You have probably heard the saying “The house always wins”. Indeed, this is true because, after all, casinos are not charitable organisations and need to turn a profit in order to cover the costs associated with paying their employees and maintaining the venue. Because of this, every casino game includes a small built-in advantage in favour of the house, which allows gambling venues to profit regardless of whether a bet wins or loses.
This built-in advantage is commonly referred to as vigorish, the house edge or house advantage and varies from one casino game to another. In some games, the house edge also depends on the type of bet a player places. The house edge represents the mathematical advantage the gambling venue has over players and reflects the difference between the true probabilities of winning and the casino’s payouts for winning bets in specific games.
It is important to mention that players can never fully negate the house edge, no matter how skilled or experienced they are. Of course, individual gamblers can win money over short periods, but in the long run they are always at a loss because the house does not pay out winnings fairly, on the basis of the true odds. That is why experienced players typically prefer games that have a lower house advantage.
As far as its house edge is concerned, roulette is a mid-range game; however, in this case the house advantage differs depending on which variation of the game you play. For example, in American roulette, where there are two zero pockets on the wheel, the advantage of the casino is significantly higher at 5.26%. In comparison, European roulette, with its single-zero wheel, can be more profitable for players because the house advantage is only 2.70%. Please note that the house edge in roulette remains the same even though the payouts for different types of bet vary.
The ability to calculate the house edge in the game of roulette is crucial because it enables players to make more informed choices when placing their bets and thus minimise their losses when playing for longer periods of time.
Calculating the House Edge
Let’s demonstrate how the house edge is calculated in a game of European roulette. There are 37 pockets – 36 numbered ones and a single-zero pocket. If you place a Straight Up bet on any given number, mathematically your chances of winning are 1 in 37 (odds of 36 to 1). This is what the true odds dictate. Yet, the casino holds players at a slight disadvantage as it pays out only 35 to 1 for winning Straight Up bets.
To make things as simple as possible, let’s assume you wager £1 on every single number on the wheel, including zero. You are guaranteed to win on one of the 37 numbers and leave a total of £37 in casino chips on the table. Yet, you will collect only £36 (your original wager plus £35 in profit), regardless of which number wins. It turns out that you pay £37 to win only £36, which effectively means you are £1 behind. And don’t forget, the longer you play, the greater this discrepancy becomes.
To calculate the house edge for Straight Up bets in roulette, all you have to do is divide the difference of £1 by the number of pockets on the wheel, which in this case is 37. So, 1/37 = 0.027027027, which makes 2.70% (0.027027027 x 100 = 2.70270). Using this formula, players can calculate the house edge for all inside bets in roulette.
Roulette Layout
Roulette Wheel Types
Roulette House Edge
Roulette Inside Bets
Roulette Outside Bets
Or you can calculate the house edge for Straight Up bets in the following way – the odds of winning with a single number in European roulette are 1 in 37 (1/37), while the odds of losing your stake are 36 in 37 (36/37). As we know, the house pays 35 to 1 for winning Straight Up bets. In this case, the formula will be: -1 x 36/37 + 35 x 1/37 = 0.0270 x 100 = 2.70%.
If you calculate the house edge for even-money bets, you will get the same result. Let’s assume you want to place an Odd or Even bet and wager £1 on Even. As we know, there are 18 even numbers on the wheel, which means there are 18 ways to win with this bet. Yet, there are also 18 odd numbers plus the zero pocket, which makes 19 ways to lose.
Thus, your chances of losing are 19 to 18. The house pays 1 to 1 for this type of bet. Your chances of winning are 18 to 37. To make the calculation, you will have to use fractions, so you will need equal denominators. For this purpose, you should multiply both the numerator and the denominator of the fraction that represents the house odds by 18/18. The result will be 1/1 x 18/18 = 18/18. From this we get the following: 19/18 – 18/18 x 18/37 = 1/18 x 18/37 = 1/37 = 0.0270270. In order to calculate the house-edge percentage, you need to multiply your result by 100. Thus, you get 0.0270270 x 100 = 2.70%.
There are many different bets one can place in a game of European roulette and their payouts vary accordingly. Players’ chances of winning with some of them are greater, but the house always has the same advantage for all types of bet, namely 2.70%.
