How to Play Roulette: Bets, Odds and Payouts Explained

Roulette is a wheel game in which you predict where a ball will come to rest, by placing bets that cover the pocket it lands in. A spin is settled the moment the ball settles: every bet covering that number is paid at its published rate, and every bet that does not is lost. Nothing you do during the spin changes the outcome, and no previous result affects the next one.

How to play roulette is mostly a matter of learning the layout, because all the choice happens before the wheel turns. The roulette rules never change, the payout for each bet type is fixed, and the only real decision is which part of the layout to cover and with how much. For beginners the useful starting point is that one number on the wheel decides the maths of the whole game, and that number is the zero.

Betzy carries 20+ roulette titles, counting both software tables and live dealer tables, including European Roulette, American Roulette, French Roulette Classic and Zoom Roulette. Each opens in Gold Coin mode, which is entertainment only and costs nothing, so you can learn the layout spin by spin before a Sweeps Coin is involved. Create a free Betzy account to place your opening bet in Gold Coin mode.

The wheel, the ball and the betting layout

A roulette wheel holds either 37 or 38 numbered pockets, and which of the two decides the whole game's maths. A single-zero wheel carries 1 to 36 plus a single 0, giving 37 pockets. A double-zero wheel adds a 00, giving 38. The numbers run in a deliberately non-sequential order around the rim so that reds, blacks, highs and lows are distributed evenly, which is why the wheel order and the roulette table layout look nothing alike. The layout itself is a grid: the numbers sit in three columns of twelve for individual bets, with boxes along the outside for the broader groupings.

Why the zero pocket decides everything

The zero pocket is the house edge, in a single number. Every payout in roulette is calculated as though only 36 numbers existed, so the zero is the gap between the true odds of a bet and what that bet actually pays. A wheel carrying a single zero produces a house edge of 2.70%, while the extra pocket on a double-zero wheel widens it to 5.26% (William Hill). Both figures hold for every bet on the table, inside or outside, which is why no choice of bet type improves your position and the choice of wheel does.

The words you will see at the table

Core components of a roulette table

A roulette table is two surfaces working together: a wheel that produces the result and a betting layout that records what each player has backed. Every area on the layout stands for a different slice of the wheel, and the size of that slice sets the payout, so reading the table is mostly a matter of recognising which area a chip is sitting in. Five parts of the table carry the information you need.

• The wheel and its numbered pockets

• The inside grid of individual numbers

• The outside boxes for red, black, odd, even, dozens and columns

• The racetrack oval used for called bets

• The dealer's marker that locks the winning number

The wheel order, and why it is not sequential

The numbers on a roulette wheel run in a deliberately scrambled order, and the scrambling is the point. Reds and blacks alternate around the rim, high and low numbers are spread so that no arc is weighted towards either, and consecutive numbers sit on opposite sides. The result is that no physical section of the wheel offers a better or worse set of outcomes than any other.

Single-zero wheel, clockwise: 0, 32, 15, 19, 4, 21, 2, 25, 17, 34, 6, 27, 13, 36, 11, 30, 8, 23, 10, 5, 24, 16, 33, 1, 20, 14, 31, 9, 22, 18, 29, 7, 28, 12, 35, 3, 26

Double-zero wheel, clockwise: 0, 28, 9, 26, 30, 11, 7, 20, 32, 17, 5, 22, 34, 15, 3, 24, 36, 13, 1, 00, 27, 10, 25, 29, 12, 8, 19, 31, 18, 6, 21, 33, 16, 4, 23, 35, 14, 2

On the double-zero wheel the two zeros face each other, and numbers are arranged in consecutive pairs across the rim, which is a different scheme from the single-zero layout rather than the same wheel with a pocket added. This order is also why the betting grid and the wheel look unrelated: the grid groups numbers for betting convenience, while the wheel separates them. Called bets exist to bridge that gap, letting you back an arc of the wheel using the grid underneath.

How does a round of roulette work?

A round of roulette follows the same short sequence every time, and for beginners that fixed order is the fastest route into the game. All betting happens before the wheel turns, so there is no decision to make once the ball is in motion. The dealer closes betting with a spoken call and marks the winning number before paying anything, which is the point at which the round is settled. Five steps carry a spin from your opening chip to the payout.

• Place your chips while the table is open for betting

• Wait for the call that closes betting

• Watch the wheel spin and the ball settle into a pocket

• See the dealer mark the winning number

• Collect on any bet that covers it and lose the rest

Inside bets, and what they pay

Inside bets cover individual numbers or small groups of adjoining numbers on the grid, and they pay the most because they cover the least. Roulette bets explained at their simplest come down to this trade: a straight-up bet on one number pays 35 to 1 against true odds of 36 to 1 on a single-zero wheel, and that one-pocket shortfall is where the house edge comes from. Every inside bet prices on the same principle, so spreading chips across several of them changes your chance of hitting without changing the edge. Five inside bets make up the group.

