TABLE GAMES
Roulette: single zero, double zero and the only number that matters
Every bet on a roulette table costs the same percentage, so the only decision that changes your money is which wheel you sit at. Single zero keeps 2.70 cents on the dollar, double zero keeps 5.26, and no betting pattern moves either figure.
Assumes single-zero wheel, no la partage. Change the ruleset and every figure on this page moves.
Every bet, with what it costs
| Bet | Pays | House edge | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight up, one number | 35 to 1 | 2.7% | True odds are 36 to 1. There is the gap |
| Split, two numbers | 17 to 1 | 2.7% | Same edge, smaller swings |
| Street, three numbers | 11 to 1 | 2.7% | Same edge again |
| Corner, four numbers | 8 to 1 | 2.7% | Still the same edge |
| Column or dozen | 2 to 1 | 2.7% | Covers twelve numbers, costs the same |
| Red, black, odd, even | even money | 2.7% | Halves the table, does not halve the edge |
| Any bet on a double-zero wheel | as above | 5.26% | One extra pocket, nearly double the cost |
| Even money with la partage | even money | 1.35% | Half back when zero hits. Rare and worth finding |
Cheapest and most expensive on the same table are 1.35% and 5.26%. Nothing about the room changes between those two rows; the only difference is which one you tapped.
What an hour costs
Stake, times rounds an hour, times the edge. That is the whole formula and pace is the term people forget: the same game dealt twice as fast costs twice as much. The full table across every game is in what an hour costs.
The one decision
Thirty-seven pockets on a European wheel. A straight-up win pays thirty-five to one when the odds against it are thirty-six to one, and that single missing unit is the house edge, expressed once and applied to every bet on the layout in exactly the same proportion.
That is why nothing you do at the table matters. Cover thirty-five numbers and you will win almost every spin and lose 2.70% of your staking. Cover one and you will lose almost every spin and lose 2.70% of your staking. The variance changes enormously. The expected cost does not move at all.
An American wheel adds a double zero. Thirty-eight pockets, same thirty-five to one payout, and the edge nearly doubles to 5.26%. If a lobby offers both and the American table has a bigger button, that is a design decision rather than a coincidence.
Systems, and why they keep coming back
Martingale doubles after a loss so the next win recovers everything. It works, right up until the point where a run of eight blacks meets either the table maximum or your balance, and both of those exist for the same reason.
Fibonacci, d'Alembert, Labouchère: all of them are ways of arranging bets that each cost 2.70%. Arrange losses however you like and the sum is the same, because addition does not care about the order. The appeal is not mathematical, it is that a system converts a boring hour into a project.
The genuinely useful variant is la partage, where an even-money bet gets half back when zero lands. That halves the edge on those bets to 1.35%, and it is a rule printed on the table rather than a pattern you impose on it.
What an hour costs
Sixty spins at C$5 across the felt is C$300 of staking. On a single-zero wheel that is about eight dollars an hour. On a double-zero wheel it is nearly sixteen, and the wheel looks the same from a phone at arm's length.
Auto-roulette with the same chip stack puts C$1,000 through in an hour. Same percentage, three and a bit times the bill. Speed is the only lever on this game that you actually control.
On a phone
- A phone racetrack is small and the numbers are two millimetres apart. Use the bet-type panel rather than the felt unless the build offers a pinch zoom that survives a rotation.
- Live wheels run about sixty spins an hour, which is a third of the pace of a blackjack table and roughly a quarter of the pace of an auto-roulette build.
- Auto-roulette hits two hundred spins an hour. The edge is identical. The cost per hour is more than three times higher, and that is the entire difference between the two products.
- The re-bet button is one tap and the chip stack persists. Two accidental taps on a repeat bet is a real way to lose track of what is on the felt.
Streamed versions on the board
Where the tables are
40 of the operators on our board carry live tables, 5900 between them. More tables mostly means a shorter wait at your stake level rather than a better product.
Roulette questions people actually type
What is the house edge in roulette?
2.7% at single-zero wheel, no la partage. That is C$2.70 for every C$100 staked, and the worst bet on the same felt costs 5.26%.
Which online roulette wheel should I sit at?
The single zero one, every time. Thirty-seven pockets costs 2.70% and thirty-eight costs 5.26%, and from arm's length on a phone the two tables look identical.
That is the only decision on the game that changes your money. Everything after it is a preference about how the losing feels.
Is auto-roulette worse than a live wheel?
The percentage is the same. The pace is not, and pace is what the percentage multiplies.
A live wheel gets through about sixty spins an hour. An auto build gets through two hundred. Same chip stack, same edge, more than three times the bill at the end of the hour.
Do roulette systems work?
No, and the reason is arithmetic rather than cynicism. Every bet on the layout costs 2.70%, so any sequence of them costs 2.70% of whatever you staked in total. Addition does not care what order you did it in.
The one thing that genuinely helps is a rule printed on the table rather than a pattern you bring to it: la partage gives half an even money bet back when zero lands, which halves the cost of those bets to 1.35%.