Roulette – how it works, bets and payouts

How does roulette work?

You play roulette by placing chips on numbers or groups of numbers. The dealer spins the wheel, and the ball decides the result. That is the basic sequence: choose what you want to bet on, place your chips, then see where the ball lands.

The choice is between a particular number and a group. With a number bet, you are choosing that number as the result. With a group bet, you are choosing a set of numbers rather than just one. So when you look at a bet, start with what it covers.

The table brings the payouts and probabilities together for a European wheel. Read those two parts side by side. The payout tells you what a winning bet pays, while the probability tells you how likely that bet is to win.

A straightforward way to use the table is to find the number or group you want to back, then read across to its payout and probability.

European, French or American roulette?

French roulette with la partage gives the lowest house edge on even-money bets: 1.35 %. European roulette has one zero and a 2.70 % house edge. American roulette has 0 and 00, with a house edge of 5.26 %, rising to 7.89 % for the five-number bet.

The distinction is not just the name on the table. With French la partage, half of an even-money bet is returned when the ball lands on zero. That return is what brings the house edge on those bets down to 1.35 %, half the European figure of 2.70 %. So when comparing French and European roulette, the useful detail is the la partage rule and how it treats an even-money bet on zero.

European roulette is the single-zero version. Its 2.70 % house edge puts it between French even-money bets with la partage and American roulette in this comparison. One zero rather than 0 and 00 is the key difference to look for when choosing between European and American tables.

American roulette has the higher house edge of those two versions, at 5.26 %. Then there is the five-number bet, which has its own figure: 7.89 %, rather than the usual American 5.26 %.

Does any roulette strategy work?

No betting system changes the house edge in roulette. If you want the lowest edge, choose a European or French wheel. That is the choice I would put first, before getting into how much to stake after a win or a loss.

Martingale is the familiar example: double your bet after a loss. It gives many small wins and rare large losses. The small wins are part of the picture, but so are those larger losses. Looking only at the small wins does not describe the whole system.

A staking system tells you how to change your bet; it does not change the house edge. Martingale can give a sequence of results its particular shape, with lots of small wins and the occasional large loss, without making the wheel itself more favourable.

Lightning Roulette and live roulette

Lightning Roulette from Evolution pays 50x–500x on straight bets that hit one of the round’s lucky numbers. There are 1–5 lucky numbers per round, while a straight bet otherwise pays 29:1. That is the main distinction to keep in view: the lucky-number payout and the ordinary straight-bet payout are two different parts of the same game.

Start with the straight bet, then look at whether it lands on a lucky number. If it does, the payout falls within that 50x–500x range. Otherwise, the straight-bet payout is 29:1. The range matters here, rather than just the top figure: 500x is the upper end of the lucky-number payouts, not the payout attached to every lucky number. And with 1–5 lucky numbers in a round, there is not a fixed count of five each time.

Live roulette with a real dealer is available at 29 of the 30 sites on our board. So real-dealer roulette appears across almost the entire board.

Where can you play roulette online from Norway?

If you want to look at gambling sites, see our board of 30 sites. For the Norwegian version, see our Norwegian roulette page. That is the route to take if you want to continue reading about roulette in Norwegian rather than English.

«Rulett» is the Norwegian word for roulette. If you are looking for roulette in Norwegian, that is the term to use.