The Best Way to Play Roulette, Told Straight

Why no single bet is the best bet in roulette

Casinos set every payout on a wheel to the same price. You can check any of them by imagining a single zero wheel that lands on each pocket once in 37 spins, with 1 unit bet each time.

• Corner: 4 wins at 8 units is 32. 33 losses cost 33. You end 1 unit down.
• Six line: 6 wins at 5 units is 30. 31 losses cost 31. Down 1 again.
• Black: 18 wins, 19 losses. Down 1 once more.

One unit out of 37 bet is the 2.70% edge, and no bet on that wheel escapes it. On a double zero wheel every bet loses 2 units per 38, which is 5.26%, with one exception covered below. So the useful question is not which box to put a chip in. It is which table to sit at, and how much swing you can live with.

The best odds in roulette, ranked

Here every option is put in order of what it costs. The last column is the average loss for every 100 units you put through, the cleanest way to compare.

On a French table, dozens, columns and inside bets stay at 2.70%. The discount applies only to the six even money boxes, because those are the bets la partage and en prison protect when zero lands. The French roulette guide explains both rules, and roulette green shows exactly what happens to each bet on a zero.

What is the safest bet in roulette?

If safest means the bet that wins most often, it is an even money box, meaning a color, odd or even, or either half of the board. Those come up 18 times per 37 spins with one zero, 18 per 38 with two. Still under half, because zero belongs to none of those groups. Full color math lives on red or black.

You can win more spins by covering more numbers, but each win then pays less and each miss costs more. Two dozens cover 24 numbers, landing about 64.86% of spins with one zero. Each hit nets 1 unit on 2 staked, and each miss loses both. A Romanosky layout covers 32 numbers, winning 1 unit on most spins and losing 8 units on the five it misses. Both still lose 2.70% of everything bet, as the Romanosky page shows.

Pick your swing: the best way to bet on roulette for you

Since the price is fixed, the real decision is variance, which means how far your results wander from the average. I worked out one standard deviation for 100 spins at 1 unit each, European wheel. Every row shares the same expected cost, 2.7 units. The swing differs a lot.

A small bankroll lasts longest on the even money boxes, so you get more spins for the same cost. A reader who wants a shot at a big session accepts the straight up's long droughts. Neither is wrong, as long as you know which one you picked. For bankroll sizing see roulette with a small bankroll.

Best roulette bet combinations, checked

Combining bets can shape the ride, but it never stacks the odds in your favor. Take a mix many players like: 1 unit on low (1 to 18) and 1 unit on the third dozen (25 to 36). It covers 30 numbers, which sounds great.

• Ball on 1 to 18: low wins 1, the dozen loses 1. Net 0, and that happens on 18 numbers.
• Ball on 25 to 36: the dozen wins 2, low loses 1. Net plus 1, on 12 numbers.
• Ball on 19 to 24 or zero: both lose. Net minus 2, on 7 numbers.

Over 37 spins that is 12 units won and 14 lost, so you are down 2 units on 74 units bet: 2.70% again. Covering 30 numbers bought you a lot of break even spins, not an edge. More combinations are tested on dozens and columns and the strategy chart.

The best way to play roulette to win: what actually helps

Nothing on this list makes roulette a winning game, because nothing can. These are the levers that really move your results.

1. Play single zero. Halving the edge does more than any system ever claims to.
2. Hunt for a table posting la partage or en prison if you bet even money. That brings the cost down to about 1.35%.
3. Bet smaller, play fewer spins. Your average cost is simply the edge times your total action. 200 units through a single zero wheel cost about 5.4 units on average; 50 units cost about 1.35.
4. Decide when to stop before you start. A win goal and a loss limit do not change the math, but they stop one bad hour from becoming a bad night.

Betting systems that raise stakes after a loss just reshuffle when the wins and losses arrive. You can watch that happen on the testers linked from betting systems, and how to beat roulette lays out the math plainly.

Bets and tables worth skipping

• The five number bet. Five pockets out of 38 deserve 6.6 to 1, yet the payout on zero, double zero and 1 through 3 is just 6 to 1, so this one bet costs 7.89%.
• Triple zero wheels. A third green pocket pushes every bet to 7.69%. See triple zero roulette.
• Double zero when single zero is nearby. Same game, nearly double the cost. In Las Vegas single zero tables exist but often carry higher minimums.
• Chasing a number because it is hot or cold. Earlier spins carry no information about later ones.

For the whole menu of bets with their payouts, start at roulette bets.