Atlassino Academy · Other tables · Lesson 9 of 10
The money wheel
The Joker pays the most on the money wheel and still keeps more of every bet than the spot with the smallest payout. Here is the wheel by its segments, what each spot keeps, and what a hundred spins cost.
On the money wheel the Joker pays 45 to 1 and the $1 spot pays 1 to 1. Which of the two keeps less of the money bet on it?
The short answer
The $1 spot. Of every 54 bets on the $1 spot, the wheel keeps 6 on average; of every 54 bets on the Joker, it keeps 8. A big payout says that a spot comes up rarely, not that the spot is cheap: the Joker covers 1 segment of the wheel, and a payout that kept nothing on the Joker would be 53 to 1.
The two spots differ in how many segments each one covers and in what each one pays. Here the bigger payout comes with the bigger share kept; across the whole wheel that is no rule, as the table of what each spot keeps shows further down.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
The board beside a money wheel reads like a list of payouts, and the eye goes to the biggest one. Read the board and the wheel together as a price list instead. Every spot has a price, the price is the same on every spin, and a wheel of fortune is a price list, not a fortune.
The wheel, its segments and what you bet on
The money wheel is divided into segments of equal size, and a bet goes on a spot: a symbol that covers one or more of those segments. Five of the spots are named for amounts, from $1 to $20, and two are named the Joker and the Casino. The result of a spin is the symbol where the pointer comes to rest.
54 squares, one for each segment of the wheel, grouped by spot: 24 for the $1 spot, 15 for the $2 spot, 7 for the $5 spot, 4 for the $10 spot, 2 for the $20 spot, 1 for the Joker and 1 for the Casino.
- The $1 spot24 segments · pays 1 to 1
- The $2 spot15 segments · pays 2 to 1
- The $5 spot7 segments · pays 5 to 1
- The $10 spot4 segments · pays 10 to 1
- The $20 spot2 segments · pays 20 to 1
- The Joker1 segment · pays 45 to 1
- The Casino1 segment · pays 45 to 1
One square for each segment, grouped by spot, and the counts in the list add up to 54. The squares show how much of the wheel each spot covers, not the order of the segments around the wheel: no document we could read prints that order.
On the live wheel in Quebec casinos each spot is paid at its own rate, from 1 to 1 on the $1 spot to 45 to 1 on the Joker and on the Casino, and the dealer collects the losing bets. A spin gives a result only when nothing touches the wheel and the wheel makes at least three full turns.
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
People watch the last few results and try to read something into them. I read the board and the wheel instead. The board tells you what each spot pays, the wheel shows how many segments each spot covers, and the two together are the price. Neither of them changes from one spin to the next.
What each spot keeps of every bet
Picture as many spins as there are segments, with every segment coming up exactly once. No real run of spins is that tidy, but that is how an average price is worked out, and it turns the price of a spot into a count of bets.
On the $5 spot, over spins in which every segment comes up once: the bets lost, less the bets paid, are the bets the spot keeps.
Every spot works the same way: the bets lost on the segments a spot does not cover, less the bets paid on the segments it does cover, are what the spot keeps of every 54 bets.
A fair payout would keep nothing. A fair payout pays as many to one as there are segments a bet loses on, for each segment the bet is paid on: the Joker loses on 53 segments and is paid on 1, so a fair payout on the Joker is 53 to 1. The wheel pays the Joker 45 to 1, and the gap between the two payouts is what the Joker keeps.
| Spot | Pays | A fair payout | Kept of every 54 bets |
|---|---|---|---|
| The $1 spot | 1 to 1 | 5 to 4 | 6 |
| The $2 spot | 2 to 1 | 13 to 5 | 9 |
| The $5 spot | 5 to 1 | 47 to 7 | 12 |
| The $10 spot | 10 to 1 | 25 to 2 | 10 |
| The $20 spot | 20 to 1 | 26 to 1 | 12 |
| The Joker | 45 to 1 | 53 to 1 | 8 |
| The Casino | 45 to 1 | 53 to 1 | 8 |
Read the last column, not the payout. The $1 spot keeps the least, and the spots that keep the most are not the spots with the biggest payout.
Electronic wheels: the same name, a pay table nobody prints
Big Six, Wheel of Fortune and Roue de fortune are names of the same game. At Casinos of Winnipeg, in Manitoba, an electronic Big Six played on Stadium Gaming terminals has a wheel of 54 segments, each with a symbol, paid by the odds in its own pay table; electronic terminals in a room in Quebec list a Big Six as well.
- The live wheel in the Quebec bookletSegmentsby spot, in printPayoutsin print
- An electronic Big Six at Casinos of Winnipeg, in ManitobaSegments54, in printPayoutson its own pay table, not in any document we could read
- Electronic terminals in a room in QuebecSegmentsnot in any document we could readPayoutsnot in any document we could read
Read across the three cards: only the live wheel in the Quebec booklet has both its segments and its payouts in print.
