Roulette.Casino

What Is Roulette?

Roulette is a table game built around a spinning wheel divided into numbered pockets. The croupier spins the wheel in one direction and launches a small ball in the other. Players bet on where that ball will come to rest — a single number, a group of numbers, a colour, or a half of the table. When the ball drops, the winning number is marked, losing bets are swept away, and winners are paid at fixed odds.

The name is French for “little wheel”, and the game as we know it took shape in 18th-century France. The version that spread across the world arrived in 1843, when François and Louis Blanc introduced a wheel with a single zero in Bad Homburg to undercut rival casinos still using a double-zero layout. That single design decision is still the most important thing on the table today: it is the difference between a 2.70% and a 5.26% house edge.

A European wheel holds 37 pockets — the numbers 1 to 36 plus a single green zero. An American wheel holds 38, because it adds a second green pocket marked 00. The numbers alternate red and black around the rim in a deliberately scrambled order, so that high and low, odd and even, and red and black are spread as evenly as possible around the wheel.

How to Play Roulette

A round of roulette takes roughly 45 seconds at a live table and about 25 at an online RNG table. Here is the full sequence, from sitting down to getting paid.

1. Pick the right table. Before anything else, look at the wheel. One green pocket means European or French rules and a 2.70% edge. Two green pockets means American rules and roughly double the cost. If both are available, there is no argument — take the single zero.
2. Check the limits. Every table posts a minimum and maximum. The maximum usually applies per bet type, not per round, which is exactly why progression systems eventually run into the ceiling.
3. Buy in. At a physical table you exchange cash for colour chips that are unique to you, so the dealer can tell whose bet is whose. Online you simply select a chip denomination.
4. Place your bets. Betting stays open while the wheel spins. Chips go on the numbered grid for inside bets, or on the outer boxes for outside bets. You can combine as many as you like in one round.
5. “No more bets.” The croupier waves a hand over the layout — or the online timer hits zero — and the table locks.
6. The ball drops. The winning number is marked with a small marker called the dolly. Nothing on the layout may be touched until it is lifted.
7. Losing bets are cleared, winners are paid. Outside bets are paid first, then inside bets. Then the dolly comes off and the next round opens.

Inside bets sit on the numbers themselves: straight up (one number), split (two), street (three), corner (four), six line (six). They pay big and hit rarely. Outside bets sit around the edge: red/black, odd/even, high/low, dozens and columns. They pay small and hit often. Neither group is mathematically better than the other on a European wheel — both cost you the same 2.70% in the long run. They simply distribute your variance differently. Full breakdown on the bet types page.

Odds, Payouts and Winning Chances

This is the table that answers most roulette questions. “Payout” is what the casino hands you. “Win chance” is how often it actually happens. The gap between the two is the entire business model.

Notice the pattern. A straight-up bet wins 1 time in 37 on a European wheel, but pays as if it wins 1 time in 36. That missing fraction is the house edge, and it is baked into every bet on the layout at exactly the same rate — 2.70%. The one exception is the American five-number bet, which is the worst wager on any roulette table at 7.89%. Never place it.

Translated into money: for every 100 units wagered over the long run, European roulette costs about 2.70 units, American about 5.26, and French roulette on even-money bets about 1.35. Play 100 spins at 10 units a spin and the expected cost roughly triples between the best and worst table in that list — for the exact same game. Run your own numbers in the free payout calculator, or read the long version on the house edge page.

Types of Roulette Games

“Roulette” now covers a dozen genuinely different games. These are the ones you will actually encounter, and what each one costs you.

