Roulette Odds and How to Play Roulette: The Complete Guide
How the wheel works, what every bet pays, why European beats American, and why betting systems like the Martingale cannot beat a 2.70% edge.
On this page
- How does roulette work?
- European vs American vs French roulette: which is better?
- Roulette bets, payouts and odds
- How does the house edge work in roulette?
- Inside vs outside bets: what each feels like in a session
- Roulette strategy: do betting systems work?
- Live vs online RNG roulette: is online roulette random?
- Common roulette mistakes
- Frequently asked questions
Roulette is a casino game where you bet on which numbered pocket a ball will land in on a spinning wheel. Your odds depend on the wheel: a European single-zero wheel has 37 pockets and a house edge of 2.70% on every standard bet, while an American double-zero wheel has 38 pockets and an edge of 5.26%. Pick the single-zero wheel whenever you can.
Quick facts
- House edge (European)
- 2.70% (single zero, 37 pockets)
- House edge (American)
- 5.26% (0 and 00, 38 pockets)
- House edge (French, even-money bets)
- 1.35% with la partage or en prison
- Single number payout
- 35 to 1, a 1 in 37 chance on a European wheel
- Worst common bet
- American five-number basket, 7.89% edge
- Live spin time
- Roughly 40 to 60 seconds
Roulette has survived for centuries because it is simple to learn and quick to settle. You put chips on the layout, the wheel spins, one number wins. There are no decisions to get wrong once the ball is in motion, which is part of the appeal and part of the trap: the game feels like it rewards intuition, patterns and clever staking plans, and it rewards none of them.
Below: how the wheel and layout fit together, why the version you choose matters more than any bet, what every bet pays, where the house edge comes from, and an honest look at betting systems and speed of play.
How does roulette work?
A roulette table has two parts: the wheel and the betting layout. The wheel is divided into numbered pockets. On a European wheel those are the numbers 0 to 36, so 37 pockets in total. Zero is green, and the other 36 numbers are split evenly into 18 red and 18 black. An American wheel adds a second green pocket, 00, for 38 pockets.
The layout is the felt grid where you place chips. Numbers 1 to 36 sit in three long columns of twelve, with zero (and 00 on an American table) at the head of the grid. Around the edge are the boxes for the larger, simpler bets: red or black, odd or even, 1 to 18 or 19 to 36, the three dozens and the three columns.
| 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 |
| 2 | 5 | 8 | 11 | |
| 1 | 4 | 7 | 10 |
What happens during a spin
- Bets open. You place chips on the layout during the betting window.
- The wheel spins. The ball is launched against the direction of the wheel.
- No more bets. Betting closes before the ball drops into a pocket (online, usually at or before the launch).
- Payouts. The ball settles in one pocket, losing chips are cleared and winners are paid at fixed odds.
Every bet is simply a claim that the winning number will belong to a certain group, and the payout is set by how big that group is.
European vs American vs French roulette: which is better?
This is the most important choice you make at roulette, and it happens before you place a chip. The versions look almost identical, but the number of zeros and a couple of small rules change what the game costs.
European roulette
Single zero, 37 pockets. House edge 2.70% on every standard bet. The sensible baseline for comparison.
American roulette
Zero and double zero, 38 pockets. House edge 5.26% on standard bets, and 7.89% on the five-number basket. Same payouts as European, more ways to lose.
French roulette
Single-zero wheel plus la partage or en prison. When zero hits, even-money bets lose only half or get a second chance, which halves the edge on those bets to 1.35%.
Payouts are identical on all three. The extra 00 simply adds a pocket that beats almost every bet, so the American edge roughly doubles.
What does la partage mean?
La partage (French for “the sharing”) applies only to even-money bets: red/black, odd/even and 1 to 18 / 19 to 36. If the ball lands on zero, you lose half your stake instead of all of it. En prison is a close cousin: your even-money stake is held (“imprisoned”) for the next spin rather than lost straight away. Both rules cut the house edge on even-money bets from 2.70% to 1.35%. Inside bets, dozens and columns stay at 2.70%.
Tip: If you mostly bet red/black or odd/even, a French table with la partage halves the cost of those bets compared with a standard European table. The rule is usually listed in the game’s help or info screen, so check it before you sit down.
