Roulette odds and payouts: every bet, both wheels
Every roulette bet pays as though the wheel had 36 pockets. A European wheel has 37 and an American wheel has 38. The missing pocket is the house edge: 2.70% or 5.26% of every stake, on every bet but one. Below are the odds for each bet on each wheel, derived from the layout and checked against the simulator’s own payout rules.
Every bet, probability and payout
Probability is pockets covered divided by pockets on the wheel. “True odds” is what the bet would have to pay for the house to make nothing.
| Bet | Covers | Pays | Win chance, European | Win chance, American | Edge EU | Edge US |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Straight up | one number | 35:1 | 2.70% (1 in 37) | 2.63% (1 in 38) | 2.70% | 5.26% |
| Split | two adjacent numbers | 17:1 | 5.41% (1 in 19) | 5.26% (1 in 19) | 2.70% | 5.26% |
| Street | a row of three | 11:1 | 8.11% (1 in 12) | 7.89% (1 in 13) | 2.70% | 5.26% |
| Corner | a block of four | 8:1 | 10.81% (1 in 9.3) | 10.53% (1 in 9.5) | 2.70% | 5.26% |
| First four | 0, 1, 2, 3 | 8:1 | 10.81% (1 in 9.3) | — | 2.70% | — |
| Top line | 0, 00, 1, 2, 3 | 6:1 | — | 13.16% (1 in 7.6) | — | 7.89% |
| Six line | two rows, six numbers | 5:1 | 16.22% (1 in 6.2) | 15.79% (1 in 6.3) | 2.70% | 5.26% |
| Dozen / column | twelve numbers | 2:1 | 32.43% (1 in 3.1) | 31.58% (1 in 3.2) | 2.70% | 5.26% |
| Red / black, odd / even, 1–18 / 19–36 | eighteen numbers | 1:1 | 48.65% (1 in 2.1) | 47.37% (1 in 2.1) | 2.70% | 5.26% |
Columns pay the same as dozens. First four exists only on single-zero layouts; top line (the “basket”) only on double-zero. Each row is tested against the simulator’s rulebook pocket by pocket.
Same edge, different ride
On a European wheel, a dollar on red and a dollar on a single number both lose 2.7 cents on average. They feel nothing alike. Red wins 48.6% of spins and swings by about $1 per spin; a single number wins 2.7% and swings by about $5.84. The bigger the swing, the longer luck can hide the edge: about 1,368 spins on red before the expected loss outgrows one standard deviation of luck, and about 46,656 on a single number. The house edge page has the full table.
Roulette house edge: where 2.70% and 5.26% come from
Every bet on a European wheel pays as if there were 36 pockets when there are 37, so each one returns −1/37 of its stake on average: a 2.70% house edge. The American wheel's second zero raises it to 2/38, or 5.26%. No betting system changes it.
Red in a rowWhat are the odds of red 10 times in a row in roulette?
On a European wheel, red 10 times in a row has a probability of 0.074%, about 1 in 1,347. After those ten reds, the chance of red on the next spin is still 18/37, or 48.65%.
Chances of winningWhat are your chances of winning at roulette after n spins?
It depends on how long you play and what you bet. Flat-betting red on a European wheel, the exact chance of being ahead is 48.6% after one spin, 35.5% after 100, and 18.8% after 1,000. The edge is small per spin and certain over many.
Sleeping numbersHow many spins until every roulette number comes up?
On average 155.5 spins on a European wheel (160.7 on American) before every number has come up at least once. In any 37 spins, about 13.4 numbers don't appear at all.
What the odds don’t say
These are single-spin facts. A betting system strings spins together and changes how often a session ends ahead and how badly it can end, never the edge per dollar. The systems pages run twenty of them on the same seeded spins to show exactly that. And all of it assumes a fair wheel. A physically biased one is a different problem, covered on Physics.