While there is no way to completely offset the casino’s advantage, being able to calculate the house edge will help players place smarter bets, implement a suitable betting strategy and minimise their losses in the long run.
| European Roulette House Edge | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Bet Type | Bet Payout | Bet Probability | House Edge |
| Straight | 35/1 | 2.70% | 2.70% |
| Split | 17/1 | 5.41% | 2.70% |
| Street | 11/1 | 8.11% | 2.70% |
| Square or Corner | 8/1 | 10.81% | 2.70% |
| Six Line | 5/1 | 16.2% | 2.70% |
| Column | 2/1 | 32.4% | 2.70% |
| Dozen | 2/1 | 32.4% | 2.70% |
| Red / Black | 1/1 | 48.64% | 2.70% |
| Odd / Even | 1/1 | 48.64% | 2.70% |
| High / Low | 1/1 | 48.64% | 2.70% |
| American Roulette House Edge | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Bet Type | Bet Payout | Bet Probability | House Edge |
| Straight | 35/1 | 2.63% | 5.26% |
| Split | 17/1 | 5.26% | 5.26% |
| Street | 11/1 | 7.89% | 5.26% |
| Square or Corner | 8/1 | 10.53% | 5.26% |
| Five Line | 6/1 | 13.16% | 7.89% |
| Six Line | 5/1 | 15.79% | 5.26% |
| Column | 2/1 | 31.58% | 5.26% |
| Dozen | 2/1 | 31.58% | 5.26% |
| Red / Black | 1/1 | 46.37% | 5.26% |
| Odd / Even | 1/1 | 46.37% | 5.26% |
| High / Low | 1/1 | 46.37% | 5.26% |
| French Roulette House Edge * | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Bet Type | Bet Payout | Bet Probability | House Edge |
| Straight | 35/1 | 2.70% | 2.70% |
| Split | 17/1 | 5.41% | 2.70% |
| Street | 11/1 | 8.11% | 2.70% |
| Trio (0,1,2 / 0,2,3) | 11/1 | 8.11% | 2.70% |
| Four-Number (0,1,2,3) | 8/1 | 10.81% | 2.70% |
| Square or Corner | 8/1 | 10.81% | 2.70% |
| Six Line | 5/1 | 16.2% | 2.70% |
| Column | 2/1 | 32.4% | 2.70% |
| Dozen (P12, M12, D12) | 2/1 | 32.4% | 2.70% |
| Red / Black | 1/1 | 48.64% | 2.70% |
| Impair (Odd) / Pair (Even) | 1/1 | 48.64% | 2.70% |
| Manque (Low) / Passe (High) | 1/1 | 48.64% | 2.70% |
* In French roulette, when even-money bets are placed and the ball ends up in the zero pocket, only half of the stake is returned to the player. This is known as the “half-back” or “en prison” rule and reduces the house edge on even-money bets to 1.35%.
The Impact of the House Edge
It goes without saying that the advantage the house holds over players has a major impact on the results they will experience over the long term. Despite the fact that the house edge is smaller with the single-zero roulette variants, its influence remains both profound and constant, as we shall illustrate now.
Let’s assume that you have decided to stake a total of £50 per spin by wagering 10 chips, each worth £5. This means the house will collect about £1.35 from each of your wagers. Therefore, if you spend about an hour at the roulette table, you will make roughly 70 wagers. In such a case, the casino will collect about £94.50 from the wagers you have made, eating up a significant portion of your gaming bankroll.
Gambling enthusiasts who still struggle to figure out how their bankroll is likely to deplete while they bet on roulette should pay close attention to the following example. Let’s assume that you prefer to bet on black consistently and risk a single chip for a total of 370 spins to find out how long your bankroll will last and what your wins and losses will be.
During the course of these spins, players will see zero appear about 10 times, which will cost them 10 chips. The results of the remaining spins will balance out because black will appear 180 times, and red will do the same.
Distinguishing between True and Casino Odds
Becoming a successful roulette player requires reading up on the difference between true and casino odds. To ensure that gambling enthusiasts can easily make heads or tails of the matter, we will first explain what odds are.
As you might already know, roulette is an entirely chance-based casino game, which means that players’ actions will have no effect on the way in which the game pans out. The same does not apply to casino games that are skill-based as in such cases, the decisions gambling aficionados make will have an impact on the results they will ultimately enjoy.
The Role Probability Plays in Roulette
In essence, probability is the backbone of all mathematics used not only in roulette, but in other casino games as well, which is why players should gain proper knowledge of it.
At first, roulette fans might find it a bit hard to grasp what probability is, as it is used to determine the likelihood of a certain outcome occurring after taking into account the total number of possible results.
Probability can be expressed using fractions, decimals or percentages. In any case, the value attached to probability cannot exceed 100 nor be lower than 0. The closer the value is to 0%, the smaller the chances of the event occurring; conversely, the closer it is to 100%, the greater the certainty that the event will occur.
