European Roulette and American Roulette Rules and Game Instructions

There is no real money involved in playing our roulette games. Playing our roulette games you will not win or lose any real money.

Our roulette games are a single zero roulette simulator and a double zero roulette simulator. The interface of our roulette game is slightly different from a real roulette table. You can read below about real roulette bets and how to place bets on our free online roulette simulator.

Fig. 1 - "Play Roulette" button.
Similar for American roulette and European roulette.

Play Roulette

Inside bets: Straight, split, trio, street, first four, corner, basket and six line bets.

A straight, or single, bet is a bet on a single number. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the square which contains the number, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the box immediately under the number. In the below picture we have shown two sample straight bets: 2 $ bet on 0 and 2 $ bet on 4.

A split bet is a bet on two adjacent numbers. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the line between the two numbers, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the box between the two numbers. In the below picture, for the European roulette layout, we have shown two sample split bets: 5 $ bet on 1-2 and 5 $ bet on 3-6. In the below picture, for the American roulette layout, we have shown two sample split bets: 5 $ bet on 0-00 and 5 $ bet on 0-1.

A trio bet is a bet on three adjacent numbers which include 0. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the corner between the three numbers, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the box, inside the darker bordered cell, between the three numbers. In the below pictures, for the single zero roulette layout, we have shown a sample trio bet: 10 $ bet on 0-2-3 (the remaining trio bet on a single zero roulette is 0-1-2). In the below picture, for the double zero roulette layout, we have shown a sample trio bet: 10 $ bet on 00-2-3 (the remaining trio bet on a double zero roulette is 0-1-2).

A street bet is a bet on three consecutive numbers in one of the 12 rows. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the line at either end of the row, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the "Str." box at the top end of the row. In the below picture we have shown a sample street bet: 15 $ bet on 4-5-6.

The first four bet is the bet on 0-1-2-3, available only in the European Roulette or single zero roulette layout. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the outer corner between 0-1 or 0-3, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the "1st 4" box at the top left end of our roulette table. In the below picture we have shown the sample 1st four bet: 20 $ bet on 0-1-2-3.

A corner, or square, bet is a bet on four adjacent numbers. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the corner between the four numbers, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the box, inside the darker bordered cell, between the four numbers. In the below picture we have shown a sample corner bet: 25 $ bet on 5-6-8-9.

The basket bet is the bet on 0-00-1-2-3, available only in the American Roulette or double zero roulette layout. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the outer corner between 0-1 or 00-3, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the "Basket" box at the top left end of our roulette table. In the below picture we have shown the sample basket bet: 20 $ bet on 0-00-1-2-3.

A six line, or double street, bet is a bet on six consecutive numbers in two adjoining rows. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the line between the two rows at either end of the rows, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the "Six" box at the top end between the two rows. In the below picture we have shown a sample six line bet: 50 $ bet on 1-2-3-4-5-6.

Fig. 2 - Straight, split, trio, street, first four, corner and six line bets examples on European roulette layout.

European roulette inside bets

Fig. 2a - Split, trio and basket bets examples on American roulette layout.

American roulette inside bets

Outside bets: Column, dozen, low/high, even/odd and red/black bets.

A column bet is a bet on twelve numbers in one of the three columns. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on a square near the highest number of the column, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the "Col." box near the highest number of the column. In the below picture we have shown a sample column bet: 2 $ bet on column 2--35.

A dozen bet is a bet on twelve consecutive numbers, 1 to 12, 13 to 24 or 25 to 36. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the dozen designated area, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the "1st 12", "2nd 12" or "3rd 12" box below the relevant dozen. In the below picture we have shown a sample dozen bet: 5 $ bet on the 3rd dozen.

A low or high bet is a bet on eighteen consecutive numbers, 1 to 18 (low) or 19 to 36 (high). On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the 1 to 18 or the 19 to 36 designated area, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the "1 to 18" or "19 to 36" box. In the below picture we have shown a sample high bet: 10 $ bet on 19 to 36.

