Roulette — Rules, Odds and Payouts (Complete Guide)

The European wheel has 37 pockets: 0 to 36. The American wheel adds 00 — 38 total. Players place chips on the betting table, the dealer spins the wheel and releases the ball in the opposite direction, and once the ball lands in a pocket, all winning bets are paid and the rest collected.

Once "No more bets" is called, no bets can be added or changed.

Inside bets: Straight (single number) 35:1 · Split (2 numbers) 17:1 · Street (3) 11:1 · Corner (4) 8:1 · Six Line (6) 5:1.

Outside bets: Red/black, odd/even, 1-18/19-36 — all 1:1 · Dozen and Column — 2:1.

Note: the 35:1 payout on a single number assumes 36 possibilities, while there are actually 37. That exact gap is the house edge.

European (single zero): house edge 2.7%.

American (0 and 00): house edge 5.26% — almost double. There's no reason to choose it when an alternative exists.

French: like European, with La Partage / En Prison rules that return half of even-money bets when 0 hits — dropping the house edge to 1.35%. This is the best version for players.

Martingale says: double your bet after every loss, and when you win you recover everything plus one unit. The problem is twofold — table limits and a finite bankroll. Eight losses in a row starting at $10 requires a $2,560 bet on the ninth spin, and such streaks happen regularly.

More importantly: the wheel has no memory. The odds on every spin are identical regardless of past results. Believing "red is due" is called the Gambler's Fallacy. No betting sequence changes the house edge — it only changes the distribution of outcomes.

In roulette no decision improves your expected value — it's negative on every bet (barring the small gap between wheel types). In poker, expected value is set by decision quality: pot odds, position and ranges. If you enjoy roulette's math, you'll find the same math in poker — with a potential edge in your favor.