Online roulette in Canada: wheels, bets and house edge

How a round works

You place chips on the table layout until betting closes. The wheel spins one way, the ball travels the other, and it drops into one numbered pocket. Every bet is then settled on that number and its properties: red or black, odd or even, low (1 to 18) or high (19 to 36), and which dozen and column it sits in.

Online you will meet three kinds of table. RNG roulette is a digital game in which a random number generator picks the pocket, so every spin is independent and you can play at your own pace. Live roulette is a physical wheel with a dealer, streamed from a studio, where sensors read the winning number. Auto roulette is a physical wheel with a machine-launched ball and no dealer, so rounds come faster.

European, French and American wheels

These are the standard published figures for each wheel's rules. Here is where they come from. A European wheel has 18 red pockets, 18 black and the zero. A bet on red wins on 18 pockets and loses on 19. A straight-up bet on one number pays 35 to 1, but the true odds are 36 to 1. If you put $1 on each of the 37 numbers, one wins and pays $35 plus your $1 back: $36 returned for $37 staked, an edge of 1/37, or 2.70%. The American wheel adds a double zero, so the same $36 comes back for $38: an edge of 2/38, or 5.26%.

French roulette uses the single-zero wheel with one of two extra rules for even-money bets. Under La Partage, when the zero lands you lose only half of an even-money stake. Under En Prison, the stake stays on the table for the next spin and is returned if that spin wins. Either rule halves the edge on even-money bets to about 1.35%.

On the same $1,000 wagered on red, that is an expected loss of about $13.50 at a French table with La Partage, $27 at a European table and $52.60 at an American one. The wheel you choose matters more than any bet you place on it.

Bets and payouts

Inside bets go on the numbers themselves; outside bets go on the boxes around them. On a European wheel:

Every one of these bets carries the same 2.70% edge on a European wheel. The payouts are set so that the zero, and only the zero, gives the casino its share. On an American wheel the payouts are the same and every chance is a little lower, which is where the 5.26% comes from. The one exception is the American five-number bet on 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3: it pays 6 to 1 and carries an edge of 7.89%.

French tables label the outside bets in French (rouge and noir, pair and impair, manque and passe) and offer call bets on sections of the wheel, such as Voisins du Zéro, Tiers du Cylindre and Orphelins. A call bet is a set of standard bets placed together, with the same edge as its parts.

Same edge, different swings

If every bet costs 2.70%, the choice between them is about the shape of your results, not their cost. An even-money bet wins nearly half the time and moves the balance in small steps. A straight-up bet wins about once in 37 spins and moves it in large jumps. As a worked example only: 100 spins at $1 on red and 100 spins at $1 on number 17 both cost about $2.70 on average, but the number bet is far more likely to end the session well below or well above that.

Live roulette and multiplier versions

Live roulette streams a real wheel from a studio, with a dealer who spins the ball and announces results. A timer on screen closes betting before each spin. Most tables show a history panel with recent numbers and "hot" and "cold" lists. That panel records what has happened; it does not predict anything, because the wheel has no memory.

Live lobbies often add speed tables with shorter rounds, auto tables without a dealer, slow-motion camera replays, and multiplier games. In Lightning Roulette and similar games, a few numbers each round receive a random multiplier on straight-up bets, paid for by a lower standard payout on straight-up wins: 29 to 1 instead of 35 to 1 in Evolution's Lightning Roulette rules. The return of each bet type is printed in the game's help panel; read it before you assume the edge is 2.70%.

Every live table also has a minimum and a maximum bet, shown in the lobby and the table information, often with separate limits for inside and outside bets. More on how studios work, table limits and connection problems is in our guide to live dealer casinos.

Why betting systems do not change the edge

Every bet on the table carries the same edge. If each single bet loses 2.70% on average, any sequence of bets, doubled, increased or decreased, also loses 2.70% of the total amount wagered. A system decides how much you bet and when. It cannot decide what each bet is worth. What a system does change is the shape of the results: many small wins and a rare large loss, or the other way round.

