Roulette variants · American · one round
American Roulette: One Round on a Double-Zero Wheel
Two green pockets, 38 in all, and a house edge of 5.26% on almost every bet. Watch one round at an example high-limit table, from the limit panel to settlement, then see where the extra cost comes from. You watch; you do not play.
How one round of American roulette runs
This section shows roulette game visuals: a wheel, a betting layout and example bets. Are you 18 or over?
An explainer, not a game. Nothing can be staked or paid out here. 18+
The numbers for this step
Example table with illustrative limits. The example bets are fixed; the pocket comes from a seeded random draw over the 38 pockets, so every reader sees the same round. Every figure is computed in the page from the wheel and the payout table.
Step by step
01An American wheel has 38 pockets: 18 red, 18 black and two greens.
An American roulette wheel carries the numbers 1 to 36, a green 0 and a green 00, so 38 pockets in all. The double zero sits directly opposite the single zero. Going round the wheel, red and black alternate pocket by pocket, with the two greens as the only exceptions. The order is fixed and makes no number more likely than another.
02The example table takes £5 to £10,000 a spin, at most £250 on one number.
Before any chip goes down, the limit panel sets the frame. This example table accepts from £5 up to £10,000 on a single spin, but no more than £250 on one number. The single-number cap sits far below the table maximum because a straight-up bet pays 35 to 1, so a small stake can mean a large payout.
03Two bets go down: £100 on red and £100 straight up on 17.
Two example bets are placed. £100 goes on the red box, an even-money bet that covers the 18 red numbers. Another £100 goes straight up on 17, a single number that pays 35 to 1. Both stakes are inside the table's limits, and £200 is now on the layout.
04No more bets: from here nothing can be added, moved or taken back.
The dealer calls no more bets, and on a live or automated table the betting window closes on screen. From this moment the layout is frozen. No chip can be added, moved or withdrawn until the round is settled, which is what keeps every stake tied to the result that follows.
05The wheel turns one way, the ball the other; each pocket has a 1 in 38 chance.
The wheel is set turning in one direction and the ball is launched in the other. As both slow down, the ball drops from the rim and bounces into a pocket. On a fair wheel every one of the 38 pockets is equally likely, so any single number comes up once in 38 spins on average.
06The ball settles in 13, a black pocket.
The ball comes to rest in pocket 13, which is black. The dealer marks the number on the layout. Red does not cover 13, and the straight-up bet sits on 17, so neither of this round's bets is touched by the result. Thirteen had the same 1 in 38 chance as every other pocket, the two greens included.
07Red and 17 both lose: £200 is cleared from the layout.
Settlement follows the payout table. A bet on red would have been paid 1 to 1, and 17 would have been paid 35 to 1 had the ball found it. With 13 black, both stakes are lost and the dealer clears £200 from the layout. A single round says nothing about the price of the game; the next step settles every possible pocket at once.
08Across all 38 pockets, £200 staked returns £189.47 on average: 2/38 = 5.26%.
Settle the same two bets against every pocket once. Red returns its £200 on 18 of the 38 pockets; 17 returns £3,600 on one. Added up and divided by 38, that is £189.47 back for every £200 staked. The payouts are set as if the wheel had 36 pockets, and the two greens are the gap: two pockets in 38, or 5.26%.
09The five-number bet on 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 pays 6 to 1: 3/38 = 7.89%.
One bet on the American layout is priced worse than the rest. The five-number bet, placed on the corner where 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 meet, pays 6 to 1. A fair price for five pockets in 38 would be 6.6 to 1. Over all 38 pockets it pays back 35 of every 38 pounds staked, a house edge of 7.89%.
10Remove the double zero and the same two bets cost 1/37 = 2.70%.
Take away the 00 pocket and the same two bets on a single-zero wheel lose only one pocket in 37 to the house, 2.70%. On this round's £200 that is an average cost of £5.41 instead of £10.53. The payouts never changed; the extra green pocket alone nearly doubles the cost of every pound staked.
11A million seeded rounds of the same bets average close to the exact −£10.53.
As a last check, the page plays the same two bets over a million seeded rounds on the American wheel and averages the results. The simulated average lands within about half a pound of the exact figure from the 38-pocket count, which is the random spread a million rounds still leave. Any single round can go either way; over many rounds the double zero takes its share.
How the numbers are made
Example table with illustrative limits. The example bets are fixed; the pocket comes from a seeded random draw over the 38 pockets, so every reader sees the same round. Every figure is computed in the page from the wheel and the payout table.