How Roulette Works
Roulette looks complicated at the table — a wheel, a spinning ball, a felt covered in numbers and bet boxes — but the mechanics are simple once you break them down.
The wheel
Numbers 1 through 36 are arranged around the wheel, alternating red and black, in an order designed to balance high/low and odd/even numbers around the circle — not sequentially. A European wheel adds a single green 0 pocket; an American wheel adds both 0 and 00, both green. Those green pockets don't belong to any player bet on red/black, odd/even, or high/low — they're where the house edge lives.
Placing a bet
Bets fall into two families:
- Inside bets — straight up (one number), split (two), street (three), corner (four), six line (six). Higher payout, lower odds of winning.
- Outside bets — red/black, odd/even, high/low (18 numbers each), dozens and columns (12 numbers each). Lower payout, higher odds of winning.
American vs European wheel
The only structural difference is that extra 00 pocket. It nearly doubles the house edge from 2.70% (European) to 5.26% (American) — same bets, same payouts, worse odds. If you have a choice of table, the single-zero wheel is always the better one to play.
Try both wheels yourself in the roulette wheel simulator or see the exact odds for every bet type.