American Roulette in the UK: Payouts, Odds and the 5.26% Edge

01The wheel

How many numbers are on an American roulette wheel?

There are 38 pockets: the numbers 1 to 36, a green 0 and a green 00. The double zero sits directly opposite the single zero, which splits the wheel into two halves and keeps the other numbers evenly spread between them. Players sometimes call it the 00 roulette wheel, and that second green pocket is the only physical difference from a European wheel.

The numbers do not run in order. Read clockwise from the single zero, an American wheel runs 0, 28, 9, 26, 30, 11, 7, 20, 32, 17, 5, 22, 34, 15, 3, 24, 36, 13, 1, 00, 27, 10, 25, 29, 12, 8, 19, 31, 18, 6, 21, 33, 16, 4, 23, 35, 14, 2. Red and black alternate all the way round, with the two greens as the exceptions.

Half of the 36 numbers are red and half are black, 18 each, and the same is true of odd and even. The two zeros belong to none of these groups, which is how the house takes its share on even-money bets: when 0 or 00 lands, red, black, odd, even, high and low all lose.

02The payouts

American roulette payouts: what each bet pays

The payouts are the ones printed on every roulette layout, and they are the same as on a European table. That is the trap. The prices have not changed, but the wheel behind them has one more losing pocket, so the same payout is worth less.

Each row below shows what the bet pays, the odds a fair game would have to pay, and the share of each stake the house keeps. Every bet but one keeps 5.26%.

A common question is whether some bets are safer than others. On an American wheel they are not, in the sense that matters: each pound staked costs you 5.26p on average, whether it sits on one number or on 18. The bet changes how often you win and how big the win is, never the price.

03The maths

American roulette odds and the five-number bet

The house edge falls straight out of the wheel. A single number wins on 1 spin in 38, and a fair game would pay 37 to 1. The table pays 35 to 1, so each £1 bet is expected to return £36 in 38 spins, a loss of £2 in £38. That is 2 ÷ 38, or 5.26%. In short, American roulette wheel odds and house edge come down to one chance in 38 for any single number and two pockets in 38 for the house.

The same sum works for every other bet, which is why the percentage never moves. A split wins 2 times in 38 and pays 17 to 1: the expected return is (2 × 18) ÷ 38 = £0.9474 per £1 staked, so the edge is again 5.26%. Even-money bets win 18 times in 38 and pay 1 to 1: (18 × 2) ÷ 38 gives the same £0.9474.

04The cost

What a session costs: American against European

Percentages hide the size of the gap, so put it in pounds. Expected cost is stake × spins × house edge. At £1,000 per spin over 60 spins, you stake £60,000 in total. On an American wheel the expected cost is £60,000 × 2 ÷ 38 = £3,158. On a European wheel it is £60,000 × 1 ÷ 37 = £1,622.

That is £1,536 more for the same stake, the same number of spins and the same bets. Per spin the figures are £52.63 and £27.03. These are averages over very many sessions. One evening can finish far above or below them, which is the point of a house edge: it shows up in the long run, not in the next spin.

Our European roulette guide and the French roulette guide show the single-zero side of the same comparison, including the 1.35% La Partage tables.

05The layout

The American roulette table: layout and rules to check

An American layout is built around the two zeros. 0 and 00 sit side by side at the top of the number grid, above the three columns, and the dozens, columns and even-money boxes follow below and beside it. The American roulette layout and bet types are otherwise the familiar ones: straight up, split, street, corner, dozen, column and the even-money chances, plus the five-number bet that only this layout offers. Unlike a traditional French layout, an American one usually has no racetrack and no call bets.

06The limits

American roulette at high stakes in UK lobbies

American roulette is a minority game at UK casinos. Most live studios run single-zero tables, and the high limits sit on those. A double-zero table usually appears as one title among dozens, aimed at players who want the US layout rather than a big maximum.

In our check of ten UK casinos on 02.11.2026, American Roulette from Pragmatic Live runs from £0.10 to £10,000 in the game data that the lobbies of 247Bet and Playzee load. That data is the casinos' own, but neither prints it on the tile or the game page, and it does not say which bet the maximum applies to. It is a real high-stakes ceiling, yet the same lobbies load the same £10,000 for French Roulette, a single-zero table that costs about half as much per spin.

No other casino in our check publishes a limit for an American table, so we state none. If you find one elsewhere, read its limits in the game panel before you stake.

Compare any American table with the single-zero tables in the same lobby, using our high stakes roulette casinos ranking and the table-limit finder. If a European table takes your stake, it is the cheaper choice.

07The verdict

Our high-roller verdict on American roulette

For big stakes, American roulette is the most expensive wheel in a UK lobby. The payouts look the same as on a European wheel and the layout looks familiar, but the double zero adds 2.56 percentage points of edge on every spin. At £1,000 a spin that is about £25 more per spin, and over a 60-spin evening more than £1,500.

There are narrow reasons to play it: a limit that no single-zero table matches at your stake, or a preference for the US layout. If neither applies, move to a European table and, for even-money bets, to a French one with La Partage.

No staking plan, pattern or bet type changes the 5.26%. Set a loss limit and a time limit in your account before the first spin, and treat any session as money you have already decided you can spend.