The arithmetic on this page holds only for a wheel with the same segments and the same payouts as the live wheel in the booklet. At an electronic wheel, read its own pay table before the first spin, and if the game shows how many segments each symbol covers, the same sum works with those numbers.
A hundred spins
No Canadian document we could read says how many spins a money wheel makes in an hour, so the price here is for a hundred spins, not for an hour. Bets go on the wheel within the minimum and the maximum shown at the table.
- One spin on the $5 spot$1.11on average, at $5 a spin, an example bet
- Spins100a count of spins, not an hour
- A hundred spins$111on average, at the same example bet
The $5 a spin is an example bet: not a table minimum, and not a suggested bet. The same hundred spins at the same example bet cost a different amount on every spot.
Each bar is a hundred spins at the same example bet, and only the spot changes from bar to bar. Amounts are in Canadian dollars.
The figure for a hundred spins is a long-run average and not a forecast. Any one hundred spins can come out well above it or well below it, and the practice run below plays thirty spins to show how far apart the two can be.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
A wheel turns fast, and every spin is a new bet. Decide how much money the wheel gets while you are still at home, and stop when that money is gone.
A spot that has not come up for a while is not owed to you, and a bigger bet to get a loss back only buys more spins at the same price. That pull has a lesson of its own: lesson 10.3, Chasing losses. If the money on the wheel starts to feel like money you need, the lines below are there for exactly that.
If it stops being fun
If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. 19+ in most of Canada; 18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. More on responsible gaming.
The lesson on one card
That is the lesson. Here it is on one card: print it, or keep it on your phone.
| Spot | Segments | Pays | Kept of every 54 bets |
|---|---|---|---|
| The $1 spot | 24 | 1 to 1 | 6 |
| The $2 spot | 15 | 2 to 1 | 9 |
| The $5 spot | 7 | 5 to 1 | 12 |
| The $10 spot | 4 | 10 to 1 | 10 |
| The $20 spot | 2 | 20 to 1 | 12 |
| The Joker | 1 | 45 to 1 | 8 |
| The Casino | 1 | 45 to 1 | 8 |
An electronic wheel’s payouts are not the ones in this table.
19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Set a limit before you place the first chip · Play responsibly · the line for your province is at Helplines by province
Practice: thirty spins
Thirty spins of the money wheel, three at a time: ten choices in all. Before each set of three spins you put an example $5 a spin on one spot, or you sit the three spins out. After each choice you see, under every spot, what that spot costs for a hundred spins on average, in large type, and in grey what these three spins actually did to that spot. The last screen also shows what all thirty spins did to each spot held from the first spin to the last.
Nothing is scored here. There is no right spot to find: every choice is allowed, and the point is to watch the average price and the actual result pull apart. The money is an example, and nothing is bet.
Lesson done
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The practice table needs JavaScript. Here is one set of three spins from it, with the answer.
The first three spins
The thirty spins so far, three at a time
$5 a spin, an example bet
Spins 1 to 3 are next. Where does your example $5 go on each of these three spins?
- The $1 spot $56 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the $1 spot: +$5.
- The $2 spot $83 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the $2 spot: $0.
- The $5 spot $111 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the $5 spot: −$15.
- The $10 spot $93 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the $10 spot: −$15.
- The $20 spot $111 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the $20 spot: −$15.
- The Joker $74 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the Joker: −$15.
- The Casino $74 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the Casino: −$15.
- Sitting these three spins out No bet: these three spins cost nothing and pay nothing.
Spins 1 to 3 stopped on the $2 spot, the $1 spot and the $1 spot. Three spins are far too few for the price to show through: the price is what a spot costs over many hundreds of spins, and what three spins do is mostly chance.
The last three spins
The thirty spins so far, three at a time
$5 a spin, an example bet
Spins 28 to 30 are next. Where does your example $5 go on each of these three spins?
- The $1 spot $56 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the $1 spot: +$5.What all thirty spins did to the $1 spot: −$10.
- The $2 spot $83 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the $2 spot: $0.What all thirty spins did to the $2 spot: −$15.
- The $5 spot $111 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the $5 spot: −$15.What all thirty spins did to the $5 spot: −$30.
- The $10 spot $93 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the $10 spot: −$15.What all thirty spins did to the $10 spot: −$40.
- The $20 spot $111 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the $20 spot: −$15.What all thirty spins did to the $20 spot: −$45.
- The Joker $74 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the Joker: −$15.What all thirty spins did to the Joker: −$150.
- The Casino $74 for a hundred spins at $5 a spin, on average. What these three spins did to the Casino: −$15.What all thirty spins did to the Casino: −$150.
- Sitting these three spins out No bet: these three spins cost nothing and pay nothing, and neither did any spin you sat out earlier.
Spins 28 to 30 stopped on the $1 spot, the $1 spot and the $2 spot. That was the last of the thirty spins. The figure for a hundred spins under each spot is what that spot costs on average; the grey lines are what this one run of spins happened to do.
Every set of three spins is worked out the same way: the thirty spins are drawn in advance with every segment of the wheel equally likely, each choice is settled spin by spin at the payouts of the live wheel, and the figure for a hundred spins is what that spot keeps of every bet, times a hundred bets.
