Roulette Bet Types Explained

Roulette Bet Types

Roulette players must understand odds, payouts, and strategies if they want to maximize their winnings. We’ll go into more detail shortly, but wagers are generally split into two types of roulette bets: inside and outside bets. Outside bets are safer but have lower returns, while inside bets carry more risk and potential for bigger winnings.

Outside Bets: Safer with Lower Returns

Roulette outside bets are made up of bets placed on, you guessed it, the outside perimeter of the table. They are centered around wagering colors and groups of numbers, rather than individual numbers.

Red or Black Bet

Red or black bets are among the safest and easiest to make in roulette—just simply guess whether the ball will land on a red or black number. These are even money wagers (1:1) with a slightly less than 50/50 chance of winning, since the 0 and 00 pockets don’t have colors.

Example: If you bet $5 that the ball lands on a red pocket, and it does, you’d win $5. The total payout would be $10.

Even or Odd Bet

Even or odd bets are exactly what they sound like; betting on if the ball lands on an odd or even number. This is a low risk bet (1:1) that also has a slightly less than 50% chance of winning, since 0 and 00 aren’t odd or even, they give the house a slight advantage. Even or odd wagers offer the potential for frequent wins, since most numbers fall into one category or the other.

Example: If you bet $5 that the ball lands on an odd number, and it does, you’d win $5. The total payout would be $10.

High or Low Bet

The high or low bet predicts whether the ball will stop on the low (1–18) or high (19–36) end of the wheel. Like red/black and even/odd roulette wagers, high or low bets have a slightly less than 50% chance of winning. This makes for a fairly safe wager, as you’re essentially splitting the wheel in half and guessing which side the ball will land on.

Example: If you bet $5 that the ball will land on the low, and it lands on 12, you’d win $5. The total payout would be $10.

Dozens Bet

Similar to a high/low bet, the dozens bet predicts which third of the wheel the ball lands on:

First 12: 1–12
Second 12: 13–24
Third 12: 25–36

The bets have moderately longer odds than red/black, odd/even, and high/low bets, with slightly bigger payouts as a result. Dozens are 2:1 bets, meaning that you win $1 for every $2 wagered.

Example: If you bet $5 on the third 12 and it lands on 33, you’d win $10. The total payout would be $15.

Column Bet

Column bets predict which group of 12 numbers the ball will land on. The groups are determined by three columns on the roulette table; rather than which third of the wheel like in dozens bets. By selecting a whole column to bet on, you can cover approximately 1/3 of the numbers, and potentially increase your winnings as well.

Column 1: 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34
Column 2: 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35
Column 3: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36

Column bets are 2:1 bets, meaning that you win $1 for every $2 wagered.

Example: If you bet $5 on Column 2 and it lands on 20, you’d win $10. The total payout would be $15.

Inside Bets: Higher Risk, Higher Reward

Roulette inside bets cover picks from the table’s inside rectangle, where all the numbers are located. These bets are harder to hit, but most of them offer much bigger winnings than outside roulette bets do.

Straight Bet

A straight bet in roulette is the hardest to win—but it also comes with the biggest rewards. Just bet on which number the ball will land on, simple as that. If it lands, you win.

The straight bet has a 35:1 win ratio, so you win $35 for every $1 wagered.

Example: If you bet $5 on 22, and it lands on 22, you’d win $175. The total payout would be $180; not bad for a $5 bet.

Split Bet

Roulette split bets are when players bet on the line separating two numbers, and if either number comes up, you win. Sample split bets include:

3/24
21/33
2/0
7/20
12/8

Split bets have a 17:1 bet ratio, meaning you win $17 for every $1 wagered. They are slightly safer than straight bets, since you’re predicting one of two numbers rather than a single number.

Example: If you place a $5 split bet on 21|33 and the ball lands on 33, you’d win $85. The total payout would be $90.

Street Bet

A street bet in roulette (also called Trio or Steam bets) consists of betting on the ball landing on a row of three consecutive numbers. For example:

1, 2, 3
11, 12, 13
26, 27, 28

This bet type pays 11:1, winning you $11 for every $1 wagered.

Example: If you bet $5 on a 26, 27, 28 street bet and the ball lands on 26, you’d win $55. The total payout would be $60.

Six Line Bet

Six line roulette bets are similar to street bets, but cover two rows of three numbers instead of one row of three. For example:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31

These bets pay 5:1, or $5 for every $1 wagered.

Example: If you bet $5 on a 26–31 six line bet and the balls stops at 28, you’d win $25. The total payout would be $30.

Corner (Square) Bet

A roulette corner bet is when you bet on one of four adjacent numbers on the roulette table. The numbers must touch each other on the board, and if the ball lands on any of the four numbers, you win. For example:

Corner bets in roulette are also called square or four-number bets, and have an 8:1 betting ratio. They pay $8 for every $1 wagered.

Example: If you bet $5 on a 16-17-19-20 corner bet and it lands on 17, you’d win $40. The total payout would be $45.

Call Bets: Advanced Roulette Bets

Roulette call bets are bets that the player verbally announces to the dealer, rather than setting chips on one specific place on the table. They are typically found on European and French roulette variations, as these tables feature a racetrack oval that represent the numbers on the wheel—in addition to the traditional rows and columns layout of standard roulette tables.

