Roulette call bets and neighbor bets

What does “top 5/10/20/30/40 bet” mean?

A standard five-number neighbor bet puts one straight-up chip on a center pocket and on the two wheel pockets on either side. For example, 17 with two neighbors each way is 2, 25, 17, 34 and 6 on the European wheel. A “top 10/20/30/40” label alone does not specify a standard call bet: to reproduce it, you need the selected pockets, the wheel and the stake per pocket. Ten selected numbers cost ten units if each gets one straight-up chip, whether they touch on the wheel or not. “Top 40” cannot mean 40 distinct pockets: the European wheel has 37 and the American wheel has 38.

Neighbors follow the wheel, not the numbered betting layout. The racetrack in Advanced mode lets you pick a center and shows the actual pockets. The American wheel has a different order and includes 00; the three named French calls below use the European wheel.

The three French calls

Why the wins differ

A one-unit split returns 18 units including stake, a corner returns 9, a trio returns 12, and a straight-up returns 36. Voisins uses two units on its trio and corner, so a trio hit returns 24 units (net +15 on nine staked); its other covered pockets return 18 (net +9). Tiers returns 18 on any of its 12 pockets (net +12 on six staked). Orphelins returns 36 on 1 (a straight-up) or 17 (two overlapping splits), and 18 on its six other covered pockets: net +31 or +13 on five staked.

For one-unit components, the expected losses per spin are 9/37, 6/37 and 5/37 units for Voisins, Tiers and Orphelins. Divide by each call’s nine-, six- or five-unit cost and all three lose 1/37, or 2.70%, of total wagered on average. These calls are sector coverage, not a payout exception. See the house edge derivation and the systems comparison for what this means across sessions.

Neighbor bet payout

Five one-unit straight-ups cost five units. Any of the five hits returns 36 units, net +31; the other 32 pockets lose five. The hit chance is 5/37 on a European wheel, and expected net is (5 × 31 − 32 × 5) / 37 = −5/37 units per spin. On an American wheel the same five straight-ups hit 5/38, with expected net −10/38 units, or 5.26% of the stake.

For 17 with two neighbors each way, the production wheel order selects 2, 25, 17, 34, 6. Widening the selection changes how often it hits and the amount at risk. It cannot change the expected loss per unit on a fair wheel.

Backtest in Engineer mode

Open Engineer mode, select a Lua strategy, and replace its source with the example below. Set a seed and spin count, then run it twice with the same settings: the pocket path and result repeat. This script matches the five-pocket 17 neighbor bet above, staking one unit on each pocket every spin.

strategy = {}

function strategy.bet(ctx)
  local pockets = { 2, 25, 17, 34, 6 }
  local bets = {}
  for _, pocket in ipairs(pockets) do
    bets[#bets + 1] = { type = "straight", pockets = { pocket }, amount = 1 }
  end
  return bets
end

To test a named call, return its components from the placement table instead: use split, corner, street for the 0–2–3 trio, or straight, with the listed pockets and amounts. The engine settles each component at its normal payout. Compare net per total wagered, not only the percentage of winning spins.