Roulette bets, payouts and odds
Roulette bets split into two families. Inside bets go on specific numbers or small groups of adjacent numbers inside the grid. Outside bets cover large groups in the boxes around the edge. The table below shows every standard bet with its payout and its chance of winning on a European wheel.
| Bet | Type | Numbers covered | Payout | Chance of winning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Straight up | Inside | 1 | 35 to 1 | 1 in 37 (2.70%) |
| Split | Inside | 2 | 17 to 1 | 2 in 37 (5.41%) |
| Street | Inside | 3 | 11 to 1 | 3 in 37 (8.11%) |
| Corner | Inside | 4 | 8 to 1 | 4 in 37 (10.81%) |
| Six line | Inside | 6 | 5 to 1 | 6 in 37 (16.22%) |
| Dozen or column | Outside | 12 | 2 to 1 | 12 in 37 (32.43%) |
| Red/black, odd/even, 1 to 18 / 19 to 36 | Outside | 18 | 1 to 1 | 18 in 37 (48.65%) |
Two things worth pulling out of that table:
- What pays 35 to 1? A straight-up bet on a single number, including zero. Win and you get 35 units of profit plus your original unit back.
- The zero beats every outside bet. Red, black, odd, even, high, low, every dozen and every column loses when zero comes in. That single green pocket is what drags even-money bets below a 50% chance.
What is the best bet in roulette?
On a standard European wheel, every bet has the same 2.70% house edge, so in terms of cost there is no best bet. A single number and a bet on red cost you exactly the same amount per unit over the long run. The only bets that are genuinely cheaper are even-money bets at a French table with la partage or en prison (1.35%). The only bet that is genuinely worse is the American five-number basket (7.89%). Everything else is a matter of how you want the session to feel, which is covered further down.
How does the house edge work in roulette?
The edge comes from one gap: every payout is a little smaller than the true odds against the bet.
On a European wheel, a single number has a 1 in 37 chance. The true odds against it are 36 to 1 (36 ways to lose, one way to win). The casino pays 35 to 1. Now imagine a perfectly average run of 37 spins, betting 1 unit on the same number each time:
- You stake 37 units. One unit per spin, 37 spins.
- Your number lands once. That is what “1 in 37” means over an average run.
- You get 36 units back. The 35-unit payout plus the 1-unit stake on the winning spin.
- You are 1 unit down. 37 staked, 36 returned. One unit lost out of 37 is 1/37, or 2.70%.
Every bet works the same way. A dozen wins 12 times in 37 and returns 3 units each time: 36 back from 37 staked, the same 2.70%.
Why the American wheel costs more
Run the same experiment on an American wheel. There are 38 pockets, so over an average 38 spins you stake 38 units, your number lands once, and you still get 36 back. That is 2 units lost out of 38, or 5.26%.
The five-number basket (0, 00, 1, 2 and 3) is worse still. It covers 5 of 38 pockets but pays only 6 to 1. Over 38 spins it wins 5 times and returns 7 units each time: 35 back from 38 staked, a loss of 3 units, which is 3/38 or 7.89%.
Why la partage halves the edge
Bet 1 unit on red for an average 37 spins on a French table. Red comes up 18 times and returns 2 units each time, 36 in total. Black comes up 18 times and you lose. Zero comes up once and, under la partage, you get half your stake back: 0.5 units. That is 36.5 returned from 37 staked, a loss of 0.5 units, which is 0.5/37 or 1.35%.
The edge is a long-run average: any one session can finish well ahead or behind, but it is the price you pay per unit you put through the game.
Inside vs outside bets: what each feels like in a session
If every European bet costs the same, why does it matter where you put your chips? Because the house edge tells you the average cost, not the shape of the ride. That shape is called variance, and inside and outside bets sit at opposite ends of it.
Outside bets
An even-money bet wins 18 times in 37 on average, a little under half the time. Your balance drifts up and down in small steps, sessions last longer on the same budget, and big swings are rare. Dozens and columns sit in between: winning roughly one spin in three, paying 2 to 1.
