PH365 European Roulette: How the Single Zero Sets the House Edge

European roulette is the single-zero version of the wheel, the one used almost everywhere outside the United States. A 37-pocket wheel changes the arithmetic behind every bet on the table, and that arithmetic is worth seeing rather than taking on faith. This page shows the house edge calculation and the full payout table, bet by bet.

How European Roulette’s Single Zero Sets the House Edge

Wheel	Zero pockets	Total pockets	House edge
American roulette	0 and 00	38	5.26% (2 ÷ 38)
European roulette	0 only	37	2.70% (1 ÷ 37)

The edge comes from a single number that pays nothing back to any bet: the zero. On a 37-pocket wheel the casino’s edge is 1 divided by 37, which works out to 0.027, or 2.70%. Removing the second zero found on an American wheel is what cuts that edge roughly in half. Every bet on a European table carries that same 2.70% edge, whether it covers one number or eighteen.

The Full Bet Table: What Every Wager Pays

Bet	Numbers covered	Payout	Win chance
Straight	1	35 to 1	2.70%
Split	2	17 to 1	5.41%
Street	3	11 to 1	8.11%
Corner	4	8 to 1	10.81%
Six line	6	5 to 1	16.22%
Dozen or column	12	2 to 1	32.43%
Even money (red/black, odd/even, high/low)	18	1 to 1	48.65%

Every payout in that table is set so the expected loss stays at 2.70% of the stake, however the numbers are grouped. A straight bet on one number pays 35 to 1 because it wins only 2.70% of the time; an even-money bet pays just 1 to 1 because it wins nearly half of all spins. Neither is the mathematically “better” bet: the edge is identical, only the variance differs.

Inside Bets vs Outside Bets, Side by Side

Category	Examples	Typical use
Inside bets	Straight, split, street, corner, six line	Covers few numbers, chases the 35 to 1 top payout
Outside bets	Dozen, column, red/black, odd/even, high/low	Covers many numbers, pays smaller and steadier wins

Inside bets sit on the numbered grid itself and cover anywhere from one to six numbers. Outside bets sit in the surrounding boxes and cover a dozen, a column, or half the wheel at once. Both categories run through the same 2.70% edge; what changes between them is how often a bet lands and how large a single win looks.

La Partage and En Prison: Two Rules a Table States for Itself

Some European tables add a rule that halves the edge specifically on even-money bets when the ball lands on zero. La partage returns half of an even-money stake instead of losing all of it. En prison instead “imprisons” that stake for one more spin: a win releases it untouched, a second zero loses it. Both rules apply only to even-money bets, and only where the table’s own rules state them.

Problem: A layout with identical numbers and colours can still carry a different house edge from the table beside it. Fix: Check the table’s printed rules or the dealer’s placard for “la partage” or “en prison” before staking an even-money bet; a table without either rule pays the full 2.70% edge on those bets too.

Playing a Round, Start to Finish

1. Bets are placed on the layout while the wheel spins, covering any mix of the bets in the table above.
2. The dealer calls “no more bets” once the ball is a set number of turns from dropping.
3. The ball settles into a pocket and a marker is placed on the winning number.
4. Losing bets are cleared from the layout first.
5. Winning bets are paid according to their odds, and the marker is lifted for the next round.

European roulette sits alongside the full lineup of casino table games this site covers, including the Three Card Poker rules on this site. The 2.70% figure above is one example of how house edge is defined across every game here. The same wheel and the same maths also run on a live casino table with a dealer on camera, for players who want the same bets in a streamed format.