Roulette Betting Odds

Roulette is believed to have originated in France. It is based on a revolving wheel, which is the center point in this game. A ball is put in the revolving wheel and bets are placed on individual numbers or a range of numbers where the ball is expected to stop. The French or European roulette has a single zero while the American one has two of them, making it harder for the players to beat. It is for this reason that most casinos employ this roulette. There are a number of types of bets, categorized under inside and outside bets.  

Players of roulette have a chance of making it big by betting on the outcome of the wheel. At the same time, no betting strategy seems to beat the wheel which keeps every one guessing. One needs to know the odds associated with roulette before taking the plunge.

Depending on where roulette is being played, there are two different types of games of roulette, American and European. While the European roulette has only one zero pocket coupled with thirty-six numbers, the American version has two zero pockets. The extra zero in American roulette induces a big difference in calculation of odds while playing roulette.

House edge: House edge remains an important factor in calculation of odds. It is the edge or advantage that ‘house’ or game and stands for the average loss that a player incurs. American roulette has around 5% house edge and the value of house edge in European roulette is less than 3%.

American roulette: There are thirty-six numbers along with two zero pockets in American roulette, making it total thirty-eight pockets. To understand house edge in this form of roulette, take an example of 1 to 18 outside bet, in which players can bet on numbers from 1 to 18. On dividing 18 by 38, we get 0.4737 or 47.37%, a number that represents the number of games that can be won by a player. If we assume one dollar is bet every time and take into account both games won and games lost, we get 20 dollars to be average loss which is around 5.26%, American roulette’s house edge.

For employing the same strategy on European or French roulette, we have to consider thirty-seven instead of thirty-eight as total number of pockets. This results in overall house edge to come at 2.7%, almost half of that of the American roulette!

Simple mathematics is involved in calculating the probability of winning in any game of roulette. One can place a bet on any set of numbers, but the total numbers of pockets have to be considered for calculating possibility of winning. Take for instance; a player placing a bet on numbers from one to ten has a probability of 10/38 or 33.33% of winning. The probability of winning increases in French or European roulette because of one lesser zero.