• Straight up: one number, paying 35 to 1

• Split: two adjoining numbers, paying 17 to 1

• Street: a row of three, paying 11 to 1

• Corner: four numbers meeting at a point, paying 8 to 1

• Six line: two adjoining rows, paying 5 to 1

Outside bets, and what they pay

Outside bets cover large blocks of the layout and pay correspondingly less, which makes them the slower, steadier half of the table. The even-money outside bets in roulette, red or black, odd or even, high or low, each cover 18 of the 37 or 38 pockets and pay 1 to 1, so a 100-coin bet on red returns 100 in winnings plus the stake. Those bets win just under half the time rather than exactly half, because the zero belongs to none of them. Five outside bets make up the group.

• Red or black: close to half the wheel, paying 1 to 1

• Odd or even: the same shape, paying 1 to 1

• High or low: 1 to 18 or 19 to 36, paying 1 to 1

• Dozens: twelve numbers in a block, paying 2 to 1

• Columns: twelve numbers down the layout, paying 2 to 1

What are called bets and the racetrack?

Called bets are wheel-sector bets, placed on the oval racetrack beside the main grid rather than on the numbers themselves. They exist because numbers sitting next to each other on the wheel are scattered across the betting layout, so backing an arc by hand would mean placing six or nine chips individually. The racetrack does it in one action.

Each called bet is a fixed bundle of ordinary inside bets, which means the payouts and the house edge are unchanged. The racetrack is a convenience, not a better price. Five bundles are standard on a single-zero table.

Voisins du Zero covers the arc around the zero, Tiers du Cylindre covers the third of the wheel opposite it, and Orphelins covers the two short arcs left over, so the three together account for every pocket exactly once. A chip count matters when you read a stake: a 9-chip Voisins bet at one unit a chip stakes nine units, not one.

Roulette payouts and odds

Roulette payouts and odds are fixed by the wheel's design, and the table below holds every one of them. Each payout is calculated as if the wheel carried 36 pockets, so the published price is always one step short of the true odds, and that shortfall is the house edge. Read the two right-hand columns together: the payout never changes between wheels, but the probability does, which is the whole of the difference between a single-zero and a double-zero game.

The house edge that falls out of this table is 2.70% on a single-zero wheel and 5.26% on a double-zero wheel, and it applies to every row in the table alike (William Hill). A straight-up bet and a red-black bet carry the same cost per coin staked over time; what differs between them is how violently the result swings.

What 100 spins actually costs

The house edge is a rate, not a prediction, and turning it into a figure takes two inputs: the stake per spin and the number of spins. At one unit a spin the arithmetic is direct, because the edge is the share of every staked unit the game keeps.

Two things follow from the right-hand columns. One is that the choice of table matters more than any decision made at it: moving from an American wheel to a French even-money bet cuts the expected cost of the same session by roughly three quarters. The other is that these are averages over a long run, and 100 spins is not a long run. A single session swings far wider than the figures above in both directions, which is exactly what variance means.

European, American and French roulette, compared

The three main roulette variants play by the same procedure and differ in two things only: how many zero pockets the wheel carries, and what happens to an even-money bet when the ball lands in one. Those two differences move the house edge from 1.35% at the best to 5.26% at the worst, a spread wide enough to matter more than any betting decision a player makes. Betzy carries 20+ roulette titles across these variants in its Table category, and each opens in Gold Coin mode for nothing.

European Roulette

European Roulette runs on a 37-pocket wheel with one zero, which fixes the house edge at 2.70% on every bet (William Hill). It is the standard most online roulette is built on, and it is the better of the two common wheels by a wide margin: the same bet costs a player roughly half as much here as on a double-zero layout. Betzy lists European Roulette and a VIP European Roulette table, along with a seasonal European Christmas Roulette.

American Roulette

American Roulette adds a second zero pocket, the 00, bringing the wheel to 38 pockets and the house edge to 5.26% (William Hill). Payouts are identical to the European game, so the extra pocket is pure cost: a straight-up bet still pays 35 to 1 while the chance of hitting it drops. Choose this wheel for the layout or the pace, not for the price. Betzy lists American Roulette and a VIP American Roulette table.

French Roulette Classic

French Roulette Classic uses the same 37-pocket single-zero wheel as the European game and adds a rule that applies when the ball lands on zero. Under la partage, an even-money bet loses only half its stake to a zero rather than all of it, which halves the house edge on those bets to 1.35%. Some tables apply en prison instead, holding the stake for one further spin rather than returning half. Either rule makes French Roulette the cheapest way to back red, black, odd, even, high or low, and it leaves inside bets at the usual 2.70%. Betzy lists French Roulette Classic in its Table category.

