Roulette bets and payouts

A player who puts one dollar on each of the thirty-seven numbers of a European wheel has covered every possible result, and still loses a dollar on every spin, whatever comes out. The winning number pays 35 to 1, so the table hands back $36 (the $35 won and the dollar that was sitting on it) and keeps the other dollar, which is one thirty-seventh of the $37 wagered, or 2.70 per cent!

Every other bet on the layout is the same arrangement cut into smaller pieces, and we show it here piece by piece. The pieces go from the single number to the widest coverage to which players have given a name; the wheels themselves, and the rules that change their price, are compared on our roulette page.

Inside bets and outside bets

The layout is divided into two families. The "inside" bets are placed on the numbers or on the lines between them (a "split" on two adjacent numbers, a "street" on a row of three, a "corner" on a block of four, a "six-line" on two rows), while the "outside" bets are the boxes around the edge, which cover twelve numbers (a "dozen" or a "column") or eighteen, the "even-money" bets on red or black, odd or even, 1 to 18 or 19 to 36.

Zero belongs to no outside box, which is why red does not win half the time. It can be played on its own, in a split with 1, 2 or 3, in one of the two "trios" (0-1-2 and 0-2-3) or in the "first four" (0, 1, 2 and 3). Each of these is paid like the inside bet that covers the same count of numbers.

Every bet on a single-zero wheel

Bet	Numbers covered	Pays	Chance of winning	Expected loss
Straight-up (any single number, zero included)	1	35 to 1	2.70% (1 in 37)	2.70%
Split	2	17 to 1	5.41% (1 in 18.5)	2.70%
Street, or a trio with zero	3	11 to 1	8.11% (1 in 12.3)	2.70%
Corner, or the first four	4	8 to 1	10.81% (1 in 9.25)	2.70%
Six-line	6	5 to 1	16.22% (1 in 6.2)	2.70%
Dozen or column	12	2 to 1	32.43% (1 in 3.1)	2.70%
Red or black, odd or even, 1-18 or 19-36	18	1 to 1	48.65% (1 in 2.06)	2.70%

The proof, in two lines

The payouts follow a single rule, which our table hides in plain sight: a bet on n numbers pays 36 minus n, divided by n, to 1, so that when it wins it returns 36 divided by n stakes (the winnings plus the stake itself), and it wins n times in 37. Multiplying the two gives the average return of any bet, n/37 times 36/n, and the n cancels out.

Whatever the bet, then, the player gets back on average 36 stakes for every 37 wagered, which is 97.30 per cent, and the house keeps the thirty-seventh, the pocket of the zero that the payouts ignore. We consider it a line worth learning by heart, because it settles in advance every argument about which bet is "better".

The straight-up wins once in 37 spins and pays a lot, the even-money bet wins 18 times in 37 and pays little, and the two meet at the same 2.70 per cent, to the hundredth. The choice of a bet changes how often you win and how much. It never changes what the evening costs on average.

The widest coverage costs the same

The coverage that players call the "James Bond" spreads $200 over three bets: $140 on 19 to 36, $50 on the six-line 13 to 18 and $10 on zero. It covers 25 numbers out of 37 and so wins on about two spins in three (67.57 per cent). It travels under the name of a strategy, and we prefer to put it through the same sum as everything else.

If the ball lands between 19 and 36 the bet on that half returns $280 and the spin ends $80 up; on the six-line the $50 returns $300, which leaves the player $100 up, and on zero the $10 returns $360, $160 up. If the ball stops on one of the twelve numbers from 1 to 12, all three bets lose and the spin costs the whole $200, which happens about one spin in three (32.43 per cent).

The "James Bond" coverage, $200 a spin

Where the ball lands	Numbers	Returned by the table	Result of the spin
19 to 36	18	$280	+$80
13 to 18	6	$300	+$100
Zero	1	$360	+$160
1 to 12	12	$0	-$200
Average per spin	37	$194.59	-$5.41

The counts give the average without any algebra: eighteen spins at $80, six at $100 and one at $160 add up to $2,200 won, against $2,400 lost on the twelve losing spins, so a full cycle of 37 spins leaves $200 with the house, $5.41 a spin, which is exactly 2.70 per cent of the $200 staked!

The coverage changes the feeling of the evening (frequent small wins, rarer large losses) and leaves the price where every other bet puts it. The systems built on coverage, and the reason none of them escapes this sum, are the subject of our betting systems page.

The American exception

On a double-zero wheel the same payouts are spread over 38 pockets, so that every bet returns 36 stakes for every 38 wagered and costs 5.26 per cent, with one exception that runs the wrong way. The "five-number bet" (known as the "top line" or the "basket", on 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3) pays 6 to 1, wins 5 times in 38 and returns 35 stakes for every 38, which is a loss of 7.89 per cent, the worst price on a double-zero wheel.

The rule of the payouts explains the anomaly, since five numbers would need 6.2 to 1 to keep the price of the rest of the table, and the house rounds it down to 6, which is where the extra 2.63 points come from (7.89 against 5.26). Our advice is to leave the bet alone, and the double-zero wheel with it, if you have the choice.

Call bets on the racetrack

A roulette game online may also show a "racetrack" (an oval that shows the numbers in the order they follow on the wheel, not on the layout), from which you can place the "call bets" of the French tradition with one click. Each of them is a bundle of the ordinary bets of the table, spread over a sector of the wheel: "voisins du zéro" (the neighbours of zero), "tiers du cylindre" (the third of the wheel opposite zero), "orphelins" (the orphans, the numbers left over) and "jeu zéro" (the zero game).

The call bets of the racetrack, on a single-zero wheel

Call bet	Numbers covered	Chips	How the chips are placed
Voisins du zéro	17, from 22 to 25 across zero	9	2 on the trio 0-2-3, 2 on the corner 25-26-28-29, 1 each on the splits 4-7, 12-15, 18-21, 19-22 and 32-35
Tiers du cylindre	12, from 27 to 33 opposite zero	6	1 each on the splits 5-8, 10-11, 13-16, 23-24, 27-30 and 33-36
Orphelins	8, the two sectors left over	5	1 on number 1, 1 each on the splits 6-9, 14-17, 17-20 and 31-34
Jeu zéro	7, from 12 to 15 across zero	4	1 on number 26, 1 each on the splits 0-3, 12-15 and 32-35
Neighbours of a number	5, the number and two on each side	5	1 on each of the five numbers

Each call bet costs what its pieces cost, 2.70 per cent of the chips on the table, because each piece is a split, a trio, a corner or a single number from the first table, and grouping them by sector, which is all that a call bet does, changes nothing in the sum. They describe where the chips go; they say nothing about where the ball will land, and this is why we treat them as coverage, not as a strategy. The ball does not read the racetrack.

What the choice of bet really decides

Since the price is fixed, what a player chooses with the bet is the shape of the evening. A player with $100 who stakes $5 a spin on a single number has a 57.8 per cent chance of going twenty spins without a hit, and so of losing the whole $100. A player who stakes the same $5 on red loses all twenty spins in a row about once in 615,000 evenings.

Both have wagered $100, and both expect to lose $2.70 of it. That is, as we see it, the honest content of the choice, frequent small results or rare large ones, and if you want to see what a strategy can and cannot do with these bets, our strategies page takes the strategies one by one; the share kept by every other game of the casino is set out on the house edge page.

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By the Rand Casinos editorial team · Last updated October 2026 · Online since 2007