European Roulette

37 pockets, one zero, 2.70% house edge on every bet. The default standard across Europe and the online world, and the baseline that every strategy article assumes. European roulette explained →

American Roulette

38 pockets thanks to the extra 00, which pushes the edge to 5.26% and introduces the terrible five-number bet. Standard in most US land-based casinos and worth avoiding wherever a single-zero table exists. American roulette explained →

French Roulette

The same wheel as European, but with two rules that only trigger on zero. La Partage returns half your even-money stake when the ball lands on zero. En Prison instead locks the bet for one more spin to be won back whole. Either rule cuts the edge on even-money bets from 2.70% to 1.35% — the lowest in standard roulette. French tables also use call bets (Voisins du Zéro, Tiers du Cylindre, Orphelins) based on wheel sectors rather than table position. French roulette explained →

Live Dealer Roulette

A real wheel, a real croupier, streamed in real time from a studio or a casino floor, with bets placed through an interface. It removes the “is the software honest” question entirely, because you watch the spin happen. Slower than RNG tables, and usually with higher minimums. How live roulette works →

Multiplier Variants (Lightning, Quantum and friends)

Evolution’s Lightning Roulette and Playtech’s Quantum Roulette add random multipliers of up to 500× to a handful of numbers each round. The trade: straight-up bets pay 29:1 instead of 35:1, with the multiplier making up the difference on the numbers that get struck. Overall RTP lands at 97.30% — the same as European roulette — but the variance is enormous compared to a standard table. Lightning roulette →

Double Ball, Mini and Multi-Wheel

Double Ball spins two balls at once, with adjusted payouts and side bets that pay when both land on the same number. Mini roulette uses only 13 pockets and carries a much steeper edge. Multi-wheel tables run several wheels off a single bet. All of them are novelty layers on the same core maths — always check the published RTP before you play. All variants →

RNG vs Live, and Crypto Roulette

RNG roulette resolves each spin with a certified random number generator; live roulette uses a physical wheel. Both are audited in regulated markets, and the house edge is identical. Crypto roulette is not a different game — it is the same roulette with Bitcoin, Ethereum or stablecoins as the deposit rail, often alongside a provably fair verification system. Crypto roulette →

Rules, Licensing and Where Roulette Is Legal

Roulette itself is regulated almost everywhere, but online roulette is a patchwork. The short version: whether you can legally play depends on where you are sitting, not on where the casino is registered.

What a licence actually tells you

A gambling licence is the difference between an audited wheel and a promise. The strongest regimes — the UK Gambling Commission, the Malta Gaming Authority, the Dutch Kansspelautoriteit, Sweden’s Spelinspektionen, and the individual US state regulators — require independently tested RNGs, segregated player funds, published RTPs, deposit limits and self-exclusion tooling. Offshore licences vary widely in how much of that they actually enforce. Always check which authority is named in the site’s footer, and whether that licence covers your country.

Region by region

• United Kingdom — Online roulette is legal and widely available through UKGC-licensed operators. Minimum age 18. Credit card deposits are banned, and operators must run affordability and identity checks.
• European Union — Licensed nationally, not EU-wide. The Netherlands has run a regulated market since the Remote Gambling Act opened in October 2021. Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Belgium all issue local licences. Germany is the outlier: the 2021 interstate treaty legalised online slots and poker nationally, but online table games including roulette are handled state by state, so availability is limited and uneven.
• Malta — Not a market so much as a hub. An MGA licence is what a large share of EU-facing operators actually hold, and it carries meaningful player-protection requirements.
• United States — Legal state by state. Seven states currently run live regulated online casino markets with real-money table games: New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Maine legalised online casino gaming in 2026 but has not launched yet. Everywhere else, online roulette for real money is not licensed — sports betting being legal in a state does not mean online casino is. Minimum age is usually 21.
• Canada — Ontario has operated an open, regulated iGaming market since April 2022 under the AGCO. Other provinces offer online roulette through their own provincial platforms.
• Australia — The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits operators from offering online casino games, including roulette, to Australian residents. Land-based roulette in licensed casinos is legal.
• Rest of world — Rules range from fully licensed to outright prohibited, and some countries regulate at state or provincial level. Check your local law before depositing.

Roulette FAQ