Martingale

Martingale doubles the stake after every loss on an even-money bet, so the first win recovers everything lost plus one base unit. You bet $1 on red; if you lose, you bet $2, then $4, then $8. When red comes, you are $1 ahead and start again. The catch is how fast the stakes grow. On a European wheel the chance of losing one even-money bet is 19/37, and of losing several in a row that number multiplied by itself:

• 5 losses in a row: 3.57% (1 in 28). You have lost $31, and the next stake is $32.
• 7 losses in a row: 0.94% (1 in 106). Lost $127, next stake $128.
• 9 losses in a row: 0.25% (1 in 403). Lost $511, next stake $512.
• 10 losses in a row: 0.13% (1 in 784). Lost $1,023, next stake $1,024.

Then add the table limit. As a worked example only, at a table with a $500 maximum, a $1 start allows nine bets in a series: the tenth stake, $512, is not allowed. Nine losses in a row end the series $511 down, which wipes out the profit of 511 winning series. A streak of nine is rare in one series, but a session holds many series. In a computer simulation of that table, the limit was reached in about 10.7% of 100-spin sessions and 45.3% of 500-spin sessions.

The same simulation shows why people believe in Martingale. Over 400,000 sessions of 100 spins, flat $1 bets on red ended ahead in about 35.5% of sessions, and Martingale in about 87.8%. Yet across all sessions Martingale still lost 2.7% of everything wagered: the house edge. Most sessions win a little, a few lose a lot, and the average does not move.

Fibonacci, d'Alembert, Labouchère and Paroli

• Fibonacci moves one step up the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 after a loss and two steps back after a win. Stakes grow more slowly than with Martingale, and a win no longer recovers everything. After ten losses in a row you are $143 down and the next stake is $89.
• d'Alembert adds one unit after a loss and removes one after a win, on the belief that wins and losses even out. On a European wheel they do not: an even-money bet has 18 winning pockets against 19 losing ones.
• Labouchère starts from a line of numbers, such as 1, 2, 3. You bet the first and last added together; a win crosses both off and a loss adds the lost stake to the end. A losing run makes the line and the stakes grow fast.
• Paroli, or reverse Martingale, doubles after a win instead of a loss, usually for three wins, then starts again. It risks only the base stake in each series.

In the same simulation, Fibonacci lost about 2.68% of the total wagered and d'Alembert about 2.74%: the house edge again, within the margin of the simulation. No pattern of bets beats the zero.

Roulette and bonus wagering

Most casinos count roulette at a reduced rate toward a wagering requirement, often 10% or 20%, and some at 0% or exclude it while a bonus is active. As a worked example only, a $3,500 requirement at 10% means $35,000 in roulette bets. Bonus terms also commonly forbid covering both sides of an even-money bet, such as red and black together, or most of the table at once. If you mainly play roulette, playing without a bonus is often the simpler choice. Our guide to wagering requirements has the full arithmetic.

What actually changes your result

Two things are in your hands. The first is the table: in the roulette lobby, look for "French" or "La Partage" in the table name, choose single-zero tables over double-zero ones, and read the help panel of any multiplier game. The second is a limit, the one thing no system gives you. Decide your session budget before you start, stop when it is gone, win or lose, and use the deposit and loss limits in your casino account.

The casinos on our Canadian list and our casino reviews cover licences, payments and terms. The bet names on this page are defined in the casino glossary.

More guides in the academy

• Online slots: how they work
• Online blackjack: rules and house edge
• Online baccarat: Banker, Player and Tie
• Live dealer casinos: how live games work
• Wagering requirements explained, in dollars
• Casino glossary
• Beginner's guide to online casinos in Canada

A doubling system is a quick route to one large loss. If gambling stops being fun, our responsible gambling page lists free, confidential help for every province we cover.