17 Roulette Facts That Can Surprise Your Friends & Might Win You Money

Our list of roulette facts can not only surprise your friends, and understanding a bit how it works might also help you win some money. The game has been around for hundreds of years, and collected some interesting rules and stories along the way.

1. Roulette Odds Aren’t as Bad as You Think

American roulette has a relatively high 5.26% house edge, however, it has one major advantage over most casino games; it’s much slower. This means fewer bets per hour, which can also lower your expected hourly losses.

Roulette averages 55 spins per hour, so if you bet $5 per spin you’d wager $275 per hour. Taking the 5.26% house edge into account, you might expect to lose $14.47 every hour. By comparison, video poker averages 600 hands per hour. So even though video poker has a lower 2.7% house edge — roughly half of roulette — you could expect to wager $3,000 and lose $81 over the same amount of time betting $5 per hand.

While roulette may not offer the best odds for a casino game, the slower pace can help you stretch your playing time and bankroll a bit further. And if you want to play roulette as a career, understanding roulette odds and house edge could be a good start. 

2. Even Money Bets Aren’t 50/50

Roulette has three even money bets:

• Red or black
• Odd or even
• Low (1–18) or high (19–36)

These bets may seem like straight 50/50 bets, but they’re not. 

A standard American roulette wheel has 38 pockets: 1–36, and two zero pockets (0 & 00). The presence of 38 pockets immediately cancels out the low vs. high bet as 50/50, since the two options only cover 36 of 38 pockets. 

Also, the two zero pockets are neither red or black, but green. So that eliminates red or black bets as 50/50 wagers. And since zeroes are neither odd nor even, those bets are out the window as 50/50 bets as well. 

Therefore the odds of winning an even money bet in roulette are actually 47.37% (18  ÷ 38 = 0.4737), rather than 50%.

In short: the ball landing on zero pockets cancels out all even money bets. 

It’s also worth mentioning that European roulette only has one zero pocket instead of two. So while the odds are slightly more player friendly, even money bets aren’t 50/50 in European roulette either.

3. Almost All Bets Have the Same House Edge

In American roulette, all bets carry the same house 5.26% edge except for one. The way this is achieved is that the payouts are calculated for a 36 wheel pocket, but there are actually 38 pockets on the wheel: 36 plus two zero pockets. 

For instance, the odds of winning a straight up (single number) bet are 37:1, but the payout is only 35:1. This slight discrepancy in odds vs. actual payout is where the house advantage lies, since 2 ÷ 38 = 0.526. 

In a red/black wager you have an 18 in 38, or 47.37% chance of winning. The payout for winning a red/black wager is 1:1. However, the payout should be 19:18, rather than 1:1. This variance in odds vs. payout also gives the house a 5.26% edge.

The lone exception to this rule is the Five-Number bet on 0-00-1-2-3. The odds of winning this bet are approximately 1:7.6, but the wager pays out 1:6. Rather than the standard 5.26% house edge, the Five-Number actually has a 7.89% house edge; making it the worst bet in American Roulette.

4. There’s No Way to Get an Edge in Roulette

While some players try to gain an edge in roulette by raising or lowering their wagers based on past spins, the truth is that there’s no way to get an advantage in roulette. The reason is that past results have no effect on future outcomes. 

For example: if the ball lands on black five times in a row, you may think that landing on red is “due.” But the reality is that the next spin has the same 47.37% chance of landing on either color; the previous five spins have no effect on the upcoming one. 

5. European Roulette vs. American Roulette

American and European roulette are the two most common variations. The primary difference between them is that American roulette has two zero pockets (0,00) while European wheels only have one. Because of this, European roulette has a 2.7% house edge — half of the 5.27% house edge on American wheels.

Because of this, you can expect to lose less money playing European roulette as opposed to American roulette. It’s the big reason why European roulette is far more popular than American, and that it’s best to play on European wheels when they’re available.

6. Both Roulette Versions are Available Online

Most online casinos offer both American and European roulette versions. This isn’t exclusive to gambling websites either, as many land-based casinos feature the two variations side by side. Many players don’t notice the difference, and even then they might not realize the vast disparity in house edge between the two.

And since the costs of offering both games is exponentially less in online casinos vs. land-based ones, it’s no shock that online casinos feature a wide selection of both American and European roulette wheels. 

You can visit the best roulette sites online to try the different variations out for yourself.

7. The Hard Truth About the Martingale System

The Martingale System is a popular even-money roulette strategy that sees the player adjust their bets according to the results of the previous spins. The basic idea is to double your bet every time you lose, so that when you finally win you’ll recover your losses and turn a profit. 

Say you start off with a $10 bet. You lose the bet, so you bet $20 the next time. You lose again and bet $40 after that. When you finally win, you’ll have recovered all of your losses plus gained a profit. 

While it’s effective on paper, the Martingale System has two flaws: You don’t have an unlimited bankroll, and the casino has table betting limits. If you hit a bad cold streak you can quickly lose all of the money you have allocated to playing. Not only that, but eventually you’ll hit the maximum bet and be unable to bet enough to cover your losses. 

