Roulette Bets Explained: Every Inside and Outside Bet and the Best One

Inside roulette bets: the numbered grid

The grid in the middle of the cloth holds 1 to 36 in three columns of twelve rows, with 0 and 00 at the top. Every chip you place on that grid, or on the lines inside it, counts among the roulette inside bets. These roulette bets pay the most because each covers between one and six numbers, never more.

The payout follows a simple rule. Each bet pays as if the wheel had 36 pockets, so a bet covering n numbers pays roughly 36 divided by n, minus your stake. One number gets 35 to 1, two get 17 to 1, three get 11 to 1. The two green pockets are the part nobody pays you for.

Straight up and split

A straight-up bet is a chip dead center on one number, including 0 or 00. It pays 35 to 1 and hits 2.63% of the time, one spin in 38. A $10 chip that wins comes back as $360: the $350 win plus your own chip. That is the biggest single payout on the table.

A split straddles the line between two numbers that touch on the cloth. 17 and 20 work, so do 17 and 18, but 18 and 19 do not, because they sit on different rows at opposite ends. The split pays 17 to 1 and wins 5.26% of the time. Three chips on 17-20 that hit win 51.

Try the drill above before reading on. Three chips sit on the 17-20 split and two sit straight up on 17, and the ball has landed on 17. Work out the win for each bet on its own, add them, then check your figure against the card. Dealers settle mixed bets exactly this way, one bet at a time.

Street, corner and six line

What is a street bet in roulette? It is one row of three, such as 16, 17 and 18, with the chip on the outer line of that row. It pays 11 to 1 and hits 7.89% of the time. Two chips on that street win 22. The trios touching the zeros, like 0-1-2, pay the same.

A corner takes four numbers whose corners meet, like 16, 17, 19 and 20, and pays 8 to 1. A six line covers two rows, 16 through 21 for example, and pays 5 to 1. Five chips on that corner win 40; four chips on that six line win 20. The pattern holds: more numbers, smaller payout, same price.

Outside roulette bets: the boxes around the edge

Outside bets live in the boxes that frame the grid. They cover twelve or eighteen numbers at a time, so they win far more often and pay far less. The full map of where each box sits is on the roulette table layout page. The one rule they share: when 0 or 00 lands, every outside bet loses.

Red or black, odd or even, high or low

The even-money bets cover eighteen numbers each: red or black, odd or even, 1-18 or 19-36. They pay 1 to 1 and win 47.37% of the time on an American wheel. Twenty-five chips on red that hit win 25 and return 50. Simple, quick, and the most popular box in any pit.

Why not 50%? Because 18 winners out of 38 pockets is 47.37%, and the two green pockets take the rest. That gap is the whole house edge on these bets, 5.26%. It looks small on one spin. Over a long session of even-money play it is the reason the chip stack slowly shrinks.

Dozens and columns

The dozens split the grid into 1-12, 13-24 and 25-36. The columns run the long way, each holding twelve numbers that share a row position. Both pay 2 to 1 and win 31.58% of the time. Ten chips on the second dozen win 20 and return 30 with the stake when the ball lands between 13 and 24.

Some players cover two dozens at once to win more often. That covers 24 numbers, hitting 63.16% of the time (24 divided by 38), but one winning dozen pays 2 to 1 while the other chip is lost, so each hit nets only one unit. The edge does not move. You are buying frequency, not value.

The drill below puts outside chips to work. Ten chips sit on the second dozen and twenty-five on red, and the ball has landed on 19, a red number in the 13 to 24 range. Both roulette outside bets win, so price each one on its own, add the two wins, then check.

The answer is 45 chips of winnings: 20 from the dozen and 25 from red, with all 35 staked chips staying yours. Now change the pocket in your head to 00. Both bets lose at once, and the 35 chips go to the rack. That single green result is why outside bets carry the same edge as inside ones.

Roulette bets and payouts in one chart

Every payout above sits in the chart below, with the American figures first and the single-zero column beside them. Use it as a reference while you practice: find the bet, read across to its pay and its chance, then compare the two wheels. The full figures and worked examples live on the roulette payouts page.

Read down the edge column and one number repeats: 5.26% on almost every American line. Only the top line breaks the pattern. If you want to price a mix of chips without doing the arithmetic, the roulette payout calculator adds every bet for you and shows the net result for any pocket.

The best roulette bets by cost, not by feel

The best bet in roulette is not the one that wins most often or pays the most. On an American wheel every bet costs 5.26% of the amount wagered, on average, so a $100 run of chips loses about $5.26 whichever box you pick. The expected cost is identical; only the swings differ.

There is one exception, and it sits at the top of the cloth. The five-number top line covering 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 pays 6 to 1 when the rule would suggest a little more. That shortfall lifts its edge to 7.89%, about $7.89 lost per $100 wagered. It is the one American bet worth skipping outright.

The highest paying roulette bets

The highest paying roulette bets are the single numbers at 35 to 1. Here is what that means over 38 spins of $5. On one number you stake $190 and expect one hit returning $180. On red you stake exactly the same $190 and expect 18 hits returning $10 each, again $180.

What actually lowers the price

The wheel matters far more than the box. A single-zero European wheel charges 2.70% on every bet, roughly half the American price. French rules on even-money bets halve that again to 1.35%. The full comparison sits on the American vs European roulette page, and the French rules on French roulette.

Atlantic City adds one American exception. New Jersey lets each casino decide whether a zero takes the whole even-money chip or only half of it, and the option in force has to be posted at the table. On a half-back table, red, black, odd, even, low and high cost 2.63%, half the usual double-zero price, while other boxes stay put.

Lists of the best bets for roulette often rank them by how often they win, which puts red, black and the dozens on top. That measures comfort, not value. It does affect your bankroll: twenty $5 chips on single numbers miss twenty times in a row about 59% of the time, while twenty on red almost never all lose.

So the honest ranking is short. On an American table, any bet except the top line. On a single-zero table, any bet at all. On a French table, the even-money boxes first. No combination of chips changes those numbers, which is also why every betting system eventually meets the edge it was built to escape.

How to bet on roulette at a real table

You buy in with cash at the table and the dealer hands you a stack of color chips that belong to your seat alone. Place them before the dealer waves a hand and calls no more bets. After the ball drops, a marker called the dolly goes on the winning number, and losing chips are swept first.

Place inside chips precisely. A chip half on a line and half on a number is ambiguous, and the dealer may ask you to fix it. Outside chips go squarely in their box. If you cannot reach a spot, set the chip down in front of the dealer and name the bet clearly, then watch it go where you asked.

Roulette picture bets

Roulette picture bets are fixed patterns of chips around one number that dealers learn by heart. The simplest is a number with one chip straight up and one on each of its splits. For 17 that means splits with 14, 16, 18 and 20, so a win pays 35 plus four times 17, or 103 chips.

Mixing bets on one spin

Nothing stops you from combining inside and outside roulette bets: a number, a split, red and a dozen all on one spin. Each one is paid or swept on its own. The total edge stays at 5.26% on an American wheel, though, so a busier layout simply means more money cycling through the same price.

Green pockets and the bets players forget

The green pockets take the same roulette bets as any number. A chip on 0 or 00 pays 35 to 1, and the 0-00 split pays 17 to 1. What they do to the outside boxes, and what they pay on their own, is set out on betting on green. Think of green as the wheel’s price tag.

Players who chase a progression on red tend to forget that green beats both colors at once. A doubling run can survive many losses in a row and still hit the table maximum. The roulette strategy page shows why no staking plan changes the 5.26%. Before your first spin, check where the table posts its limits.