The American Roulette Wheel: Order, Pairs and the Two Zeros

The American roulette wheel at a glance

Look down on a double zero wheel from above and three things stand out. There are two green pockets. They are as far apart as they can be, one at the top and one at the bottom. And the colors take turns, red, black, red, black, everywhere except right next to the greens.

The ball spins one way around the rim while the wheel turns the other. When it settles, the pocket it lands in is the result, and every pocket is equally likely, a 1 in 38 shot or about 2.63%. The order of the numbers does not change those odds at all. It exists so that no stretch of the wheel leans toward one kind of bet.

American roulette wheel number order, clockwise

Here is the full sequence, set out so the pairing is easy to see. The middle column runs clockwise from 0 for half a lap, ending at 1. The next pocket after 1 is 00, and the right column continues clockwise from there, finishing at 2, which sits beside 0 again. Each row shows two pockets that face each other across the wheel.

Notice every row. The two numbers always differ by one, and the colors always differ too. That is the pairing rule at work. The standard sequence is the same on double zero wheels in general, so a printed list like this one matches the wheel at any regular table.

The opposite pairs rule and the two halves

Draw a line from 0 to 00 and the wheel splits into two halves of 18 numbers. Because every number faces its partner, the two halves mirror each other almost perfectly:

• Low and high. Each half has 9 numbers from 1 to 18 and 9 from 19 to 36.
• Colors. Each half has 9 red and 9 black.
• Totals. Add the numbers in either half and you get 333, exactly half of 666, the sum of 1 to 36.

This is the double zero wheel's way of spreading things out. A dealer who wants to describe a section of the wheel can name a few neighbors, but no region is packed with low numbers or one color.

Colors, odd and even on the double zero wheel

Red and black alternate all the way around, with two small breaks. On one side of 00 you find 1 and 27, both red. On one side of 0 you find 2 and 28, both black. The zeros sit in the gap where the alternation would otherwise collide.

Odd and even behave differently. After the first two pockets past each zero, they come in pairs: two evens, two odds, two evens, and so on. Starting from 0 you get 28 (even), 9 (odd), then 26 and 30 (both even), 11 and 7 (both odd), 20 and 32 (both even). The same pattern repeats on the 00 side with each partner number.

None of this changes a bet's chance. Eighteen pockets out of 38 are red, pattern or no pattern. The pattern only makes the wheel look even to the eye, which helps players trust it.

Wheel vs board: the American roulette table layout

The board does not follow the wheel. On the felt the numbers climb in counting order, three to a row, with the 0 and 00 boxes at the head. On the wheel those same numbers are scattered by the pairing rule.

Take 1. On the American roulette table layout it sits at the top left of the grid, next to 2 and 4. On the wheel it sits between 13 and 00, nowhere near 2, which is on the far side of the wheel. That is why a split on the felt (two numbers side by side) has nothing to do with neighbors on the wheel. Every box of the felt is mapped in the roulette table layout guide, and every bet you can make on it in American roulette.

American vs European roulette wheel compared

The single zero order is a different sequence entirely, so five pockets in a row on one wheel share almost nothing with five in a row on the other. The European roulette wheel page maps that sequence in the same detail.

Are all American roulette wheels the same?

In number order, yes: double zero wheels use the standard sequence shown above. What varies is the hardware. Wheels differ in size, in the shape of the dividers between pockets, in the rim and in materials. On a well kept wheel, none of that moves any pocket away from 1 in 38.

Casinos inspect wheels, level them and move them between tables, since wear or a slight tilt could, over time, nudge results off true. That is their job, not something a player can use. Licensed electronic games rely on either a real wheel or a random number generator that has passed testing, and Nevada's gaming regulator insists on that testing.