The wheel you will find
Walk up to a roulette table in Australia and you will see a wheel with 37 pockets. The numbers run from 0 to 36, and the zero pocket is green while the other 36 alternate between red and black. If you have seen American films with a wheel that also has a double zero, that is a different layout. Australian tables follow the single-zero format, which is the same wheel used across most of the world outside North America.
The presence or absence of that second zero pocket is not a cosmetic detail. It changes the arithmetic on every bet you can place. A wheel with 37 pockets and one zero gives the house a smaller built-in advantage than a wheel with 38 pockets and a double zero, because the zero is the pocket that makes most outside bets lose. When someone says Australian roulette, they are almost always describing the single-zero wheel, but the only way to be certain at a specific venue is to look at the wheel itself or the table layout before you buy in.
Where the numbers sit on the wheel
The numbers on a single-zero wheel are not arranged in numerical order around the circumference. The sequence is fixed by the wheel's design so that high and low numbers, odd and even numbers, and red and black pockets are distributed around the circle. A standard single-zero sequence runs 0, 32, 15, 19, 4, 21, 2, 25, 17, 34, 6, 27, 13, 36, 11, 30, 8, 23, 10, 5, 24, 16, 33, 1, 20, 14, 31, 9, 22, 18, 29, 7, 28, 12, 35, 3, 26. You do not need to memorise the sequence to play. The table layout shows the numbers in three columns of twelve, plus the zero at the top, and that layout is what you use to place chips.
The wheel and the layout are two different views of the same 37 numbers. The wheel arranges them for physics; the layout arranges them for betting. When a croupier calls the winning number, they read it from the wheel, but every bet you make is placed on the printed layout.
How a round runs from buy-in to settlement
You buy in at the table by placing cash on the layout, never directly into the croupier's hand. The croupier exchanges it for roulette chips, which are different from the chips used at other table games because each player at a roulette table is given a distinct colour. That colour is how the croupier knows whose bet is whose when chips are scattered across the layout. Roulette chips have no value printed on them; their value is whatever you bought in for divided by how many chips you received, and they are worthless at any other table until converted back to cash chips.
Once players have chips, the croupier opens betting. You place chips on the layout to mark the number, group of numbers, colour or other outcome you are backing. Betting continues until the croupier announces that no more bets are accepted, usually as the ball begins to slow. The ball is spun in the opposite direction to the wheel, it drops into a pocket, and the croupier marks the winning number on the layout with a marker. Losing bets are cleared first, then winning bets are paid. You leave your winning chips on the layout until the croupier has pushed your payout to you; touching them before settlement is a fast way to create a dispute.
What the main bet types cost you
Every bet on a roulette table has a house edge, and on a single-zero wheel most of the common bets carry the same edge because they pay as if the zero did not exist. A straight-up bet on one number pays 35 to 1, but there are 37 pockets, so the true odds are 36 to 1 against. That one-pocket shortfall is the house edge. Split bets, street bets, corner bets, six-line bets, dozens, columns, red or black, odd or even, and high or low all carry the same edge on the single-zero layout, because the zero pocket loses for all of them.
The exception is the five-number bet, which exists only on double-zero wheels and is not present on an Australian single-zero table. On the single-zero wheel, the bet types differ in how often they win and how much they pay, not in their underlying edge. That does not make them equal in experience: a straight-up number wins rarely and pays a lot, while red or black wins nearly half the time and pays even money. The edge is the same, but the variance is very different.
| Bet type | Numbers covered | Payout | How often it wins on 37 pockets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight up | 1 | 35 to 1 | 1 in 37 |
| Split | 2 | 17 to 1 | 2 in 37 |
| Street | 3 | 11 to 1 | 3 in 37 |
| Corner | 4 | 8 to 1 | 4 in 37 |
| Six line | 6 | 5 to 1 | 6 in 37 |
| Dozen or column | 12 | 2 to 1 | 12 in 37 |
| Red, black, odd, even, high, low | 18 | 1 to 1 | 18 in 37 |
The zero is the pocket that creates the gap between the payout and the true odds. On a single-zero wheel, the zero loses for every bet in the table above, which is why the house edge is uniform across them. On a double-zero wheel, the same bets face two losing zero pockets out of 38, which is a larger edge. The wheel type is the single most important rule variant on a roulette table, and it is printed on the layout or visible on the wheel itself.
Decision points during play
Roulette has no decisions after the ball is released. Your only genuine choices are which bets to place, how much to stake, and when to stop. There is no skill element that changes the outcome of a spin, and no betting pattern alters the edge on any individual wager. What changes between players is how much of their session is spent on high-variance bets like single numbers, which produce long dry spells punctuated by large payouts, versus even-money bets, which produce many small wins and losses.
Some tables offer announced bets, also called call bets, which are groups of numbers that sit next to each other on the wheel rather than on the layout. These are more common in European and high-limit rooms, and they are placed verbally with the croupier rather than by positioning chips yourself. If you sit down at a table that offers them, the croupier will explain the specific groups available, because the names and compositions vary between venues. They are still bets on numbers, and they still carry the same single-zero house edge.
Procedural mistakes that slow a table down
The first mistake new players make is buying in while the ball is already spinning. Wait for the croupier to finish paying the previous round and announce that bets are open before you put cash on the layout. Buying in mid-spin forces the croupier to interrupt the round to count your cash and issue chips, and it can invalidate the spin for everyone.
The second is moving or collecting chips before the croupier has finished settling the table. Winning chips belong to you, but they must stay in place until the payout is complete. Grabbing them early makes it impossible for the croupier to verify the bet, and the floor supervisor will be called.
The third is stacking chips from different players. Because each player has a distinct colour, your chips are identifiable. If you place a chip on top of another player's chip on the same number, the croupier cannot easily tell whose bet is whose. Place your chips so they do not touch anyone else's, and if a number is crowded, ask the croupier where to put yours.
What the single zero does to the arithmetic
The house edge on a single-zero wheel is the same for nearly every bet, and it comes from the zero pocket alone. A straight-up bet pays 35 to 1, but a fair payout on 37 pockets would be 36 to 1. The one-unit shortfall per winning bet, spread over all 37 possible outcomes, is the operator's mathematical advantage. You can see the same gap on an even-money bet: 18 winning pockets against 19 losing pockets when the zero is included, but the payout is 1 to 1. The zero is the 19th losing pocket.
That edge is fixed for the life of the wheel. It does not change with the time of day, the size of your stake, the previous spins, or any betting progression. A roulette wheel has no memory, and the ball has no tendency to land on numbers that have not appeared recently. Each spin is an independent event on the same 37-pocket wheel.
FAQ
Does Australian roulette use a double zero?
The standard Australian table uses a single-zero wheel with 37 pockets. A double-zero wheel has 38 pockets and is a different layout. The wheel at the table you are playing will show which format is in use, and the printed layout will show either one zero or both a zero and a double zero.
Are all the numbers on the layout the same as the numbers on the wheel?
Yes. The wheel and the layout contain the same 37 numbers from 0 to 36. The wheel arranges them in a fixed physical sequence for the spin, while the layout arranges them in numerical columns for betting. A bet on a number covers that number wherever it sits on the wheel.
Does the zero count as a losing number on outside bets?
On the single-zero wheel, the zero loses for red, black, odd, even, high and low bets. Some venues offer a rule where half of an even-money bet is returned when the zero appears, but that is a table-specific variant. If it is offered, it will be stated on the layout or by the croupier, and it changes the effective edge on those bets.
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