How the roulette payout calculator prices every bet
One rule prices the whole table. Each bet pays as if the wheel had 36 pockets: take 36, divide by the numbers covered, then subtract the one unit you staked. One number gives 36 minus 1, so 35 to 1. Two numbers give 18 minus 1, so 17 to 1. Twelve numbers give 3 minus 1, so 2 to 1.
The American wheel has 38 pockets, though, not 36. Those two extra green pockets are never paid, and that gap is where the house edge comes from: 2 pockets out of 38 is 5.26%. The roulette payout calculator below applies the same pricing to any mix of chips, so you can see the rule work on your own layout.
Payout calculator
- Pays
- 17 to 1
- Win
- $255
- Back with stake
- $270
- Chance per spin
- 5.26%
- Average cost per spin
- $0.79
The average cost is the stake times the house edge for that wheel: what the bet loses per spin over thousands of spins, not on any single one.
Place a few chips on the calculator above, pick the pocket where the ball lands, and read the result. Start simple with the roulette payout calculator: one chip straight up on 17, then add a split and a corner that touch it. Watch each new chip add its own payout, and the misses get taken away.
What does roulette pay on each bet?
What does roulette pay? The table below lists every standard bet with its payout and what a single $10 chip returns when it wins. These figures come straight from the 36-pocket rule above, and they hold on American, European and French tables alike. Only the top line, which exists solely on the American cloth, breaks the rule.
Every bet on the cloth
One chip in the middle of a single number, here 17.
- Covers
- 1 of 38
- Pays
- 35 to 1
- Wins per 100 spins
- 2.6
- House edge
- 5.26%
| Bet | Pays | $10 chip wins | Returned with stake |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight up | 35 to 1 | $350 | $360 |
| Split | 17 to 1 | $170 | $180 |
| Street or trio | 11 to 1 | $110 | $120 |
| Corner | 8 to 1 | $80 | $90 |
| Top line 0-00-1-2-3 | 6 to 1 | $60 | $70 |
| Six line | 5 to 1 | $50 | $60 |
| Dozen or column | 2 to 1 | $20 | $30 |
| Red, black, odd, even, 1-18, 19-36 | 1 to 1 | $10 | $20 |
How much does roulette pay on a small chip?
How much does roulette pay on a $5 chip? Halve the figures in the table. A $5 split wins $85 and returns $90. A $5 straight up wins $175 and returns $180. On a $25 corner the win is $200, 25 times 8, with $225 coming back. The rule never changes with the size of the chip.
If you want the full table instead of a single bet, the roulette payouts chart and odds page lists every price with its chance and house edge on all three wheels. Use the roulette payout calculator for the arithmetic of your own chips, and that one when you need to compare bets before you sit down.
Checking the roulette payout calculator by hand
Dealers settle a layout in a fixed order, and you can copy it to check any result from the roulette payout calculator. Sweep the losers first, then pay each winning bet alone: count its chips, multiply by its payout, push the win beside the stake. Add the totals only at the end.
Payout drill
The ball drops into 17. On the cloth: 5 chips on corner 16-17-19-20, 2 chips on street 16-17-18 and 1 chip on straight up on 17. How many chips does the dealer pay out, not counting the stakes that stay in place?
corner 16-17-19-20: 5 × 8 = 40. street 16-17-18: 2 × 11 = 22. straight up on 17: 1 × 35 = 35. Payout: 97 chips.
The drill above stacks three bets on the same number. Five chips sit on the 16-17-19-20 corner, two on the 16-17-18 street and one straight up on 17, and the ball has landed on 17. Price each bet separately using the table, add the three wins together, then check your total against the card.
At a real US table you rarely need the exact figure while chips are moving, but you do need it before the dolly comes off. Price your own bets as the dealer sweeps the losers. If the stack pushed toward you looks short, point to the bet and ask for a recount then, not after the next spin.
Picture bets and the complete bet
A picture bet is a recognizable pattern of chips around one number, and dealers learn its payout by sight. The largest is the complete bet, which covers every inside bet touching a number. For 17 that means 1 straight up, four splits, one street, four corners and two six lines, built with 40 chips.
When 17 lands on a complete bet, every chip wins. Straight up pays 35. Four splits of 2 chips pay 4 times 2 times 17, which is 136. The street of 3 pays 33. Four corners of 4 pay 128, and two six lines of 6 pay 60. Added together, the win is 392 with all 40 chips returned.
Using a roulette calculator for odds, not just payouts
A roulette calculator that only shows payouts tells half the story. The other half is how often each payout arrives. Divide the numbers covered by the pockets on the wheel: a corner covers 4 of 38, so it hits 10.53% of the time on an American wheel, or 4 of 37, 10.81%, on a single-zero wheel.
Put the two halves together and every bet costs the same. A corner pays 8 and wins 4 times in 38 spins, returning 36 units for 38 staked. A straight up pays 35 and wins once in 38, also returning 36 for 38. That steady 36-for-38 is why the roulette bets page ranks nearly every American bet as equal.
A roulette odds calculator for expected loss
The expected loss per spin is your total stake times the edge. On an American table, $50 spread across any bets except the top line costs about $2.63 per spin on average, which is 50 times 5.26%. The same $50 on a single-zero wheel costs about $1.35, which is 50 times 2.70%. Small numbers, repeated hundreds of times.
Spin it 1,000 times
Pick a bet. One chip goes on it every spin, on a fair American wheel with 38 pockets. Watch the running total.
- Spins
- 0
- Wins (expected)
- 0
- Chips up or down
- 0
- Longest losing run
- 0
Short runs swing both ways. Over many spins the line drifts toward the dashed one, the average loss the house edge sets, because every bet is paid as if the green pockets were not there.
Using it as a roulette probability calculator
Turn the same division into a roulette probability calculator for more than one spin. The chance a corner misses one spin is 34 in 38. For ten misses in a row, multiply that by itself ten times: about 33%. So a third of the time a corner player waits more than ten spins for a hit.
The same method answers the question beginners ask about red: what are the chances of five reds in a row? Each spin is 18 in 38, so five in a row is that fraction multiplied five times, roughly 2.4%, about one in 42. Rare, yet over a few hundred spins it is expected several times.
That repetition is what one spin cannot show. Run a hundred spins at $50 and the expected cost on an American table is $263, before any lucky streak or cold run. The American vs European roulette page shows how much of that a single-zero wheel saves, and the free roulette simulator shows it with play chips.
Payouts that catch players out
Three mistakes come up again and again at the table. The first is confusing the win with the return: a 35 to 1 bet hands back 36 units, not 35. The second is forgetting that 0 and 00 sweep every outside bet. The third is assuming a five-number bet pays like a corner.
The top line covers 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 and pays 6 to 1. By the 36-pocket rule it would pay a little more, so its edge rises to 7.89%. The green pockets themselves pay 35 to 1 like any number, which betting on green covers in full. The complete chart is on roulette payouts.
The fourth mistake is quieter: treating a big payout as a better bet. A straight up at 35 to 1 and a dozen at 2 to 1 cost exactly the same over time on an American wheel, 5.26% of what you stake. The bigger number only means longer waits between wins and sharper swings in your stack while you wait.
Splits that do not exist
A split must join two numbers that touch on the cloth: 17-18 and 17-20 work, 18-19 does not, because those two sit at opposite ends of different rows. The roulette table layout page shows which pairs share a line. Before you price a split, put your finger on the cloth and check that the two numbers actually meet.