Roulette House Edge

As pointed out on Roulette Odds, there is a house edge with every roulette game and no sequence or combination of bets can overcome this fact. What we're going to do here is discuss the house edge in a little more detail for each different version of the game.

European Roulette

This is the most common roulette game that you find online. The house edge for this game stands at 2.7% and this is created by the single "0" which is also known as the green slot.

Without the zero the game would fair payments which would mean no house edge, with the addition of the zero but payments remaining the same, it tips the balance in the favour of the house.

French Roulette

This is the game with the best odds. In essence the game is exactly the same as European roulette with the only difference being the rules with the zero and even chance bets.

If you have a bet on any of the even chance bets (red/black, odd/even, 1-18/19-36) and the zero lands you get half of your bet back. For example, a £20 bet on red and the zero hitting would result in you getting $10 back. Hardly idea but better than a full on loss.

American Roulette

This is the game that you will find in the Las Vegas casinos. It's a game that's offered online as well but it doesn't make much sense to play it because the house has a bigger advantage than any other game at 5.26%.

This is because there is a second green slot "00" but the pay outs of each bet have remained the same. Unless the payments are adjusted for each slot that's added, the house edge increases.

Zero Roulette

This is as we discussed on the zero roulette page. At Betfair Casino they have a game with no zero meaning no house edge. This game is delivered by stylish Playtech software as well so you don't need to worry about horrid game play.