Inside bets
A single number wins 1 time in 37 on average, and in practice long gaps are normal. Going two or three times the average without a hit is ordinary luck, not a sign that anything is wrong. When it lands, the 35 to 1 payout can turn a session around, but most sessions on straight-up bets end with nothing landing at the right time.
A practical way to think about it: decide what kind of session you want before you start. If you want time at the table on a fixed budget, outside bets stretch it furthest. If you want a small chance of a large win and accept that most sessions end quickly, inside bets are the tool. Neither changes what the game costs per unit.
Watch out: Mixing a large stake on red with a cluster of single numbers can feel like a hedge. It is not. You are simply placing more bets per spin, each with its own 2.70% cost, so your total stake per spin, and your expected loss, goes up.
Roulette strategy: do betting systems work?
The Martingale, D’Alembert, Fibonacci and Labouchere all follow the same basic idea: change the size of your next bet based on what happened on the last one. None of them can work, for a simple reason. They change the size and timing of your bets, not the odds of any single spin. Every spin still carries the same 2.70% (or 5.26%) edge, and adding up bets that each lose money on average cannot produce a total that wins on average.
Does the Martingale work?
The Martingale is the classic: bet 1 unit on an even-money chance, and double your bet after every loss. When you finally win, you recover everything lost in the sequence plus 1 unit of profit, then start again at 1 unit. Here is what a losing run looks like.
| Bet number | Stake (units) | Total lost so far (units) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 4 | 7 |
| 4 | 8 | 15 |
| 5 | 16 | 31 |
| 6 | 32 | 63 |
| 7 | 64 | 127 |
| 8 | 128 | 255 |
| 9 | 256 | 511 |
| 10 | 512 | 1,023 |
| 11 (next bet needed) | 1,024 | Wins back a profit of just 1 unit |
After ten straight losses you have lost 1,023 units and need to stake 1,024 more to win back a profit of 1 unit. On any given sequence that is unlikely: the chance of losing an even-money bet on a European wheel is 19 in 37 (51.35%), and multiplying that by itself ten times gives about 0.13%, roughly 1 in 780 sequences. But a Martingale player starts a new sequence every time they win, which can mean dozens of sequences an hour. Rare events turn up eventually, and when they do, a single run of ten losses wipes out around a thousand 1-unit wins.
Then there is the table maximum. Suppose, for example, a table runs from 1 to 500 units. After nine losses the system needs a bet of 512, which the table will not accept. The Martingale does not remove risk; it swaps frequent small wins for rare, very large losses, and the average is still the house edge.
The gambler’s fallacy
Underneath most systems is the belief that past results influence the next spin: that black is “due” after eight reds, or that a number which has not appeared for a while is about to. They do not. The wheel has no memory, and each spin is independent. The chance of red on the next spin is 18 in 37 whether the last eight spins were red, black or a mix. The “hot” and “cold” number boards shown on many tables are a record of history, not a forecast.
Tip: The only roulette strategy that genuinely changes your results is choosing the cheapest game (French with la partage, then European) and controlling how much you stake per hour. Everything else is how you arrange the same cost.
Live vs online RNG roulette: is online roulette random?
RNG roulette is software: a random number generator picks the result and an animation shows it. Live roulette uses a real wheel and dealer streamed from a studio. Our guide to live casino games covers how those studios work in more detail.
Both are random. In regulated markets, RNG games are tested by independent labs before they go live, and live studios and their games are licensed and audited too. A single-zero wheel has the same 2.70% edge whether it is physical or digital. The protection comes from the licence, which is why we only list casinos we can match to their regulator’s register (see how licensing works). An unlicensed site gives you no such assurance.
Watch out: Some live roulette variants add random multipliers to certain numbers. To fund them, straight-up bets pay less than 35 to 1 unless your number carries a multiplier. The overall return can differ from standard roulette, so check the game’s published RTP in its help screen before assuming it plays like a normal European table.
Speed of play and cost per hour
The edge per spin is only half the story. What you lose on average over a session depends on how many spins you play. The formula is simple: expected loss per hour = stake per spin x spins per hour x house edge.
