall also go into detail about the roulette software features and betting options found at Microgaming online casino sites, and the extended options that set apart European Gold from other betting platforms.