Therefore, if we take the example of a coin toss, the probability of either heads or tails appearing is 1, which means absolute certainty, as there is no other possible outcome.
In the same vein, if two dice are thrown, the probability of getting 13 will be 0 for the simple reason that there are no combinations that form such a total.
When it comes to roulette, however, there are 37 possible outcomes when playing European or French roulette and 38 possible outcomes when betting on American roulette.
If we take this information into account, and we presume that European roulette is more to your liking, we can easily work out the probability of each number appearing the next time the wheel is spun.
If we take 14 as an example, we will need to divide the number of ways in which players’ wagers on that number will be settled as winning ones, which in this case is just one, by the total number of possible combinations, which is 37. Therefore, we will get that the probability of 14 to turn out to be the winning number is 0.027 (1/37).
As it seems, for most gambling enthusiasts, it is easier to look at probability using percentages. In order to convert the above-mentioned value, we simply need to multiply it by 100, thus getting 2.70%.
Roulette Probability and Odds
Although many gambling aficionados think that odds and probability denote the same thing, this is not exactly the case because, mathematically speaking, there is a difference between them.
The difference between these two terms lies in the fact that while probability compares the ways in which a specific outcome can occur to the total number of possible outcomes, odds juxtapose the number of ways something can take place with the number of ways in which it cannot.
As soon as players have estimated the probability of a specific outcome, they will be able to work out what the odds of winning are. When you want to know the odds of winning, you can calculate them using the formula Pw/(1 – Pw), where Pw represents the probability of winning we have already calculated.
Something vital gambling enthusiasts need to know is that, unlike probability, which is converted into a decimal, odds are expressed as a ratio. Please note that odds usually consist only of whole numbers.
As it seems, what might be a bit confusing for some players is that sometimes, the value of the odds is reversed. What this means is that their value will designate the odds against winning instead of indicating the odds of winning. Naturally, so as to figure out what the odds against winning are, players will be required to divide the number of ways in which they will lose by the number of ways to win.
In spite of the fact that players are unlikely to have a hard time distinguishing odds against from odds for, things might seem a bit more involved as soon as the value of the odds approaches evens.
Something crucial roulette fans should be aware of is that larger payoffs are offered in the cases when the likelihood of winning is rather small.
True and Casino Odds Compared
As it seems, many roulette players, seasoned ones included, are hard put to tell the difference between true and casino odds. It is vital to remember that the odds of winning are just the opposite of true casino odds or the odds paid.
As we mentioned above, casinos bet against their customers, which is the reason why the payouts players are provided with do not coincide with the ones that should be given against winning. To make sure that casinos will gain their profit margin, the odds gambling enthusiasts will be provided with will be less than the value of the true casino odds.
Inexperienced players sometimes think that casino odds are much more advantageous, and this is because of a ploy many casinos utilise. On some occasions, players might notice that the offered pay-offs are not 5 to 1 but 5 for 1, which makes a crucial difference to the amount players will receive.
This distinction is vital because when the pay-off offered is 5 to 1, it means that together with their original stake of one unit, players will be paid five additional units. Yet this is not the case when the pay-offs are written 5 for 1, because in such cases players will receive five units but will forfeit their initial wager.
How This Applies to Roulette
Once gambling aficionados have added to their knowledge on probability and odds, it will be much easier for them to find out how this all applies to the game of roulette.
In the case of American roulette, the numbers that are featured on the wheel are a total of 38, which means that when opting for a straight bet, there is just one way in which your wager can be resolved as a winning one, and 37 ways in which it can be resolved as a losing one.
Therefore, the odds of winning will be 1 to 37, while the odds against winning will be 37 to 1. Still, such payoffs are not awarded even when players’ straight bets are settled as winning ones as instead, the casino will grant payoffs of 35 to 1, which is referred to as casino odds.
Roulette Overdue Numbers
Apparently, many roulette novices fall prey to the misconception of overdue numbers. Some gambling enthusiasts consider that when a specific number has not been a winning one after a greater number of spins of the wheel have taken place, the small white ball will certainly land on it very soon.
In spite of the fact that this might make perfect sense to some inexperienced players, they do not take into account the fact that roulette is a quasi-random casino game, which means that the spins of the roulette wheel that are about to come will not be impacted in any way by the spins that have already taken place.
It is of vital significance to remember that the roulette wheel does not have a memory, and there is no mechanism that is used so as to keep track of the numbers that have recently come out or the ones that have not presented themselves for some time.
Since the spins that are about to take place will continue to be unaffected by the ones that have already occurred, it makes sense that each new spin of the wheel is referred to as an independent event.
