6 Quick Roulette Math Facts You Need to Know

You can use math every time you play roulette to help you improve your chance of winning. And the math you need to know for this game doesn’t take long to learn. Yet most roulette players completely ignore these strategies, and it costs them money over the long run.

This article includes every mathematical fact behind roulette that you need to know. These six roulette facts give you every secret and trick there is about the game.

By investing a few minutes learning the tidbits in this article, you can save your bankroll every time you play roulette for real money.

1 – How Roulette Math and Odds Work

Roulette odds are easy to understand once you see exactly how the work. The odds are the most important math lesson roulette players can learn.

The odds in roulette are based on how many numbers or spaces there are on the wheel and how many of those numbers win on the bet you place.

For example, if you bet on the number 23, you have a 1 out of 37 or 1 out of 38 chance to win. Roulette wheels have either 37 or 38 spaces or numbers, depending on the type of wheel you’re playing. You’re going to learn more about the types of roulette games in section 3 and 4 in this article.

The odds when you bet on red are 18 out of 37 or 18 out of 38. You can see the odds are much better to hit red than 23, but red only pays 1 to 1 and 23 pays 35 to 1.

Many roulette gamblers don’t know this, but almost 100% of the best at roulette tables have the same long-term edge and return. You’re going to learn why this is true in the next section.

2 – How the Odds Translate Into Return and Edge

Once you understand how roulette odds work, you can see that the return and house edge is exactly the same on a bet on 23 and a bet on red.

If you’re playing on a roulette wheel with 37 spaces, bet on red, and bet $20 on each spin, look at what happens on average over the course of 37 spins. You bet a total of $740. When you win, which happens 18 out of 37 times, you win a total of $40. This is a total win of $720.

To get the return rate you simply divide 720 by 740, to get 97.3%. This gives the game a house edge of 2.7%.

If you do the same thing on a bet for 23, you see that the total cost of 37 best is the same $740, and when you win once, you win $720. This shows the return and edge is the same in the long run on red and 23.

If you run these numbers on a wheel with 38 spaces, you bet a total of $760. And the money you win is the same on both 23 and red. This shows a return of 94.74% and a house edge of 5.26% on each bet.

You need to know that every bet on tables with 37 spaces or numbers has the exact same house edge and return. This is also true for every bet but 1 on a wheel or table that has 38 spaces. The only bet that doesn’t have the same edge and return is a basket bet on the number 00 to 3. It has a higher house edge and lower return percentage than the other bet options.

3 – American and European Roulette Wheel Math

You just learned how to use the odds and math to determine the house edge and return percentage for any roulette variant. You also learned that roulette games have either 37 or 38 spaces or numbers.

Roulette games that use 37 spaces or numbers are usually called European tables. The roulette games that use 38 spaces or number are usually called American Roulette tables.

This math shows why playing roulette on tables with 37 spaces is much smarter and gives you a better long term chance of winning.

4 – How En Prison Changes the Game

Now, you know why you should always play roulette at a table with 37 spaces or numbers. But roulette gamblers that get the best returns know about a secret rule that’s only available on select roulette tables. This rule is called en prison and it is similar to the American roulette surrender rule.

The en prison rule works like this. When you bet on red or any of the other bets that pay 1 to 1 when you win, you usually lose your bet when you lose. But tables that use the en prison rule place this lost bet in prison until the next bet.

If you win the next bet, you receive the bet that’s in prison back, plus your win on the current bet. The only way you lose an even money bet is when you lose two bets in a row.

The en prison rule is only available on tables that are usually called French Roulette tables. But the name of the table is secondary because the casino can call it anything they want. As long as the table uses en prison, it’s the table you want to play on.

The return on even money bets is 98.65%, and the house edge is 1.35%. This is much better than any other roulette table option.

5 – Why Roulette Systems Don’t Work

Now that you understand exactly how the odds work in roulette games and how the odds determine the return and the house edge, hopefully, you understand why roulette systems don’t work. But if you’re not sure, you’re going to learn more in this section.

No matter what a roulette system tells you to do, the return and the edge for each bet is the same. Most roulette systems involve changing the amount of some bets that you make. This can’t change the return and edge.

In fact, the only thing betting more in roulette does is make you lose more because the edge is the same, and the same edge on a bigger bet takes more of your bet for the house.

6 – Roulette Bonus Math

You know the house edge for every type of roulette table and bet that’s available . You can use this information when you evaluate online roulette bonus offers and mobile roulette bonuses.

If you never thought that you needed to evaluate online casino bonus offers before, don’t worry about it. Very few roulette players think that roulette bonuses can actually be detrimental to their bankroll. But they can be, and I’m going to show you why.

All roulette bonuses have rules about how much you have to bet before you can withdraw any of your winnings. For example, the rules might say that you have to bet 40x the total of your bonus and deposit. If you deposit $300 and get a $300 bonus, this is a total of $600. Betting this amount 40x is a total of $24,000.

If you multiply the $24,000 with the house edge, you get the amount you can expect to lose. If you’re playing European Roulette, you can expect to lose $648. When you play French Rules Roulette, you should expect to lose $324.

As you can see, both of these expected loss amounts is more than the bonus amount of $300. This tells you that the bonus isn’t a good deal.

You can still use these bonuses if your goal is to play longer, but they don’t help you win unless the bonus amount is higher than the expected loss amount.

In Summary

Roulette odds and math is simpler than the math used in most casino games. With just a little bit of education and practice, you can use math as well as anyone else when you play roulette.

The odds set the house edge and the return percentage when you play roulette. So, when you play with the best odds, you get the best return.

The en prison rule is the most important roulette rule you need to know. It turns bad odds into better odds than many other casino table games. It works much better than roulette systems.