An even or odd bet is a bet on the eighteen even numbers (excluding zero) or the eighteen odd numbers. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the even or the odd designated area, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the "Even" or "Odd" box. In the below picture we have shown a sample odd bet: 20 $ bet on Odd.

A red or black bet is a bet on the eighteen red numbers or the eighteen black numbers. On a real roulette table you would place your chips on the red or the black designated area, on our roulette table you type the bet amount in the "Red" or "Black" box. In the below picture we have shown a sample black bet: 50 $ bet on Black.

Fig. 3 - Column, dozen, low/high, even/odd and red/black bets examples.
Similar for American roulette and European roulette.

Roulette outside bets

European Roulette and American Roulette Odds and Payouts

Table 1 - European Roulette (EU) and American Roulette (US) win probability, payouts and value of bets. See explanatory notes below the table.

Bet Type Win Probability Payout Expected Value of 100 $ Bet
EU US EU US
Straight
(1 No)
1/37
-
2.7%
1/38
-
2.63%
35 97.3 94.74
Split
(2 Nos)
2/37
-
5.41%
2/38
-
5.26%
17 97.3 94.74
Trio
Street
(3 Nos)
3/37
-
8.11%
3/38
-
7.89%
11 97.3 94.74
Corner
(4 Nos)
4/37
-
10.81%
4/38
-
10.53%
8 97.3 94.74
First Four
(4 Nos)
4/37
-
10.81%
na 8 97.3 na
Basket
(5 Nos)
na 5/38
-
13.16%
6 na 92.11
Six Line
(6 Nos)
6/37
-
16.22%
6/38
-
15.79%
5 97.3 94.74
Column
Dozen
(12 Nos)
12/37
-
32.43%
12/38
-
31.58%
2 97.3 94.74
Low/High
Even/Odd
Red/Black
(18 Nos)
18/37
-
48.65%
18/38
-
47.37%
1 97.3 94.74

Table 1 - Explanatory notes:

1) The single zero roulette layout (European or French) has a total of 37 numbers, which is 1 to 36 and 0. The double zero roulette layout (American) has a total of 38 numbers, which is 1 to 36, 0 and 00.

The win probability on a single zero roulette table is greater than in a double zero roulette table, for a single number bet 1/37 vs 1/38, for a split bet 2/37 vs 2/38 and so on.

2) "Payout" indicates how much you win in bet amounts. Note that, when you win, the bet is returned to you so you collect from table "Payout" + 1 bet amounts.

Examples: Payout 2 - Win 2 times the bet amount, collect 3 times the bet amount; Payout 11 - Win 11 times the bet amount collect 12 times the bet amount.

3) The "Expected Value of 100 $ Bet" column is the result of: (100 $) times ("Win Probability") times ("Payout" + 1).

As you can see in the above table, the European Roulette has the same 97.3 value for all bet types. The American Roulette has the same 94.74 value for all bet types except for the "Basket" bet which has a 92.11 value (a worse bet than the others). The European Roulette has a greater expected bet value than the American Roulette.

Consider that the mentioned values are average values. For a finite, although large, number of bets, the actual value could be very far from the expected value.

4) Another way of reading the "Expected Value of 100 $ Bet" (assuming the European roulette case):

If you kept playing roulette for an infinite number of times, the cumulative money collected from table would become closer to 97.3% of your cumulative bets while the cumulative money lost would become closer to 2.7% of your cumulative bets.

Not a suggestion to try and see how it works, 2.7% of an infinite number of bets is too much money to lose. Well before that, losses will make you stop playing and force you to retire from the experiment.

5) With roulette the odds are always against you.

If you are lucky with one or few bets then walk out of the casino and never play again, you have won.

If you keep playing, you know what the odds are and what's likely going to happen.

6) Here is some interesting reading from Wikipedia: Law of large numbers; Gambler's fallacy.

7) You can play with our European roulette simulator and American roulette simulator without any risk of losing (or winning!) real money.

Our Roulette Game FAQs.

1. Sound. In our roulette games you can switch the sound On and Off (see switch). If the sound is On but you don't hear any sound while playing, you need to adjust your browser Autoplay settings. Search google to know how to allow Autoplay for our site (change browser name in google search as per your browser).