How to Play Roulette: Rules, Bets and Payouts (Free Demo)

To play roulette, you put chips on the numbers or groups of numbers where you think the ball will land, the wheel is spun, and every bet that covers the winning pocket pays a fixed amount while the rest are lost. A single number pays 35 to 1, red or black pays 1 to 1, and every bet in between pays according to how many numbers it covers. A European wheel has 37 pockets, 0 to 36, and the single green zero is where the house edge comes from.

European Roulette: play the demo

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Roulette rules at a glance

How do you play roulette, step by step?

1. Buy in for chips. At a casino table you swap money for coloured chips; online you pick a chip value. Check the table's minimum and maximum bet first.
2. Place your bets. Put chips on the layout: on a number, on the line between numbers, or on the outside boxes such as red, odd or a dozen. You can place as many bets as you like on one spin.
3. The wheel is spun. The dealer spins the wheel one way and the ball the other. At a live table, "no more bets" is called just before the ball slows.
4. The ball lands. The pocket it drops into is the winning number, with its colour, odd or even, high or low, dozen and column.
5. Bets are settled. Every bet covering that number is paid at its odds, and you keep the stake too; every other bet is taken. Then the next round of betting opens.

What does the roulette table look like?

The layout has the numbers 1 to 36 in a grid of three columns and twelve rows, with the zero across the top (an American table adds 00 beside it). Eighteen numbers are red and eighteen are black; the red ones are 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 30, 32, 34 and 36. Around the grid sit the outside boxes: the three dozens (1–12, 13–24, 25–36), the three columns, and the six even-money boxes, 1–18, even, red, black, odd and 19–36. Bets on the grid are inside bets, and bets in the boxes are outside bets.

What bets can you make in roulette?

Inside bets cover one to six numbers and outside bets twelve or eighteen, and each one pays according to how many numbers it covers. Fewer numbers pay more and win less often. The chances below are for a European wheel of 37 pockets.

Next to the zero there are two more inside bets: a trio (0, 1, 2 or 0, 2, 3), which pays like a street, and the first four (0, 1, 2, 3), which pays like a corner. American tables also offer a five-number basket, 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3, at 6 to 1, the worst bet on any wheel. The roulette odds and payouts chart has every bet on every wheel, with a calculator.

How do roulette payouts work?

A roulette payout is quoted "to 1": the winnings on top of your stake, which you also get back. A 10-chip bet on one number that wins pays 350 and you keep the 10, so 360 comes back to you. A 10-chip bet on red that wins returns 20. If you have several bets on one spin, each is settled on its own, so a spin can win one bet and lose another.

The payouts are set as if the wheel had 36 pockets. A single number pays 35 to 1, fair odds for a 1 in 36 chance, but the wheel has 37. Over time that one extra pocket keeps 1 of every 37 units staked, the 2.70% house edge, and it is the same on every bet. It is also why no betting pattern can win in the long run, which our roulette strategy test shows over a million spins per system.

What happens when the ball lands on zero?

Zero is green, and it is neither red nor black, odd nor even, high nor low. When the ball lands there, only bets that cover zero win: a straight bet on 0, or a split, trio or first-four bet that includes it. Every outside bet loses. Some single-zero tables in Europe soften this on even-money bets with one of two rules:

• La partage: half of each even-money stake comes back when zero wins.
• En prison: the even-money stake stays on the table for the next spin, and is returned if that spin wins.

Either rule halves the edge on those bets, from 2.70% to 1.35%. Gift Club's table plays without them.

What is the difference between European and American roulette?

An American wheel adds a second green pocket, 00, so it has 38 pockets while the payouts stay the same. That nearly doubles the house edge, from 2.70% to 5.26%. French roulette uses the single-zero wheel with la partage or en prison and French names on the layout. If you can choose, play a single zero. The European roulette guide covers the single-zero table in more depth.

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How do you play roulette in Gift Club?

Gift Club's roulette is a single-zero table inside Telegram, played for Telegram Stars or Gram. It follows the rules above, and three things work in its own way.

• Chips and limits. Chips come in 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 Stars, and one spin holds from 1 to 1,000 Stars across up to 40 bets.
• Decimal payouts. Each bet shows the total it returns, stake included: 35.15× for a number, 17.57× for a split, 11.71× for a street, 8.78× for a corner, 5.85× for a six line, 2.92× for a dozen or column and 1.95× for the even-money bets. By its pay table that is an RTP of 94.70% to 95% depending on the bet.
• No zero rule. Red, black and the other even-money bets lose on zero, as at an American or standard European table.

Outside bets are tapped straight on the felt. The full number table opens from the strip above them, with a picker that sets the bet type, so a tap lands exactly the split, corner or six line you meant. Repeat puts your last layout back, and Double doubles it.

Spark rounds play the same table for XP: one Spark buys 10 practice chips, and no Stars are staked. Every paid spin is provably fair, and the provably fair checker recomputes it after you rotate your seed.

Roulette tips for beginners

• Start with outside bets. Red, black and the dozens win often and swing gently, so you learn the table without losing your stack in a few spins.
• Set your budget first. Every bet loses about 2.70% of its stake on a European wheel over time, so the total you stake decides what an evening costs.
• Ignore streaks. A colour that has come up five times is no more or less likely on the sixth spin. Expecting a change is the gambler's fallacy.
• Skip the systems. Doubling after a loss, and every other progression, changes how a session swings, never what it returns.

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Roulette

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How to play roulette FAQ

How do you play roulette for beginners?

Pick a chip value, place chips on a number, a group of numbers or an outside box such as red or a dozen, and wait for the spin. If the ball lands on a number your bet covers, you are paid at that bet's odds and keep your stake; otherwise the chips are lost. Outside bets like red or black are the gentlest place to start.

What are the basic rules of roulette?

Players bet on where the ball will land, the dealer spins the wheel, and the winning pocket settles every bet. A bet pays according to how many numbers it covers: 35 to 1 for one number, 17 to 1 for two, 11 to 1 for three, 8 to 1 for four, 5 to 1 for six, 2 to 1 for twelve and 1 to 1 for eighteen.

What is the best bet in roulette?

On a single-zero wheel every bet has the same 2.70% house edge, so none is better in the long run. Even-money bets are best only where la partage or en prison applies, which halves their edge to 1.35%. On an American wheel, avoid the five-number basket.

What happens if the ball lands on 0?

Only bets covering zero win. Red, black, odd, even, high, low, the dozens and the columns all lose, unless the table uses la partage or en prison, which return half of an even-money stake or hold it for the next spin.

How much does roulette pay on a single number?

35 to 1: a 1-chip bet that wins pays 35 and you keep the chip, 36 back in all. In Gift Club, a number returns 35.15× the stake, stake included.

Can I play roulette for free?

Yes. The demo on this page plays a real single-zero roulette table in your browser with no account and no download. In the Gift Club app, Spark rounds play the same table for XP, 1 Spark for 10 practice chips.