Roulette Payouts and Odds

Every roulette bet with its payout, true odds and house edge, on both single-zero and double-zero wheels — and the arithmetic that shows why they are all identical except one.

Updated September 2026 · how these numbers are calculated

Roulette is the most transparent game in the casino. The wheel has 37 or 38 pockets. The payouts are computed as though it had 36. The difference is the house edge, and it is the same on almost every bet you can make.

Inside bets

Outside bets

House edge

Where 5.26% comes from

Bet $1 straight up on an American wheel. One pocket in 38 wins and pays 35:1:

EV = (1/38 × +35) + (37/38 × −1) = 35/38 − 37/38 = −2/38 = −5.263%

Now bet $1 on red. Eighteen pockets win:

EV = (18/38 × +1) + (20/38 × −1) = 18/38 − 20/38 = −2/38 = −5.263%

The same number, from a completely different bet. This is not a coincidence — it is the design. Every payout on the layout is set as if 36 pockets existed, so every bet gives up exactly the two extra pockets.

On a single-zero wheel the arithmetic is −1/37 = −2.70%, again for every bet.

The one exception

The five-number bet on 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 pays 6:1:

EV = (5/38 × +6) + (33/38 × −1) = 30/38 − 33/38 = −3/38 = −7.895%

Half again as expensive as everything else on the table, because five pockets cannot be priced cleanly in a system built on 36. It exists on American layouts only. Never take it.

What this means for systems

Because the edge is a property of each individual bet, no arrangement of bets changes it. Cover 35 of 37 numbers on a European wheel: you win 94.6% of spins, lose 5.4%, and give up exactly 2.70% of everything staked. Bet one number: you win 2.7% of spins and give up exactly 2.70%.

Expected loss is (amount wagered) × (edge) and nothing else. Progressions, patterns, “due” numbers, hot dealers, and sector betting all change how much you wager and how the results are distributed. None of them touch the multiplier.

The wheel has no memory. After ten reds in a row, the chance of red on the eleventh spin is 18/37 — the same as it was on the first spin, and on every spin since. The belief otherwise is common enough to have a name: the gambler’s fallacy.

La partage and en prison

The only rules that genuinely reduce the roulette house edge. Both apply to even-money bets when the ball lands in zero:

• La partage — you lose half your stake immediately.
• En prison — your bet is held for one more spin; if it wins, you get the stake back with no winnings.

Either takes even-money bets from 2.70% to 1.35%, which puts roulette in the same territory as baccarat. Inside bets are unaffected.

These rules are standard in French roulette and common in European high-limit rooms. They are rare on standard American floors, and worth seeking out: a single-zero wheel with la partage is half the cost of a single-zero wheel without it, and a quarter the cost of the double-zero wheel beside it.

Cost per hour

At about 40 spins an hour, betting $10 per spin:

Same game, same stake, same hour, four times the price. The only decision that matters in roulette is made before the first spin: which wheel you sit at.

Next: American vs European roulette · why betting systems cannot work