Zoom Roulette and the VIP tables

Zoom Roulette and the VIP tables change the experience rather than the maths. Zoom Roulette speeds the round up and tightens the camera on the wheel, which suits a player who wants more spins per session. The VIP tables raise the betting limits for larger stakes. Neither adjusts the pocket count or the payout schedule, so the house edge on each is whichever wheel it runs: 2.70% for the European table and 5.26% for the American one. Betzy lists Zoom Roulette, VIP European Roulette and VIP American Roulette in its Table category.

La partage and en prison, worked through

Two French rules cut the house edge on even-money bets in half, and they are the only rules in roulette that change the price of a bet rather than its shape. Both apply when the ball lands on zero and you are holding a bet on red, black, odd, even, high or low.

La partage returns half the stake. Back red for 10 units, the ball lands on zero, and 5 units come back rather than nothing. Across 37 spins staking 10 units on red each time, you stake 370, win on 18 spins for 180 in profit, lose 180 on the 18 black spins, and lose 5 rather than 10 on the single zero. The expected loss falls from 10 units to 5, which halves the edge from 2.70% to 1.35%.

En prison holds the stake instead. The 10 units stay on red for one further spin: if red lands, the stake comes back with no winnings; if it does not, the stake is lost. Over many spins the two rules settle at the same 1.35%, and they differ only in whether you get half your money now or a free shot at all of it.

Neither rule touches inside bets. A straight-up bet on a French table still carries the 2.70% edge, so the saving applies only to red, black, odd, even, high and low.

Roulette strategy, and what it cannot do

No roulette betting system changes the house edge, because each spin is independent of the one before it and the payout schedule never moves. What a system changes is the shape of your results: it redistributes variance, trading the frequency of small wins against the size of the eventual loss. The table below sets out what each of the common systems actually does.

Every row above has the same expected cost per unit staked, and on a single-zero wheel that cost is 2.70%. A progression does not reduce it, because raising a stake raises the amount the edge applies to. Flat betting is the honest baseline: it makes the edge visible rather than hiding it inside a sequence of recoveries.

The gambler's fallacy and the board of previous numbers

The display of recent results beside a roulette table carries no information about the next spin, and reading it as though it does is the most common error in the game. A wheel has no memory: the ball settling in red eight times running leaves the next spin at the same 18 pockets in 37, because nothing about the previous eight removed a pocket or weighted one.

The belief that black is now owed is the gambler's fallacy, and it is the engine behind every doubling progression. The mirror error is just as common: treating a number that has landed twice as hot, and backing it because it is running. Both read a pattern into a sequence of independent events, and independence is the one property every random result holds.

On a software roulette game the point is sharper still, because each result comes from a random number generator that holds no state between spins. There is no wheel bias to find, no dealer signature to read, and no sector running warm.

Bankroll and session planning

Roulette resolves a stake every spin, so a table can resolve 50 or more stakes an hour and the balance moves faster than the edge alone suggests. A session plan needs three numbers set before it starts: what you are willing to play with, what you stake per spin, and when you stop.

Stake size follows the balance rather than the table minimum. One or two percent of a session balance per spin absorbs an ordinary losing run on an even-money bet; ten percent does not survive one. Inside bets need a wider allowance than outside bets at the same stake, because a straight-up bet misses roughly 36 spins in 37 and the gaps between hits are long.

Betzy keeps the limits in your account rather than leaving them to willpower: spending limits on Gold Coin purchases by day, week or month, session reminders at 30, 60 or 90 minutes, cooling-off from 24 hours to 30 days, and self-exclusion from 6 months to permanent. A decrease to a spending limit applies at once, while an increase waits out a 48-hour cooling-off period and then needs re-confirming.

Mistakes that cost the most

The gap between a well-played roulette session and a poorly played one comes almost entirely from decisions made before the wheel turns. Seven account for most of it.

• Choosing a double-zero wheel while a single-zero wheel is open

• Missing la partage on a French table and backing red on a European one instead

• Reading the board of previous numbers as a guide to the next spin

• Doubling the stake after a loss until the table maximum ends the sequence

• Staking inside bets at the same size as outside bets, which empties a balance far faster

• Backing a called bet without counting its chips, so a 9-chip bundle stakes nine units

• Treating a long even-money losing run as though a win were owed

How to choose a roulette table

Choosing a roulette table is the only decision in the game that measurably changes what you pay to play it. The pocket count and the zero rule set the house edge before you place a chip, and no staking pattern afterwards recovers the difference. Nothing on the board of previous numbers carries information, because the wheel has no memory and every spin starts from the same 37 or 38 pockets. Five checks separate a well-priced table from a poor one.

