American Roulette

Board depiction (American Roulette)

  0 00
1-
18
1st
12
1 2 3
4 5 6
odd 7 8 9
10 11 12
red 2nd
12
13 14 15
16 17 18
blk 19 20 21
22 23 24
even 3rd
12
25 26 27
28 29 30
19-
36
31 32 33
34 35 36
 

Bet odds table (American Roulette)

(in addition to the mentioned payout the bet is returned)

Bet name Winning spaces Payout Odds of winning
(against)
Expected value
(on a $1 bet)
0 0 35 to 1 37 to 1 -$0.053
00 00 35 to 1 37 to 1 -$0.053
1 1 35 to 1 37 to 1 -$0.053
2 2 35 to 1 37 to 1 -$0.053
... ... ... ... ...
36 36 35 to 1 37 to 1 -$0.053
Row 00 0, 00 17 to 1 18 to 1 -$0.053
Row 3 1, 2, 3 11 to 1 11.667 to 1 -$0.053
Row 6 4, 5, 6 11 to 1 11.667 to 1 -$0.053
Row 9 7, 8, 9 11 to 1 11.667 to 1 -$0.053
... ... ... ... ...
Row 36 34, 35, 36 11 to 1 11.667 to 1 -$0.053
Column 1 1, 4, 7, ..., 34 2 to 1 2.167 to 1 -$0.053
Column 2 2, 5, 8, ..., 35 2 to 1 2.167 to 1 -$0.053
Column 3 3, 6, 9, ..., 36 2 to 1 2.167 to 1 -$0.053
First 12 1, 2, 3, ..., 12 2 to 1 2.167 to 1 -$0.053
Middle 12 13, 14, 15, ..., 24 2 to 1 2.167 to 1 -$0.053
Last 12 25, 26, 27, ..., 36 2 to 1 2.167 to 1 -$0.053
Odd 1, 3, 5, ..., 35 1 to 1 1.111 to 1 -$0.053
Even 2, 4, 6, ..., 36 1 to 1 1.111 to 1 -$0.053
Red 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12,
14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23,
25, 27, 30, 32, 34, 36
1 to 1 1.111 to 1 -$0.053
Black 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11,
13, 15, 17, 20, 22, 24,
26, 28, 29, 31, 33, 35
1 to 1 1.111 to 1 -$0.053
1 to 18 1, 2, 3, ..., 18 1 to 1 1.111 to 1 -$0.053
19 to 36 19, 20, 21, ..., 36 1 to 1 1.111 to 1 -$0.053
five number bet 0, 00, 1, 2, 3 6 to 1 6.6 to 1 -$0.079

Note also that 0 and 00 are neither odd nor even in this game.

House Edge

The house average or house edge is the amount the player loses relative to a bet, on average. If a player bets on a single number in the American game there is a probability of 1/38 that the player receives 36 times the bet (35 times the bet plus the return of the bet itself), so the player ends up, on average, losing 5.26% on each bet:

( (probability * payout) / bet ) - 1 = expected value as fraction of bet

For example, betting $10 on a single number on an American wheel:

( ((1/38) * 360) / 10 ) - 1 = -0.0526

The house has the same edge on all of the other kinds of bets, except for the five number bet where the house edge is considerably higher (7.89% on an American wheel).

The house edge should not be confused with the hold. The hold is the total amount that the house wins from a player. While the house might have an edge of 5.26%, if a player keeps playing until his or her bankroll is exhausted, the house will enjoy a hold of 100%.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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