Roulette Odds and Payouts: Every Bet Type, Its True Odds and Its House Edge

Every roulette bet trades one thing against another: how many numbers it covers versus how much it pays when it hits. Here’s every standard bet type on a European wheel, its true odds, its payout, and how the two relate to the fixed 2.70% house edge sitting underneath all of them.

Inside Bets

Inside bets sit directly on the number grid and cover fewer numbers for a bigger payout.

• Straight-up (one number): pays 35 to 1; true odds of winning are 36 to 1 on a European wheel.
• Split (two adjoining numbers): pays 17 to 1; true odds are roughly 17.5 to 1.
• Street (three numbers in a row): pays 11 to 1; true odds are roughly 11.33 to 1.
• Corner (four numbers): pays 8 to 1; true odds are roughly 8.25 to 1.
• Six-line (two adjoining rows, six numbers): pays 5 to 1; true odds are roughly 5.17 to 1.

Notice that every payout sits just under the true odds of winning — that small gap, repeated across every bet on the layout, is where the house edge comes from. It’s not one bet with worse odds than the rest; it’s the same proportional gap built into all of them.

Outside Bets

• Red or black: pays 1 to 1 (even money); true odds are roughly 1.06 to 1 against you.
• Odd or even: pays 1 to 1; same true odds as red/black.
• High (19–36) or low (1–18): pays 1 to 1; same true odds again.
• Dozen (a block of 12 numbers): pays 2 to 1; true odds are roughly 2.08 to 1.
• Column (12 numbers in a vertical line): pays 2 to 1; same true odds as a dozen.

Outside bets land far more often than inside ones — an even-money bet wins close to half the time — but the payout scales down to match, keeping the same 2.70% edge underneath every single one of them.

Where the House Edge Actually Comes From

The house edge isn’t a separate fee or a hidden deduction — it’s the mathematical result of paying every winning bet slightly less than its true odds, on every single bet on the layout, consistently. On a European wheel with 37 pockets, that gap works out to 2.70% across the board; on an American wheel with 38 pockets, the same mechanism produces roughly 5.26%, since the payout stays fixed while the true odds get slightly longer with the extra pocket. Our wheel variants page covers that comparison directly.

The One Exception: French Even-Money Bets

French roulette’s La Partage and En Prison rules apply only to the even-money outside bets — red/black, odd/even, high/low — returning half your stake, or replaying it, specifically when the ball lands on zero. That single rule drops the edge on those specific bets to about 1.35%, while every other bet on the same French wheel still runs the standard 2.70%.

Using This to Pick Bets, Not Beat Them

None of these numbers can be improved by betting pattern, bet timing, or any system — see our roulette strategy page for exactly why. What this breakdown is useful for is picking bets that match how you want to play: inside bets for bigger, less frequent payouts, outside bets for steadier, more frequent smaller ones, both running the identical underlying edge either way. Our roulette page covers how these bets get placed and settled during an actual round.