How Much Do You Get Back on Roulette?

In the game of Roulette, players bet on where a ball will land on a spinning wheel. There are 37 or 38 pockets on the wheel, depending on the version of Roulette being played. 18 of those pockets are red, 18 are black, and one is green. The green pocket is numbered 0, and the other pockets are numbered 1 through 36.

Players can bet on any single number, including 0 and 00, or they can bet on a group of numbers by betting on red or black, odd or even, or 1 to 18 or 19 to 36. They can also bet on a column or section of numbers.

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The payouts for each type of bet are different. A bet on one number pays 35 to 1. That means if you bet $1 and win, you get $36 back–your original dollar plus $35.

A bet on two numbers pays 17 to 1; three numbers pays 11 to 1; four numbers pays 8 to 1; six numbers pays 5 to 1; 12 numbers (a column) pays 2 to 1; and 18 numbers (red or black, odd or even, 1-18 or 19-36) pays 1 to 1. So a $1 bet on black returns $2 if it wins–your original dollar plus the dollar you won.

The house edge in Roulette is based on the fact that the payouts don’t match the true odds of the bets. The true odds of hitting a single number are 37 to 1–you have 37 ways to lose and only one way to win. But the payout is only 35 to 1 if you hit that number. The difference–the house edge–is 2/37, or 5.4%.

PRO TIP:Roulette is a game of chance so the amount you get back from it will vary. To maximize your chances of winning, stick to betting on outside bets such as red/black, odd/even, high/low and columns. Outside bets tend to have higher chances of winning but smaller payouts than inside bets.

The house edge for a 2-number bet is 17/37 x 5.4%, or 2.7%. And so forth.

The house edge in Roulette is higher than in some other games because there are so many ways to bet but only a few ways to win. For example, there are 38 possible outcomes when you spin the wheel but only 37 possible outcomes when you roll a die (1-6).

So the house edge in Roulette is higher than in games like Craps where there are more ways to win than there are ways to lose (on most bets).

The bottom line is that the house always has an edge in Roulette. But that doesn’t mean you can’t win. Remember that every spin of the wheel is an independent event–what happened on the last spin has no bearing on what will happen on the next spin.

So it’s possible to win even though the odds are against you. Just be aware that the longer you play, the more likely it is that you’ll lose money overall.