Please note that the following bet types are based on a single-zero roulette wheel.

Voisins du Zero

Voisins du Zero means “Neighbors of Zero” and describes the 17 closest numbers to 0, which are the numbers between 22 and 25 on the wheel (including 0) — 22, 18, 29, 7, 28, 12, 35, 3, 26, 0, 32, 15, 19, 4, 21, 2, and 25.

The bet can’t be placed with a single chip, so players need to place nine chips on the table to make a voisins du zero bet. The chips are placed as follows:

Two chips on the 0, 2, 3 trio
One chip on the 4/7 split
One chip on the 12/15 split
One chip on the 18/21 split
One chip on the 19/22 split
One chip on the 32/35 split
Two chips on the 25, 26, 28, 29 corner

One reason why voisins du zero is popular is that they are comprised of one trio, five split, and one corner bet. The odds for the entire bet are 45.95%, which breaks down as follows:

0,2,3 Trio: 8.11%
Split bets: 27.03%
Corner bet: 10.81%

Tiers du Cylindre

The Tiers du Cylindre bet (“thirds of the wheel”) covers the 12 numbers between 27 and 33 on the opposite side of zero — 27, 13, 36, 11, 30, 8, 23, 10, 5, 24, 16, and 33. This bet requires six chips on the table, with one chip placed on each of the following splits:

5/8
10/11
13/16
23/24
27/30
33/36

This type of bet has a combined 32.43% chance of winning across the 12 covered numbers.

Orphelins

Roulette orphelins (“orphans”) are bets that cover eight numbers in the two sections of the wheel that aren’t covered by voisins du zero and tiers du cylindre wagers— 17, 34, 6, 1, 20, 14, 31, and 9. The bet is made by placing chips on the following five bets:

Straight up bet on 1
6/9
14/17
17/20
31/34

Orphelins carry a 21.62% chance of winning.

Roulette Bet Tips

Keep the following roulette betting tips in mind as you play, as they can help you better understand the game.

Even Money Bets Aren’t 50/50

Even money bets — Red or Black/Even or Odd — seem like they are straight 50/50 bets, but looks can be deceiving. The presence of 0 and 00 pockets skew these odds, as zero squares are neither odd nor even. Furthermore, these pockets are colored green; neither red nor black.

An American roulette wheel has 38 pockets — 18 black, 18 red, 2 green. So Red or Black bets have a 47.37% win probability (18 ÷ 38); therefore a 52.63% probability the house wins. The same principal applies to Even or Odd bets as well.

Almost All Bets Have the Same House Edge

European roulette bets have a 2.7% house edge, while most American roulette bets have a 5.26% house edge because of the extra 0.

The house edge in roulette represents the amount of money you can expect to lose playing over a hypothetical infinite period of time. This number is consistent across most of the 14 available roulette bets because the true odds of a bet differ from the payout odds offered by the casino.

For example:

A single number straight bet has true odds of 1 in 36, or 2.7%, but the payout odds are 35:1. This slight discrepancy between true and payout odds is what creates the house edge. A two number split has true odds of 2 in 36, or 5.5%, but the payout odds are cut in half to 17:1 to balance out the doubled odds of winning.

In other words: even though you have double the chance of winning a split bet than a single bet, the payout for doing so is cut in half. This true odds-to-payout odds ratio keeps the 2.7% house edge on all bets except for the American roulette’s 5 line bet.

The 5 line predicts that one of 5 numbers out of 38 will land, or 13.15%. However, the bet has significantly lower payout odds of 6:1, giving the house a 7.89% house edge; higher than the normal 5.26% edge in other American roulette bets. For this reason, the 5 line is arguably the worst bet in roulette.

Roulette Odds Aren’t as Bad as You Think

Even though roulette has a relatively high house edge at 2.7–5.26%, this number is somewhat misleading. All casino games will eventually take your money if you play them long enough, no matter how small the edge is.

Roulette is a slower casino game compared to quicker games like video poker, slots, or baccarat. So while these games may have lower house edges than roulette, since you play them at a faster rate there’s the potential to lose more money despite the lower house edge.

For example:

The popular Jacks or Better video poker title has a house edge of 0.5%. However, the average hand-per-hour rate of video poker is 600 hands, compared to roughly 55 games per hour in roulette.

If you play $1 per hand you can expect to lose approximately $3 per hour playing video poker ($1 x 600 x 0.005 = $3), while $1 per hand in European roulette would come out to approximately $1.49 in losses per hour ($1 x 55 x 0.027 = $1.49).

Roulette Bets: Key Points

Understanding roulette bet types can potentially help you win more games. Whether you’re making safer outside bets with lower returns, riskier inside bets for bigger prizes, or advanced call bets, the ability to make more informed wagers can make for entertaining gambling sessions.

You can potentially increase your roulette betting success by employing strategies like the Martingale or Fibonacci methods, and it’s always good to understand the difference between true odds and payout odds as well. If you’d like to try various bets and strategies you can visit some of the best online roulette casinos from the comfort of home before heading to in-person casinos to spin the wheel.

Zachary

Wolf

Content Editor

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Zachary Wolf is a Content Editor specializing in online gambling content. His writing credits writing credits include state-specific U.S. gambling laws, casino reviews, and various sports betting guides — most notably WWE betting guides. He enjoys playing slots, poker, and blackjack, among other games.

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