Roulette Wagering Options

18 January 2024

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: The double-zero (0, 00) roulette game is called the American game and it can be found in almost all casinos in the world. The house edge is 5.26 percent which means an expected loss of $5.26 per $100 wagered.

ABBY: Roulette has 36 numbers which go from 1 through 36 along with two green zero numbers of 0 and 00.

CINDY: There are numerous bets players can make at the game. The inside, straight-up bet is placed directly on a number. If you place your chip(s) on 17 (which is often called James Bond’s number) and the ball lands in that particular pocket the player wins $35 for every $1 he or she bets. So, if you bet $50 and the win is $1750.

ABBY: You can bet on as many inside numbers as you wish (yes, if you were crazy you could bet all the numbers – a seriously losing proposition since the payout shortchanges the odds by two units). You can make these bets individually by placing your bet on the number or by combining numbers by betting on the lines between numbers and on the outside of numbers. Betting every number individually can be costly. Using combined numbers is obviously far less costly.

CINDY: Around the outside of the main layout are proposition bets. You can bet the “dozens bets,” or the “columns bets.” The column bets have 12 numbers each but do not contain the green 0 and 00. Here, again, you only need one bet to cover all the numbers contained in one of these groupings. If you want to bet a zero (0) or double-zero (00) along with a column or two columns that wager has to be made separately. The column bet pays off at two-to-one. The house edge is what? Again, the edge of 5.26 percent rules.

ABBY: Now we come to the “even-money” bets. These are the red/black, odd/even, and high/low bets. The are called even-money bets because they pay even money. You bet $50, win, and you are paid $50. However, they are not 50/50 propositions. The player will win 18 times and lose 20 times when the green zero or zero-zero appears. You can bet a green number to but again the casino will still have its 5.26 percentage edge over you.

CINDY: Please notice that half the numbers are red and half are black. Half are odd and half are even. Half are high and half are low.

ABBY: Now there are two other roulette games out there, one excellent and one awful. The excellent one is called the European or French game and the other one is called the “awful” game. The European game has only one zero (0) which is usually green but sometimes blue. So, it has numbers 1-36 and that one zero. The house edge is 2.70 percent. The payment for a winning bet is still 35-to-one.

CINDY: The awful game has three zeroes (0, 00, 000). This one is now being ushered into the casinos as fast as the Flash, the super-speeding superhero! The house edge on the game is 7.69 percent…awful.

ABBY: When possible avoid the awful game. If you can’t? Then bet every other decision so you aren’t wagering more money during your playing time.

CINDY: Next week we’ll look at ways to bet roulette.