• Take the single-zero wheel over the double-zero wheel wherever both are open

• Look for la partage or en prison on an even-money bet

• Match the table minimum to the session length you want

• Treat every spin as independent of the last one

• Ignore the board of previous numbers: it predicts nothing

How to play roulette at Betzy

Playing roulette at Betzy runs through the same two currencies as every other game on the platform. Gold Coins are entertainment credits with no monetary value and are never redeemable, which makes Gold Coin mode free roulette in the plainest sense. Sweeps Coins are promotional sweepstakes entries, and a Redeemable Sweeps Coin carries a prize value of $1.00 USD, becoming Redeemable once it has been wagered through one complete game round. No purchase is ever necessary to play or to win. Betzy runs roulette in two forms: software tables whose result comes from a random number generator, and live dealer tables streamed by SA Games, which include Roulette C, D and M and the Ultra Roulette tables. Five steps take you from signup to your opening spin.

• Create a free account and join VIP at Bronze automatically

• Open the Table category and pick a roulette title

• Play in Gold Coin mode to learn the layout at no cost

• Switch to Sweeps Coin mode once the bet types are familiar

• Play each Sweeps Coin through one complete round to make it Redeemable

Why players choose Betzy for roulette

Betzy is a free-to-play social sweepstakes platform operated by Texwal LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company, running casino-style entertainment games rather than gambling. The lobby holds 20+ roulette variants, so a single-zero wheel, a double-zero wheel and a la partage table are all available to compare rather than being spread across different operators. Free entries are equal entries: a Sweeps Coin obtained through the daily login bonus or by post carries the same prize eligibility and the same chance of winning as any other, and buying Gold Coins gives no gameplay advantage. Betzy charges no redemption fee, games run on an RNG-certified platform behind 256-bit encryption, and support answers at support@betzy.fun. Betzy holds no gaming licence, and none is required for a sweepstakes promotion.

Playing roulette within your limits

Roulette spins resolve in seconds, and a short round makes a long session easy to fall into without noticing. Betzy keeps four controls inside your account for holding play inside a limit you set: spending limits on Gold Coin purchases by day, week or month; session time reminders at 30, 60 or 90 minutes; cooling-off for 24 hours, 7, 14 or 30 days; and self-exclusion for 6 months, 1 year, 5 years or permanently. A decrease to a spending limit applies immediately, while an increase waits out a mandatory 48-hour cooling-off period and then has to be re-confirmed. Betzy is entertainment and not a way to make money, and any unredeemed Sweeps Coin balance is liable to forfeiture on self-exclusion. If play has stopped being entertainment, help is at 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537), by call or text, 24/7.

Play roulette at Betzy today

Opening a Betzy account takes a minute, costs nothing, and joins you to the VIP programme at Bronze automatically. Sweeps Coins reach your balance free through four routes: the daily login bonus, in-platform promotions and social giveaways, the refer-a-friend programme, and a handwritten request sent by post. Betzy is open to legal residents of the United States aged 18 or over, or 21 or over where the jurisdiction requires it, with no access from Washington, Idaho or Nevada and no redemption available to Michigan residents. Sign up free at betzy.fun, open the Table category, and spin a single-zero wheel in Gold Coin mode before you commit a Sweeps Coin to one.

Common questions

How much do you win if you put $100 on red in roulette?

A 100-coin bet on red returns 100 in winnings plus your 100 stake, because red pays 1 to 1. How often it wins is the detail that matters: red covers 18 pockets out of 37 on a single-zero wheel, which is 48.65%, and 18 out of 38 on a double-zero wheel, which is 47.37%.

What is the luckiest number in roulette?

No pocket is luckier than another, because every spin starts from the same 37 or 38 pockets and the wheel keeps no record of what came before. The number 17 is the one players name most often, thanks to its position at the centre of the layout and a long run of film and celebrity anecdotes, but the roulette wheel numbers all carry the same weight, so 17 lands no more often than any other.

Which roulette wheel gives the better odds?

The single-zero wheel gives the better odds, at a roulette house edge of 2.70% against 5.26% on the double-zero wheel (William Hill). A French table improves on both for even-money bets, where la partage returns half the stake on a zero and brings the edge on red, black, odd, even, high and low down to 1.35%.

Does a roulette betting system work?

No betting system works, because no staking pattern alters the house edge or the independence of each spin. A progression such as the Martingale changes the distribution of results rather than the expected cost, trading a high chance of a small gain for a small chance of a large loss, and the table maximum ends the sequence before the recovery arrives.

Can I play roulette free at Betzy?

Yes, every Betzy roulette title opens in Gold Coin mode, which is entertainment only and costs nothing to play. Sweeps Coin play is reachable at no cost too, through the daily login bonus, promotions, the refer-a-friend programme, or a handwritten request sent by post.