What this means is that in the case of American roulette, the probability of the number you have picked to show up will be 1 to 38. No matter if that same number has already appeared several times or it has not come up at all during the last one hour, this will not change the probability of the number to become a winning one next time when the ball stops spinning.
Repeating Numbers
Things might get even more involved for players also when statistics are thrown in the mix, and more specifically when two or more events that follow one after another are concerned.
As likely as not, some players might be wondering what is the probability of a number to come out two times in a row. In fact, we can easily figure that out simply by multiplying the individual probability of that particular number to emerge.
When American roulette is concerned, the probability of one of the numbers, say 13, to pop up two times in a row will be 1/1,444 (1/38 x 1/38). The probability of the little white ball landing on 13 three times in a row will be 1/54,872, which we get as follows: 1/38 x 1/38 x 1/38. As it might have already occurred to roulette lovers, the odds of that number winning dwindle exponentially as the number of repetitions grows.
In spite of that, the probability of 13 to pop up will continue to be 1/38, regardless of what happened on the previous few spins of the wheel and regardless of the fact that the odds of that number to be a winning one four times in succession are minuscule.
The appearance of one and the same number several times in a row is not such an infrequent occurrence as some players might consider.
Is It Possible to Win Regularly on Roulette
Roulette ranks among the casino games that entice both total novices and seasoned players with its action-packed gameplay and the winning opportunities it provides. Yet, the question that players of all levels of expertise keep on asking themselves is whether it is possible to win regularly while betting on roulette.
It might come as a disappointment for many of you, but winning at roulette every time is simply not achievable. The good news is that there are certain things roulette lovers can do in order to enhance their performance.
So as to enjoy a fruitful betting session, you should make sure that the amount the casino will collect will be smaller than the amount you have bagged. One of the things gambling enthusiasts should consider doing in order to attain this is to find a single-zero roulette variation that best suits their preferences and style of play. Playing such a roulette variant will allow you to have the best of the game simply because the edge of the casino shrinks from 5.26% to 2.70%.
Furthermore, while playing at brick-and-mortar casinos, gambling enthusiasts can attempt to figure out if there are any irregularities with the roulette wheel and capitalise on them, if such are found.
It should be noted, however, that this might turn out to be rather hard due to the fact that casinos monitor the wheels closely in order to make sure that if bias is detected, it will be weeded out right away.
Otherwise speaking, players are advised to stick to single-zero roulette variants and to pay special attention to the roulette wheel so that they could figure out if it has any physical flaws.
Advantage play is a term even some roulette newbies might be familiar with. In fact, it is used to describe the different methods players resort to when they aspire to guarantee themselves a profit. It is important to note that this strategy aims to provide gambling enthusiasts with either a physical or a statistical advantage over the house.
Another important point worth mentioning about advantage play is that its prime focus is the roulette wheel rather than the betting layout, and that it can be applied while playing roulette both offline and over the Internet.
One of the most common systems roulette lovers tend to stick to is the one that incorporates inside bets that are laid on specific sectors of the wheel. There are also systems that are based on outside bets, but the ones according to which chips are split between several sections are also hugely popular among roulette mavens.
Yet, players should take into account the fact that no-lose roulette systems simply do not exist.
The Best Numbers to Bet on While Playing Roulette
Something gambling enthusiasts need to take on board is that in terms of probability, a number is just as likely to turn out to be a winning one as the rest of the numbers that are featured on the roulette wheel. Yet, the same does not apply to the different types of wagers gambling enthusiasts can opt for as the odds of winning are not alike.
It goes without saying that the more numbers roulette lovers bet on, the greater the odds of winning will be. Yet, many casino enthusiasts erroneously consider that when their stake covers multiple numbers, the rewards they might collect will be more generous.
When betting on Red/Black, Evens/Odds, and Lows/Highs, the odds of winning will be the highest, no matter whether it comes to European or American roulette. Next come Dozens, Columns, and Six Line bets.
As we previously explained, when deciding on the number or group of numbers to bet on, many players are guided by the idea that certain numbers are cold, while others are hot. As you may already know, cold numbers are the ones that have not shown up for some time, and hence, hot numbers are the ones that win more often.
Many gambling enthusiasts tend to bet on the numbers that have not shown up for quite some time in the hope that the white ball will soon land on them. As we already clarified, this is a common misconception among roulette players, and they should remember that the probability of a specific number to show up remains the same, and most importantly, the previous spins of the roulette wheel are of no consequence to the spins to come.
Many roulette lovers stick to betting on their favourite number or numbers, which they consider a winning approach. Apparently, the numbers players most commonly lay their wagers on are 17 and 7, while 13 is the number that is generally avoided by players.