Games
Roulette, one zero or two, and why every bet on the table costs the same
Roulette is the casino game whose arithmetic is easiest to see, since everything that decides its cost is visible on the table: the number of pockets, the number of zeros and the payouts printed beside each bet. Read properly, the table says that every standard bet costs the same, and that the only choice which really changes the price is the wheel itself.
One zero or two
A "European" wheel has thirty-seven pockets (numbered 0 to 36, with a single zero), while an "American" wheel adds a second zero, for thirty-eight. The payouts are the same on both (35 to 1 on a single number, 1 to 1 on red or black); the extra pocket is pure "margin" for the house, which keeps 2.70 per cent of every standard bet on the single-zero wheel and 5.26 per cent on the double-zero one.
The wheel is therefore the most important choice a roulette player makes, and it takes a second. The demo we played, Play'n GO's European Roulette Pro, uses the single-zero wheel, and we would always look for that one first (the double zero is printed on the "layout", which makes it easy to spot).
French rules, where they exist
Some single-zero tables add a rule for "even-money" bets (red or black, odd or even, high or low), called "la partage" or "en prison", under which a zero returns half of such a bet or holds it for the next spin. Either way the cost of those bets falls to 1.35 per cent (half the usual figure), which makes a French table the cheapest roulette you can find for even-money bets.
The rule covers those bets alone, on tables that state it. We would check the "help screen" for the phrase before assuming it, since many tables that look French in their layout follow ordinary European rules!
| Bet | Numbers covered | Pays | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight (one number) | 1 | 35 to 1 | 2.70% |
| Split | 2 | 17 to 1 | 2.70% |
| Street | 3 | 11 to 1 | 2.70% |
| Corner | 4 | 8 to 1 | 2.70% |
| Six line | 6 | 5 to 1 | 2.70% |
| Dozen or column | 12 | 2 to 1 | 2.70% |
| Red, black, odd, even, high, low | 18 | 1 to 1 | 2.70% |
Why every bet costs the same
The table above is the most useful single fact about roulette, and it is easy to verify: every payout is set as if the zero did not exist; every standard bet therefore loses the same 1 in 37 of its value on average, whether it covers one number or eighteen. What changes from one bet to another is how often it wins and how much it pays when it does, which is a matter of "variance" (how far results swing around the average, from one spin to the next) rather than of cost.
That is also why no combination of bets can beat the wheel. A player covering twenty-five numbers wins more often than one betting a single number, and pays exactly the same share of the total staked, a point that the page on betting systems works through with the most famous systems.
Hot numbers, cold numbers
Many roulette screens show which numbers have come up most and least often, as if the wheel had moods. In our demo of European Roulette Pro, after a single spin that landed on 24, the "hot numbers" panel showed 24 at one hundred per cent and every other number at zero, which is what a count of past results must show after one spin.
The panel is accurate about the past and useless about the future, because each spin of a fair wheel is independent of the last (the wheel has no memory of what it did, and a number absent for an hour is no more due than any other). The account of that spin, with the screenshot of the panel, is on our European Roulette Pro page.
Multiplier variants
Newer roulette games (many of them on live tables) strike a few numbers at random on each spin with a multiplied payout. To pay for the multipliers the ordinary "straight-up" payout is usually reduced below 35 to 1, so that most spins pay less than the classic game would and a few pay much more, and the help screen of each table states the return of every bet.
We would read that return before playing, because the multipliers change the spread of results far more than the average. If you want the cheapest roulette, the plain single-zero wheel (or a French table, for even-money bets) remains the better choice, whatever the lights suggest.
Limits, and the evening
Every table has a minimum and a maximum stake (printed on the layout), and the maximum is what defeats the systems that double after a loss. A "loss limit" set in the account before the first spin (which every registered site in Alberta must offer) does more for you than any pattern of bets, and the page on responsible gambling lists the other tools.
By the Alberta Casinos Online editorial team · Last updated: November 13, 2026 · Online since 2026
