A player who places $20 on red for a hundred spins sends $2,000 across the table, and what that evening costs on average is settled before the ball is launched, by the choice of the wheel. On an American wheel, with its two zeros, the expected loss is $105.26; on a European wheel with a single zero it is $54.05, and on a table that applies the French rule called "la partage" (half of an even-money bet comes back when the ball lands on zero) it falls to $27.03, about a quarter of the first figure for the same bets at the same pace!
This page is about the wheels and their prices, which is where the money is decided. The bets, one by one with their payouts and probabilities, are set out on our page of roulette bets, and the limits of any strategy are the subject of the strategies page, since we prefer to answer each question where it belongs.
Three wheels, and what each one keeps
The European wheel has thirty-seven pockets (the numbers from 1 to 36 and a single green zero), but its payouts are calculated as if the zero did not exist, and a single number, the "straight-up", pays 35 to 1 where a fair price would be 36 to 1. On average, then, the house keeps one stake in thirty-seven, 2.70 per cent of everything wagered whatever the bet, and this share is the "house edge" (what a game keeps of each bet over the long run).
The American wheel adds a second green pocket, the double zero ("00"), and leaves the payouts where they were, which brings the share kept to two stakes in thirty-eight, 5.26 per cent, almost twice as much for a game that looks the same on the screen. Its own "five-number bet" (0, 00, 1, 2 and 3) is the only one in the game priced worse than the others, at 7.89 per cent.
In our view nothing justifies a double-zero table when a single-zero one is open in the same "lobby" (the page that lists a casino's games). The 00 pocket is printed on the layout.
A third version has reached some casino floors: the Las Vegas Advisor dates the first wheel with a triple zero ("000") to the Venetian in October 2016, and has followed it to other casinos on the Strip since. With thirty-nine pockets and the usual payouts it keeps three stakes in thirty-nine, 7.69 per cent. We see no reason to sit at one, on a casino floor or on a screen.
| Wheel | Pockets | Share kept on most bets | Share kept on even-money bets |
|---|---|---|---|
| European, single zero | 37 | 2.70% | 2.70% |
| European wheel with la partage | 37 | 2.70% | 1.35% |
| European wheel with en prison | 37 | 2.70% | 1.35% to 1.39% |
| American, double zero | 38 | 5.26% (five-number bet 7.89%) | 5.26% |
| Triple zero | 39 | 7.69% | 7.69% |
The French rules, and the bets they cover
Two French rules lower the price of the "even-money" bets alone (red or black, odd or even, 1 to 18 or 19 to 36). With la partage an even-money bet loses only half of its stake when the ball lands on zero, so the house collects, on average, half a stake once every thirty-seven spins, and the edge on those bets falls to one in seventy-four, 1.35 per cent.
With "en prison" the stake is not halved but held on the table for one more spin, and returned if that spin wins. The result is 1.35 per cent in the version that lets the player choose between losing half and leaving the bet in prison, and slightly more (1.37 to 1.39 per cent) in the stricter versions, where a second zero sends the bet deeper into prison or loses it outright. The name of the game decides nothing.
A table called "French" is worth its price, in our reading, only if its help panel says what happens to an even-money bet on zero, and a player who prefers single numbers gains nothing from the rule in any case. If you play red or black, it is the cheapest wheel in our table; if you play numbers, a plain single-zero wheel costs you exactly the same.
Where to play roulette
One licensed operator, its regulator and its platform, for a player who wants to read a wheel's rules before the first spin.
Yukon Gold Casino
KahnawakeKahnawake Gaming Commission licence 00972, Fresh Horizons Limited; owner Apollo Entertainment Ltd (Malta)
18+ · Sponsored link · Terms on the operator's site
A random number generator or a real wheel
Online roulette comes in two forms, and they are alike only in their arithmetic. An "RNG" game (from random number generator) draws each result in software, and the wheel on the screen is an animation of the number drawn; a "live" game shows a real wheel, a real ball and a dealer, filmed in a studio and streamed to the player, who bets on the screen while a countdown runs.
The house edge is identical in the two cases, because it depends on the pockets and the payouts and not on the way the result is produced, so if you pick live roulette because it seems more honest, you pay the same 2.70 per cent on a single-zero table.
