Red or Black Roulette: Odds, Payout and Which Numbers Are Which

Is roulette 50/50 on red or black?

Not quite. The wheel has 18 red pockets and 18 black pockets, and that part is a perfect split. The zero is what breaks it. It is green, it belongs to neither color, and when it lands every red bet and every black bet loses together.

• Single zero wheel: 18 ways to win, 19 ways to lose. Your chance is 48.65%.
• Double zero wheel: 18 ways to win, 20 ways to lose. Your chance is 47.37%.
• Triple zero wheel: 18 ways to win, 21 ways to lose, about 46.15%.

A true 50/50 bet that pays 1 to 1 would be break even. Red or black is not, and that small gap is the whole house edge on this bet. To place it, set your chip on the red or black diamond in the outside section. The dealer pays it right next to your chip.

How many black and red numbers are there?

Eighteen of each, plus the green zero or zeros. Red takes 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, then 12, 14, 16 and 18, then 19, 21, 23, 25 and 27, and finally 30, 32, 34 and 36. Black takes 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, then 11, 13, 15 and 17, then 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28, and finally 29, 31, 33 and 35.

Dealers learn a shortcut. From 1 to 10 and from 19 to 28, odd numbers are red and even numbers are black. From 11 to 18 and from 29 to 36 it flips: odd is black and even is red. So is 17 red or black? It falls in the 11 to 18 band and it is odd, which makes it black.

Around the wheel the colors alternate red, black, red, black all the way round, with the green pocket breaking the pattern. Our page on roulette wheel numbers shows the full order for both wheels.

Red or black roulette odds and payout on each wheel

The roulette black or red payout never changes: 1 to 1. Only the roulette odds, red or black, shift with the number of green pockets. What changes is how many green pockets you have to dodge.

Worked example. You put 10 units on black. If black lands, you win 10 and keep your 10, so 20 units come back. If red lands, you lose 10. If zero lands, you lose 10 on standard rules, or 5 under la partage. Run 100 such 10 unit bets and the expected shortfall is about 27 units with one zero and about 53 with two.

Should I bet red or black on roulette? Is one better?

Black or red in roulette makes no difference. Both have 18 pockets, both pay 1 to 1, and they sit evenly around the wheel. Any feeling that one is luckier comes from memory, not from the wheel.

Streaks fool people most. Each spin is independent, so a run of reds does not make black more likely next. Long runs are also more common than they feel. On a single zero wheel, one chosen color appears five times running about 2.72% of the time, so at a busy table you will see it most nights. Ten in a row is about 1 in 1,350, and the chance of red on the eleventh spin is still 48.65%.

Can you bet on black and red at the same time?

The table will let you, but it is a guaranteed loss machine. Put 1 unit on each color. On any red or black number one chip wins 1 and the other loses 1, so you break even. On zero both chips lose. You have paid 2 units every time green shows, and gained nothing on the other spins. Over 37 spins that is 2 units lost on 74 bet, the same 2.70% edge, with no chance of a winning session at all.

If you want to cover more of the wheel, better options exist, such as a color plus a column. The page on dozens and columns works through a few, and roulette outside bets covers the other even money boxes: odd, even, low and high.

Zero, la partage and the color bet

Is zero even or odd in roulette? For betting it is neither, and it is not a color either. That is why every even money bet loses on green under standard rules.

French tables soften this. Under la partage, half your color bet returns when zero lands. With en prison your bet stays on the table for one more spin, and comes back to you if it then wins. Either rule halves the edge on red and black to about 1.35%. A handful of Atlantic City tables with 0 and 00 use a comparable half back rule. The details are on roulette green and French roulette.

Common mistakes with red and black

• Waiting for a color to be due. The wheel has no record of earlier spins.
• Doubling after every loss. That pattern has a name, the Martingale, and it collects small wins often and loses big now and then; the Martingale page shows how a seven loss run ends it.
• Forgetting the zero. It is why the bet is 48.65%, not 50%.
• Betting both colors. It only pays the house on zero.

Before a session, even on the free simulator, decide a loss cap and a clock time to quit, and keep to both.