When the Martingale System does work, the house edge means that the profits are so small that it’s likely not worth your time. 

8. The Roulette Wheel Numbers Add Up to 666

One popular nickname for roulette is “The Devil’s Wheel,” since all of the numbers add up to 666. This is bad news for people that suffer from hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, or the fear of 666. So if you suffer from hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, I recommend staying away from roulette. 

9. Roulette Uses Different Chips

Roulette wheels feature different chips than those used in the rest of the casino. Each player gets a unique set of colored chips to play with, which makes it easier for the croupier to hand out winnings. 

If everyone used the same chips you’d have multiple people placing multiple bets all over the table, making it extremely difficult for the croupier to track bets and pay the winning player out. 

Another difference is that you buy your chips directly from the table’s croupier, rather than at the main casino cage. 

10. Roulette Etiquette

Like all activities, roulette has an etiquette players are expected to stick to. And while it’s advisable to display good manners at the roulette table, there’s also etiquette built directly into the game’s rules.

Good Roulette Manners

• Buy chips between spins as not to interrupt the game
• Don’t eat at the roulette table
• Place your chips on your bet, don’t throw them

Roulette Etiquette Rules

• You’re only allowed to have cash, chips, a drink, or cigarettes in front of you; no bags or other items
• Do not hand money directly to the dealer when buying chips; place the money on the table
• Once the dealer announces  “No more bets” you can’t change or cancel your bet

11. Roulette Dates Back to the 17th Century

French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal is often credited with inventing roulette. Pascal had tried to create a perpetual motion machine in the form of a wheel that features a continually moving ball. Pascal died in 1662, and in 1720 an unknown party combined the invention with an Italian game of chance called Biribi. 

An early form of roulette was played in Britain in the late 18th century, and the first modern version of the game appeared in the French territory of Quebec as early as 1758. A guide to regulation in Quebec (then called “New France”) banned “games of dice, hoca, faro, and roulette.” 

12. France Loves Roulette

Roulette is an extremely popular casino game in France, and it’s no wonder considering that the game was invented there. As a matter of fact, French casinos feature far more roulette wheels than slot machines than their American counterparts.

13. Roulette is Played with Cards in California

One of California’s gambling laws stipulates that while gambling is legal, the only device that can generate results is a deck of cards. 

As a result, “California Roulette” is a roulette variation played with 38 cards rather than spinning a ball. Some versions see the croupier pull the top card from the deck to determine the outcome, while others use a machine to dispense a card. 

Other than the game being played with cards instead of dice, the odds and payouts of California roulette are the same as in traditional games.

14. Ashley Revell’s Incredible Risk and Win

In 2004 an English entrepreneur named Ashley Revell sold all of his possessions to bet approximately $135,000 on a single red or black roulette bet; and won. 

Revell employed a gambling strategy called Maximum Boldness. The theory behind Maximum Boldness is that the longer you play, the more the house has an edge. 

Therefore, your best chance to win is to place as few bets as possible. Betting once on red (as Revell did) gives you a 47.37% chance to double your money. But if you place two bets you’d have to win twice to do so. 

While the Maximum Boldness strategy worked for Ashley Revell, we don’t recommend selling all of your possessions, let alone doing so to place a single bet on roulette — or any other game. 

15. The Dealer is Called the “Croupier”

Roulette dealers are called croupiers, which in my opinion gives the game a certain panache that other casino games lack. After all, their dealers are just called “dealers” except for in craps, in which dealers are called “The Stickman.” 

But even that isn’t nearly as cool as a croupier. 

And as a side note: The 1998 Clive Owen film “The Croupier” is fantastic and worth checking out. 

16. Popularity in Gambling Movies and TV Shows 

Roulette is a popular casino game that has been shown in an array of popular movies and TV shows that include:

• Casablanca
• I Love Lucy
• The Sting
• Madagascar
• Mission Impossible
• Support Your Local Gunfighter
• The Croupier
• Run, Lola, Run

17. Roulette Is Often Misrepresented in Movies

A common trope in movies is for the roulette croupier to make the ball land on a specific pocket, which is simply impossible. One famous example of this is in Casablanca, where casino-owner Rick (Humphrey Bogart) signals the dealer, who then makes the ball land on 22 twice in a row; thus helping a young couple win money to escape Nazi-occupied Morocco. 

The reality is that there is no way to make the ball land in a particular pocket. There’s just too many variables to a ball spinning in the wheel to make it feasible. At best you may be able to help the ball land within a certain range of numbers, but the ability to rig the game to that degree can’t be done. 

Using Roulette Facts to Potentially Win Big

These roulette facts not only offer fun anecdotes, but it might also help you win some money playing the game. Even though roulette has a higher house edge than some other casino games, by understanding how the house edge works you can potentially make more informed wagers, and win some money along the way.