What changes is the pace (a dealer completes a few dozen spins an hour, an RNG wheel as many as the button allows), and since an hour costs the edge times everything wagered in it, the slower table is the cheaper one at the same stake. We work out both speeds on the house edge page, and the studios, limits and game shows on the live casino page.
Variants that change the payouts
Some variants change the payouts themselves, and they deserve a closer reading than the classic wheels. One family is the "multiplier" roulettes, and we take our example from the page of its "provider" (the company that makes the game and supplies it to casinos): in Evolution's "Lightning Roulette", according to the game page on games.evolution.com (read on 16 October 2026), "Non-multiplied Straight Up Bets pay 29:1", while in each round between one and five "Lucky Numbers" are struck and pay between 50 and 500 times the stake; all the other bets pay as on a standard wheel.
The arithmetic of the change is short. A single number paid at 29 to 1 instead of 35 to 1 returns, when no multiplier lands on it, thirty stakes for every thirty-seven wagered (81.08 per cent), and the multipliers exist to give the difference back, gathered into rare and large wins. Whether they give back all of it, or a little less, is stated as an RTP (the "return to player") in the game's own information panel, which is the only place where we would read it.
A player who never bets on single numbers is not touched by any of this, since the other bets keep their usual payouts. For a player who does, the evening changes shape, with fewer small wins on the numbers and, once in a while, a very large one.
Where the game prints its rules
Every licensed game carries its rules with it, and in some markets the requirement is written down. In Great Britain the technical standards of the Gambling Commission (RTS 3, in the version updated on 7 May 2024) ask that the rules, the payouts and either the house edge, the RTP or the probability of winning be "easily available" before the customer commits to gamble, and the guidance names the game's own "help" or "how to play" pages as a place for them.
Four lines of that panel decide the price, and we would advise reading them before the first bet: the number of zeros, the payout of a single number (35 to 1 on a classic wheel, less on a multiplier game), the rule applied to even-money bets when zero comes up, and the stated RTP, which on a single-zero wheel without special rules should read 97.30 per cent (thirty-six divided by thirty-seven).
The "table limits" (the minimum and the maximum stake) belong to the same reading, because they decide how long your budget lasts at a given stake and where any "progression" (a system that raises or lowers the stake after each result) has to stop.
Systems, and the one decision that counts
No betting system moves any of these figures, and the reason fits in one sentence: the expected loss of a run of bets is the total of the expected losses of the single bets, so changing their order or their size changes the shape of the evening, never the share kept. The demonstration, family by family and with the systems that are sold under a name, is on the betting systems page.
The choice of the wheel is the decision that does move the price. It is taken in the lobby. The player of our first paragraph, who sends $2,000 across the table on red over an evening, expects to lose $105.26 on the double zero, $54.05 on the single zero and $27.03 under la partage, a difference that is worth the ten seconds a help panel takes to read!
Three more casinos we list
Three operators, each with what we could read of its licence, for a reader who wants to compare before choosing.
LegendPlay
Licence not confirmedNo readable page of the site names a licence or an operator (16 October 2026)
18+ · Sponsored link
Miami Club Casino
No licence statedNeither the footer nor the terms of the site name a gaming licence or an operating company (read on 16 October 2026)
18+ · Sponsored link
Olympusbet
Licence not confirmedAn Anjouan licence (registry) and a Curaçao licence of New Era B.V. (third-party listing) are both reported; neither could be read on the site
18+ · Sponsored link
Questions
Which roulette wheel has the lowest house edge?
A single-zero wheel with la partage or en prison, on even-money bets only, where the edge is 1.35 per cent (a few hundredths more under the stricter forms of en prison); for every other bet, any single-zero wheel at 2.70 per cent.
Why is the house edge higher on American roulette?
The double zero adds a thirty-eighth pocket while the payouts stay the same, so the house keeps two stakes in thirty-eight, 5.26 per cent, nearly twice the European figure.
Is live roulette cheaper than RNG roulette?
The edge is the same on both, set by the zeros and the payouts; live tables are slower, so the same stake costs less per hour.
What does la partage mean?
It means "the sharing": when the ball lands on zero, an even-money bet loses only half its stake, which halves the edge on those bets to 1.35 per cent.
Does Lightning Roulette pay less than standard roulette?
On a single number without a multiplier it pays 29 to 1 instead of 35 to 1, according to the provider's page; the multipliers on one to five numbers a round are meant to make up the difference, and the game's panel states its RTP.