A live roulette spin takes roughly 40 to 60 seconds once you include the betting window. RNG roulette can be much faster, because you control the pace and there is no dealer to wait for.
| Game and pace | Spins per hour (example) | House edge | Expected loss per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live European roulette | 60 | 2.70% | 1 x 60 x 2.70% = 1.62 units |
| Live American roulette | 60 | 5.26% | 1 x 60 x 5.26% = about 3.16 units |
| Fast RNG European roulette | 200 | 2.70% | 1 x 200 x 2.70% = 5.40 units |
The exact spin count depends on you and the game. The point is that a fast RNG game played without pauses can cost more per hour than a slow live table with an identical edge.
Common roulette mistakes
Most avoidable roulette losses come from a short list of habits.
Playing the American wheel by default
If a European or French table is available, there is no reason to play American roulette. You get the same payouts for roughly double the cost. In online lobbies the two often sit side by side with similar names, so check the wheel for a 00 pocket.
Chasing losses with bigger bets
Raising stakes to “win it back” is the Martingale without the label. It increases the amount you put through the game, and therefore your expected loss, at the exact moment your budget is already under pressure.
Reading patterns into history boards
A streak of reds or a number that has not appeared for a long time tells you nothing about the next spin. Treat result boards as decoration. The ball does not know what happened last time.
Assuming every roulette game pays the same
Multiplier variants change the paytable. Check the published RTP in the help screen before you play.
Covering too much of the table
Spreading chips across many numbers means something wins most spins, but every chip carries the full edge. Winning often while slowly losing overall confuses a lot of newer players.
Play it safe: Roulette rounds are short and easy to repeat, especially on RNG tables where you can spin as fast as you click. Decide on a budget and a time limit before you start, treat the money as the price of entertainment, and stop when either runs out, win or lose. Check the legal age where you live (19+ in Ontario, 18+ in most other markets), and use the deposit limits and time reminders your casino offers. If roulette stops being fun, our responsible gambling page lists tools and support services.
If you enjoy table games with real decisions, blackjack rewards correct play with a lower edge, and baccarat offers a similarly simple game with a low-edge main bet. For how we assess the casinos behind these games, see how we review.
Frequently asked questions
What is the house edge in roulette?
On a European single-zero wheel the house edge is 2.70% on every standard bet. On an American double-zero wheel it is 5.26%, and the five-number basket bet (0, 00, 1, 2, 3) carries 7.89%. French tables with la partage or en prison reduce the edge on even-money bets to 1.35%.
What are the odds of hitting a single number in roulette?
On a European wheel the chance is 1 in 37 (2.70%) per spin, and on an American wheel 1 in 38. A winning single number pays 35 to 1. Because the true odds are 36 to 1 on a European wheel, that small gap is where the house edge comes from.
Is European roulette better than American roulette?
Yes. Both pay the same, but the American wheel’s extra 00 pocket raises the house edge from 2.70% to 5.26%, so you lose roughly twice as much on average for the same play.
What is the best bet in roulette?
On a European wheel every standard bet has the same 2.70% edge. The genuinely cheaper option is an even-money bet at a French table with la partage or en prison, at 1.35%. The worst common bet is the American five-number basket at 7.89%.
Does the Martingale system work in roulette?
No. Doubling after each loss produces frequent small wins and occasional huge losses. After 10 straight losses you are 1,023 units down and need a 1,024-unit bet to win back 1 unit, and table maximums usually stop you before that. The house edge on every spin is unchanged.
What does la partage mean in roulette?
La partage is a French roulette rule: if the ball lands on zero, even-money bets lose only half their stake instead of all of it. It cuts the house edge on those bets from 2.70% to 1.35%. A similar rule, en prison, holds the stake for the next spin instead and has the same effect on the edge.
Is online roulette random?
At licensed casinos in regulated markets, yes. RNG roulette uses a random number generator tested by independent labs, and live roulette uses a real wheel streamed from a licensed studio. Each spin is independent, so previous results have no effect on the next one.
What pays 35 to 1 in roulette?
A straight-up bet on a single number, including zero. If it wins, you receive 35 units of profit plus your original stake. Some multiplier-style live variants pay less than 35 to 1 on straight-up bets, so check the paytable in the game’s help screen.