The Wheel You Sit Down At Changes the Whole Table
You walk up to a roulette table, buy in, and the first thing you should look at is not the felt or the screen but the wheel itself. Count the green pockets. If there is one green zero, you are looking at a European-style wheel with 37 pockets. If there are two green pockets, a zero and a double zero, it is an American-style wheel with 38. That one extra pocket is not a cosmetic difference. It changes the arithmetic of every bet you can place, because the house advantage on roulette comes from the fact that the payouts are calculated as if the zero pockets did not exist.
The numbered pockets run from 1 to 36 on both wheel types. Half are red and half are black, and the numbers alternate around the wheel in a sequence designed so that high and low, odd and even, red and black are scattered rather than clustered. The zeros are green and belong to neither colour. So the direct answer to the question is simple: a European wheel has 37 numbers including the single zero, and an American wheel has 38 including the single and double zero. Everything else about how you should play follows from which one is in front of you.
Why the Zero Pocket Is the House's Real Advantage
Roulette does not hide its edge in a complex rule. It sits in the payout schedule. A straight-up bet on a single number pays 35 to 1. On a European wheel with 37 pockets, a fair payout for a 1-in-37 chance would be 36 to 1. The missing unit is the house edge. On an American wheel with 38 pockets, the same 35-to-1 payout is even further from fair, because the chance is 1 in 38. The double zero is simply an extra losing pocket that pays nothing and is covered by no standard bet except the ones that specifically include it.
This is why the first question a roulette player should ask is not which numbers to bet but which wheel the table uses. The same bet placed on a European layout loses money more slowly over time than the identical bet on an American layout. The difference is structural and built into the wheel, not something a betting pattern can remove.
European and American Wheels Compared
Most of what a new player needs to know about the two wheel types can be laid side by side. The table below keeps the comparison to mechanics, because the exact house edge on any given bet depends on the specific rules the venue posts.
| Feature | European wheel | American wheel |
|---|---|---|
| Numbered pockets | 1 to 36 | 1 to 36 |
| Green pockets | One zero | Zero and double zero |
| Total pockets | 37 | 38 |
| Effect on a straight-up bet | Pays 35 to 1 on a 1-in-37 chance | Pays 35 to 1 on a 1-in-38 chance |
| Why the edge exists | The zero is an uncovered losing pocket | Both zeros are uncovered losing pockets |
| Where the rules are posted | Table layout and the venue's game information panel | Table layout and the venue's game information panel |
Some venues offer a rule variant on European wheels called la partage or en prison, which changes what happens to certain even-money bets when the zero lands. If the table you are at advertises such a rule, it alters the effective cost of those specific bets, and the posted table rules are the only reliable place to confirm it. Do not assume a European wheel automatically carries the more generous rule.
What a Round Looks Like From Buy-In to Settlement
You buy chips at the table or load a balance at an online table. Roulette uses its own coloured chips at a live table so the dealer can tell players apart; the value of each chip is set when you buy in and is not printed on the chip itself. At an online table, the interface shows your balance and your stake in ordinary currency or account units.
Bets are placed before the spin. On a live table you put chips on the layout, and the dealer announces when betting closes, usually as the ball begins to slow. Online, the betting window is a countdown on screen. Once betting closes, the wheel spins and the ball drops into a pocket. The dealer or the software marks the winning number, clears losing bets, and pays winners according to the posted payout schedule. The next round begins when the layout is clear and betting reopens.
The decision points are all before the spin. You choose which bets to place, how much to stake on each, and whether to spread chips across several bets or concentrate them. Once the ball is moving, nothing you do changes the outcome. The wheel has no memory, and no pocket becomes more or less likely because of what landed before.
The Main Bet Types and Where Their Edges Differ
Roulette bets fall into two broad groups: inside bets, which sit on the numbered part of the layout, and outside bets, which sit around its edges. Inside bets cover fewer numbers and pay more when they win. Outside bets cover larger groups and pay less. The key point for a new player is that the house edge is not the same across every bet on the table. On an American wheel, the five-number bet covering 0, 00, 1, 2, and 3 is generally the most expensive bet on the layout because its payout does not match its already poor odds. On a European wheel, no equivalent five-number bet exists.
| Bet | Numbers covered | Payout | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight-up | One number | 35 to 1 | Highest payout, lowest probability |
| Split | Two adjacent numbers | 17 to 1 | Chip placed on the line between them |
| Street | Three numbers in a row | 11 to 1 | Chip placed at the end of the row |
| Corner | Four numbers meeting at a corner | 8 to 1 | Chip placed at the intersection |
| Six line | Six numbers in two rows | 5 to 1 | Chip placed at the intersection of the two rows |
| Red, black, odd, even, high, low | 18 numbers | 1 to 1 | Lose to the zero pockets unless a special rule applies |
| Dozens, columns | 12 numbers | 2 to 1 | Outside bets covering a block of the layout |
None of these bets turns the table in the player's favour. The choice is about how the losses are distributed: a straight-up bet loses most spins and pays rarely, while an even-money bet wins close to half the time but returns only the stake as profit. The wheel type, not the bet name, sets the baseline cost of playing.
The Mistakes That Cost New Players More Than the Wheel Does
The first mistake is not checking which wheel is in front of you. A player who sits at an American table without noticing the double zero is paying for an extra losing pocket on every spin. The second is betting the five-number basket on an American layout, which carries a worse return than any other standard bet on that wheel. The third is treating a progression as protection. Doubling a bet after a loss does not change the wheel's arithmetic; it only changes the size of the swings. A losing streak of modest length can exhaust a bankroll that a flat-betting player would have survived.
A quieter mistake is buying in without knowing how the table's minimum and maximum apply to your bets. The posted minimum usually applies to the total of your outside bets or to each inside bet separately, but tables differ. If you plan to spread chips across several numbers, confirm with the dealer or the cashier screen how the minimum is calculated before the first spin, not after a dispute.
Reading the Table Before You Sit Down
Every roulette table, live or online, posts the information that matters for that specific game: the wheel type, the minimum and maximum stakes, the payout schedule, and any special rule such as la partage. On a live table this is printed on the layout or on a plaque beside the wheel. Online, it sits in the game's information panel, usually behind a help or rules icon. Read it before you buy in. The number of pockets is fixed by the wheel type, but the table's stake limits and rule variants are set by the venue, and they are the only figures you should rely on for that table.
Roulette is a game of fixed probabilities and posted payouts. The wheel tells you how many numbers are in play, the layout tells you what each bet pays, and the gap between those two things is the cost of the game. Knowing the wheel type before the first spin is the cheapest decision you will make at the table.
FAQ
Does the zero count as a number in roulette?
Yes. The zero is a pocket on the wheel and a betting option on the layout, but it is not red or black, odd or even, high or low. On a European wheel it is the 37th pocket; on an American wheel the zero and double zero are the 37th and 38th.
Why does the American wheel have an extra number?
The double zero was added to the wheel in some markets to give the house a larger margin on the same set of payouts. It is an extra losing pocket that no standard even-money or colour bet covers, which makes every bet on that wheel cost more over time than the same bet on a single-zero wheel.
Can I bet on all the numbers at once?
You can place chips on every number, but the payout structure makes that a losing proposition on any wheel. A straight-up win pays 35 to 1, and covering all 37 or 38 pockets costs more than the winning bet returns. The house edge is built into the payout schedule, and spreading bets across the whole layout does not remove it.
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