Why every bet costs the same

A chip on each of the three dozens, or a chip on red and a chip on black, or chips on every pocket the layout has. Does spreading money across the layout make the wheel any cheaper?

Leoformer dealer · rules and maths

People at my table used to spread chips all over the layout and call it being careful: a chip on each dozen, a chip on red and one on black, a few more on the lines between the numbers. It looked like insurance. Every one of those chips paid the same price on every spin, and covering more of the layout never once lowered that price.

One wheel, one price

The house edge is the share of each bet that stays with the table on average, over many bets. On a wheel with a zero and a double zero, that share is 5.26% for a bet on red, and it is the same for almost any other bet on the layout.

The reason fits in one count. Picture one full turn of the wheel: 38 spins, with the ball landing in each pocket once, and one chip put down on every spin.

A bet on red is paid on 18 of the 38 spins and brings back 36 chips over the turn. The 2 chips that do not come back are the price: 1/19 of every chip put down.

That is true of every payout on this layout, not only of red. A single number paid 35 to 1 brings back 36 chips over a full turn; a dozen paid 2 to 1 brings back 36; a corner paid 8 to 1 brings back 36. Every payout on the cloth is cut for a wheel of thirty-six pockets.

Seen from a single number: its true odds are 37 to 1, because the wheel has 38 pockets, and the table pays it 35 to 1. The two pockets that make the difference are the zero and the double zero.

The one exception, and a wheel with one zero

One bet on this wheel does not fit the pattern: the bet on the zero, the double zero, 1, 2 and 3, paid 6 to 1. Five pockets paid 6 to 1 bring back 35 chips over a full turn, not 36, and so that one bet keeps 7.89%.

Take the double zero off the wheel and a single number is still paid 35 to 1, but a full turn is now 37 spins. The chance of a single number becomes one in 37 instead of one in 38, and the price of every bet drops to 2.70%.

Covering more of the wheel

A spread of chips is not one bet with a special price. A spread is several bets, each carrying its own price on the chips it holds, and on this wheel almost every one of those prices is the same. Put one chip on each of the three dozens and the layout looks nearly covered.

Every numbered pocket is covered, and the spread still keeps 5.26% of the chips on it, because each of the three dozens keeps that share of the chip it holds.

Close the last two pockets as well: three chips on each dozen and one chip on the zero line, the bet on 0 and 00 together. Now every pocket on the wheel is covered.

Over one full turn, 380 chips go down and the spread ends 20 chips behind: 5.26% of the chips put down, the same share as a single chip on a single number. Covering every pocket did not remove the price; it moved the price onto the 36 spins where the spread comes out a chip behind.

What covering does change

Five spreads of 10 chips each, all on the same wheel: how often each comes out ahead or behind, and how far one spin can move it.

That is the whole trade. Covering more pockets swaps a rare, large payment for a frequent, small one, and it swaps a spin that takes everything for many spins that take a little. It feels steadier, and it costs the same.

Red and black at once

The most common spread of all is a chip on red and a chip on black together. Every number from 1 to 36 is either red or black, so one of the two bets is paid on every numbered pocket — and when the ball lands on the zero or the double zero, every outside bet loses, the pair included.

• A red number comes upThe bet on red is paid one chip and the bet on black loses one chip: the pair is level. That happens on 18 pockets.
• A black number comes upThe bet on black is paid one chip and the bet on red loses one chip: level again, on another 18 pockets.
• The zero or the double zero comes upBoth bets lose. That happens on 2 pockets, and those are the only spins that move the pair at all.

Two chips go down on every spin. Over one full turn of 38 spins, the pair is level on 36 of them and loses both chips on each of the two zeros: 5.26% of the chips put down, exactly what either bet keeps on its own.

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

Spreading chips across the board makes the evening feel safer. It isn’t cheaper. Being paid something on most spins is exactly what makes it easy to keep playing past the amount you meant to spend.

Decide the money and the time before you sit down, and stop when either one runs out. A loss is not a debt the table owes you: putting more down to get it back only makes the evening dearer.

Practice: cover the wheel

Each moment lays out a spread of 10 chips of $10 each — an example amount, not a suggested bet — the way people spread chips to make a wheel feel safer: dozens, columns, even-money bets, single numbers and the lines between them. Before the answer opens, say what share of the chips the spread keeps, and how sure you are of it. Amounts are in Canadian dollars.

Nothing here is scored. This practice is a reference: there is no strip of squares, and the spreads come one after another in order, each with its reading underneath — how many pockets the spread covers, what each pocket does to the spread, and the share it keeps.

Check yourself

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.

Back to the question we opened with. Three dozens, red with black, or every pocket covered: each arrangement is a set of bets at the same price, so the wheel keeps the same share of the money in all three. Spreading chips chooses how the evening swings, and nothing more.

Where to check this, and further reading

19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page

Further reading

• Game Rules — Roulette · Société des casinos du Québec (Loto-Québec)The rules this track follows: what the wheel holds, how inside and outside bets work, and the whole payout table.
• Casino Regulations, sections 113 to 123 · Province of Nova ScotiaThe regulator on the wheel itself: 37 pockets with one zero, 38 with two, the zeros green and the rest alternating.
• Roulette Odds and the House Edge · OLG PlaySmartWhere the difference between true odds and the payout comes from, in the operator’s own words.
• How to Play Roulette · Fallsview Casino ResortA room that posts three different wheels, and its own note that pay tables differ from table to table.

How it’s worked out