How the practice run works
Where the spins come from. All thirty spins are drawn in advance by our engine with a fixed seed, so every visitor sees the same thirty spins. Each spin picks one of the segments with every segment equally likely, so a spot comes up in proportion to how many segments it covers. No document we could read prints the order of the segments around the wheel, and the draw uses none.
What each figure is. The figure for a hundred spins under each spot is what that spot keeps of every bet, times a hundred bets of the example amount. The grey figure settles each of the three spins at the payouts of the live wheel: the payout on a spin that stops on the spot, and the bet lost on every other spin.
Your own run. A spot you held for every spin costs, on average, its figure for a hundred spins scaled down to thirty; sitting every spin out costs nothing. Whatever you chose, the grey lines are one run of thirty spins, and the next run can land far from them.
Your progress stays in this browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Check yourself
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Four quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.
Back to the question we opened with. The $1 spot keeps less of the money bet on it than the Joker does: 6 of every 54 bets against 8, even though the Joker pays far more on the spin it comes up.
Where to go next, and further reading
19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page
Further reading
- Wheel of Fortune · Loto-QuébecQuébec’s brochure: what each spot on the wheel pays and how many segments carry it.
How it’s worked out
Rules, numbers, sources and hosts
Where this happens. The wheel, the payouts and the segment counts on this page are those of the live money wheel in Quebec casinos, from the rules booklet for that wheel: a set of rules for one province’s casinos, not a report of what any one room runs. Electronic wheels — an electronic Big Six at Casinos of Winnipeg, in Manitoba, and terminals in a room in Quebec — appear only as what their own pages print, and their payouts are not worked out here.
Numbers. Every figure is worked out when the page is built from the booklet’s payouts and segment counts. The total of 54 segments is our own sum of the counts the booklet prints. What a spot keeps of every 54 bets is the bets lost on the segments it does not cover, less the bets paid on the segments it covers; a fair payout is the payout at which that difference would be nothing. The price of a hundred spins is that share times a hundred bets of the example amount. Amounts under ten dollars are shown to the cent where they are not whole, and larger ones to the dollar. No Canadian document we could read prints the house edge of this wheel or of any game on this track: every share here is our own arithmetic. Our checks recompute every figure from the engine rather than reading it back from this page.
What is deliberately absent. There is no price per hour: no document we could read gives how many spins a money wheel makes in an hour, so the price is given per hundred spins. There is no picture of the order of the segments around the wheel: no document we could read prints that order, so the wheel is drawn as shares. There are no payouts for electronic wheels: no document we could read prints their pay tables, and the booklet’s table is not carried over to them. Sic Bo, the other game on this track played against a board of payouts, is lesson 9.8; choosing among the other tables by the price of an hour is lesson 9.10; Three Card Poker, Pair Plus, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Let It Ride and Pai Gow Poker are lessons 9.1 to 9.7. Chasing a loss is lesson 10.3, Chasing losses.
Sources. Every rule and every claim on this page carries a button with the sentence it rests on, the publisher who wrote that sentence and the date we read it.
Hosts. Maya and Leo are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former floor supervisor and a former dealer, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.
No promise. The money wheel is played against the house. Knowing what each spot keeps lets you see the price of every bet before you place it; nothing on this page makes any spot cheaper, and nothing here says how an evening at the wheel would end.
What a bet on the wheel is on
To predict the number on which the spinning wheel will stop.
Betting spots represent either a number, the Joker or the Casino and correspond to one or more sections of equal size on the wheel.
The result for a game is the number on which the pointer rests when the wheel comes to a stop.
A bet wins if it corresponds to this number.
However, a bet on Joker wins when the pointer comes to rest on the “45 Joker” segment of the wheel, and a bet on Casino wins when the pointer comes to rest on the “45 Casino” segment of the wheel.
Segments and payouts of the live wheel
The dealer picks up the losing bets and pays the winning bets as per the following payout schedule:
1 1 to 1 24
2 2 to 1 15
5 5 to 1 7
10 10 to 1 4
20 20 to 1 2
45 Joker 45 to 1 1
45 Casino 45 to 1 1
When a spin counts
For a result to be valid, the spinning wheel must not be obstructed in any way and must complete at least 3 revolutions.
Electronic Big Six wheels
How to play Big Six on Stadium Gaming.
The object of the game is to predict which symbol the wheel will land on.
The wheel is divided into 54 segments, each with a symbol. These represent areas on a specially marked table layout, and pay different amounts based on the odds in the Paytable.
The winning symbol is determined by the pointer coming to a complete rest and clearly indicating that symbol.
Casinos of Winnipeg · How to Play Blackjack Big Six — video transcript (Stadium Gaming, electronic) · read
Big Six Try to guess where the wheel will stop!
Loto-Québec, Casino de Montréal · Electronic gaming terminals · read
Limits at the table
respecting the minimum and maximum bets indicated at the table.
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