Roulette looks like one game, but it is really several. Walk into a casino in Las Vegas and then one in Monte Carlo and you will find two wheels that pay out at the same rates yet offer very different value, and the same split exists in every online casino lobby where you can play casino games on the go. The distinction comes down to a single pocket, a pair of French rules and a table layout that has barely changed in two centuries.
One zero or two
The headline difference is the wheel itself. French Roulette uses 37 pockets: the numbers one to 36 plus a single green zero. American Roulette uses 38, because it adds a double zero alongside the single zero.
That extra pocket changes nothing about the payouts. A straight-up number still pays 35 to 1 on both wheels, a split still pays 17 to 1, red or black still pays even money. What changes is how often you win, because you are chasing the same numbers across a larger set of outcomes.
The number sequences differ too. The American wheel pairs consecutive numbers directly opposite one another, while the French and European wheel uses a different order entirely, which is why sector bets only work properly on the single-zero layout.
How the house edge compares
The maths follows directly from the pocket count. On a single-zero wheel the house edge is 2.70% on effectively every bet. On the double-zero wheel it rises to 5.26%, close to double the cost for an identical-looking wager.
American Roulette also carries one bet that exists nowhere else: the five-number or basket bet, covering 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. It pays 6 to 1 when the true odds are nearer 6.6 to 1, giving it a house edge of 7.89% and the unwanted title of the worst bet on the table.
La Partage and En Prison
Here is where French Roulette pulls further ahead, and where it separates itself from plain European Roulette. Proper French tables apply one of two rules to even-money bets such as red or black, odd or even, and 1-18 or 19-36.
Under La Partage (“the sharing”), if the ball lands on zero you get half your stake back rather than losing the lot. Under En Prison, the stake is held over for the next spin instead: win it and you get your money back, lose it and it goes.
Both average out to the same thing, and both halve the house edge on even-money bets from 2.70% to 1.35%. That is the lowest figure in mainstream roulette, and neither rule is offered on standard American tables.
The table and the called bets
French Roulette also plays differently. Traditional tables are laid out in French, so you will see Rouge and Noir, Pair and Impair, Manque and Passe rather than their English equivalents, and the croupier often uses a rake to move chips.
The single-zero wheel supports a set of announced or “called” bets covering sectors of the wheel rather than areas of the betting cloth. Voisins du Zéro covers the 17 numbers around the zero, Tiers du Cylindre covers the 12 sitting opposite it, and Orphelins covers the eight left over. Each carries the standard 2.70% edge and simply offers a different way to spread a stake. Online they appear on a racetrack graphic beside the main grid.
How popular is each format?
Geography decides it. The double-zero wheel dominates the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and much of South America, and it remains the standard sight on Las Vegas floors. The single-zero wheel is the norm almost everywhere else, a legacy of Monte Carlo marketing its lower-edge version to the world in the nineteenth century.
Online has tilted things further. Single-zero games are the default across European and international sites, and most live-dealer studios stream from single-zero tables, though American Roulette is still widely stocked for players who prefer the format they grew up with. Full French rules are rarer than plain European Roulette even so, which makes it worth checking whether a table actually applies La Partage before you sit down.
