Roulette Rules Explained Simply — Flow, Bets and Payouts

Roulette has fewer rules than almost any other casino game — yet most players lose more than they need to because they pick the wrong wheel or bets. This guide covers the rules in the order they actually matter at the table.

How a round works. The dealer opens betting, players place chips, the ball is spun and the dealer calls "no more bets". The ball lands, the winning number is marked with the dolly, losing bets are cleared and winners paid. Only then may chips be removed from the layout.

The wheel: 37 or 38 pockets. European roulette has 37 pockets (0–36), American roulette 38 (with an extra double zero). That single pocket nearly doubles the house edge: 2.70% versus 5.26%. There is no situation where American roulette is the better choice.

Inside bets and payouts. Straight up (one number) pays 35:1. Split (two) 17:1. Street (three) 11:1. Corner (four) 8:1. Six line (six) 5:1. All inside bets carry the same 2.70% edge — payouts are always set exactly one number short of fair.

Outside bets and payouts. Red/black, odd/even and 1–18/19–36 pay 1:1 with an 18/37 = 48.65% hit rate. Dozens and columns pay 2:1 at 12/37 = 32.43%. Same house edge, different variance.

La Partage and En Prison. Some European tables return half your even-money stake when zero hits (La Partage) or lock it for one spin (En Prison). That halves the edge on even-money bets to 1.35% — the best roulette table mathematics allows. It is in the table rules, not the marketing.

Why systems cannot beat the rules. Every spin is independent. No betting pattern changes 2.70%. We work through why Martingale, Fibonacci and the rest fail in Roulette systems: the mathematical truth.

Probabilities at a glance. A full table of every bet with hit probability, payout and expected loss per €100 is in our roulette probabilities table. The house edge calculator turns that into an hourly figure for your own stake level.

Every bet in one overview. Straight up 1 number · 35:1 · 2.70% hit rate. Split 2 · 17:1 · 5.41%. Street 3 · 11:1 · 8.11%. Corner 4 · 8:1 · 10.81%. Six line 6 · 5:1 · 16.22%. Dozen/column 12 · 2:1 · 32.43%. Even money 18 · 1:1 · 48.65%. Every row carries the same 2.70% expected loss on a single-zero wheel.

Announced (call) bets. Many European tables let you bet wheel sectors instead of layout fields: Voisins du Zéro (17 numbers around zero, 9 chips), Tiers du Cylindre (12 opposite numbers, 6 chips), Orphelins (the remaining 8, 5 chips) and Finales (all numbers sharing a final digit). They look advanced but are just bundles of ordinary inside bets — the edge stays 2.70%.

Reading table limits. The sign lists minimum and maximum separately for inside and outside bets, e.g. "Min €2 / Max €100 inside, Max €2,000 outside". The even-money maximum is exactly why doubling systems break in practice: after seven to nine losses you hit the ceiling before the loss can be recovered.

The five most common rule mistakes. (1) Sitting at an American wheel because a seat was free. (2) Touching chips after the ball is released. (3) Ignoring La Partage and playing a table without a zero rule. (4) Believing a number is "due" — the gambler's fallacy, unpacked in Why do I always lose at roulette?. (5) Letting winnings ride without a stop limit set in advance.

Table etiquette. Cash is not staked directly; you exchange it for colour chips valid only at that table, one colour per player so bets stay attributable. When you leave, swap colour chips back for value chips — the cashier will not accept colour chips.

Bottom line. The rules take five minutes. What matters: a European wheel, ideally with La Partage, no betting systems, and a budget set before the first spin.