Roulette Canada — Bet Types, Payouts and House Edge
Every bet on the layout with its true probability, why they all cost the same 2.70%, and which of the three wheel variants is worth looking for.
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The house edge, and why every bet shares it
A European wheel has 37 pockets: 1 to 36 plus a single zero. A straight-up number pays 35:1 but wins only once in 37 spins, so the house keeps 2.70% of everything staked. Scale that logic to any other bet on the layout and the answer is identical — 2.70%. An American wheel adds a double zero, taking the edge to 5.26% on almost every bet.
| Bet | Numbers covered | Pays | Win probability | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Straight up | 1 | 35:1 | 2.70% | 2.70% |
| Split | 2 | 17:1 | 5.41% | 2.70% |
| Street | 3 | 11:1 | 8.11% | 2.70% |
| Corner | 4 | 8:1 | 10.81% | 2.70% |
| Six line | 6 | 5:1 | 16.22% | 2.70% |
| Column or dozen | 12 | 2:1 | 32.43% | 2.70% |
| Red/black, odd/even, high/low | 18 | 1:1 | 48.65% | 2.70% |
| Even money with la partage | 18 | 1:1, half back on zero | 48.65% | 1.35% |
On an American double-zero wheel every line above rises to a 5.26% house edge, with one exception: the five-number bet on 0-00-1-2-3 pays 6:1 and costs 7.89%, the worst bet on the layout.
The three wheels you will find in the lobby
European single zero
Thirty-seven pockets, one zero, standard payouts. The default assumption for any online table unless the name says otherwise. Auto-roulette versions spin roughly every 25 seconds.
American double zero
Adds a double zero, which almost doubles the cost of every bet on the layout. There is no compensating advantage. If a European table is open, there is no argument for sitting here.
French rules
A single-zero wheel with la partage or en prison, both of which soften the zero on even-money bets. The best roulette proposition available, and the rarest of the three online.
Announced bets and the racetrack
European and French tables usually show a second betting layout beside the grid — an oval racetrack laid out in the order the numbers actually appear on the wheel, rather than in numerical order. It exists so you can cover a physical arc of the wheel in one action instead of placing eight separate chips by hand.
| Bet | Covers | Chips | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voisins du zéro | 17 numbers | 9 | The arc from 22 to 25 either side of the zero — the largest single-action bet on the layout. |
| Tiers du cylindre | 12 numbers | 6 | The third of the wheel opposite the zero, from 27 to 33. Six clean splits. |
| Orphelins | 8 numbers | 5 | The two arcs left over between the other two bets — one straight-up and four splits. |
| Jeu zéro | 7 numbers | 4 | A tighter version of the neighbours bet, covering 12 to 15 around the zero. |
| Neighbours | 5 numbers | 5 | A chosen number plus the two on each side of it on the wheel. |
| Finales | 3–4 numbers | 3–4 | Every number ending in the same digit — finale 4 covers 4, 14, 24 and 34. |
None of these changes the house edge. Each is a bundle of ordinary straight-up and split bets placed in one gesture, priced exactly as if you had placed them individually. What they change is speed and the shape of your coverage — which is a real convenience at a live table on a 20-second timer, and nothing more than that.
Multiplier tables
Multiplier tables trade a lower straight-up payout for randomly boosted numbers. The overall return is competitive at 97.30%, but the distribution is far more extreme: most rounds pay nothing on your number, and the ones that do can pay hundreds of times the stake.
Bankroll and table selection
Roulette is a fixed-edge game, so the only decisions that change your expected loss are which wheel you sit at and how much you stake per hour. Outside bets do not lower the edge; they lower the variance, which is a different thing and worth wanting for its own reasons.
| Average stake per spin | Turnover per hour | Expected loss per hour |
|---|---|---|
| C$1 | C$40 | C$1.08 |
| C$5 | C$200 | C$5.40 |
| C$10 | C$400 | C$10.80 |
| C$25 | C$1,000 | C$27.00 |
These are long-run averages, not predictions. Any individual hour will land far above or below them — that is what variance means, and it is the reason the numbers only become reliable over very long play.