I’ve spent a lot of time around gamblers, and many of them don’t seem to understand how odds work. So I decided to put together a quick explanation using roulette. Here’s how roulette odds work.
Roulette odds are based on how many numbers win compared to how many total numbers are on the wheel.
If your head already hurts thinking about gambling odds, don’t panic. By the time you finish this post, you’re going to understand exactly how roulette odds work. And once you understand how roulette odds work, you can learn how odds work with other gambling games.
Gambling odds can be presented in different ways. But the way I explain the odds in this post makes it easy to understand.
How Many Numbers on the Roulette Wheel?
Roulette wheels all look the same at first glance. But roulette wheels aren’t all the same. While there are a few roulette wheels that don’t fit in this category, most roulette wheels have either 37 or 38 numbers.
All roulette wheels have spaces for the numbers 0 to 36 for a total of 37 numbers. But many roulette wheels also have a 00 space, for a total of 38 numbers.
You have to know how many numbers a roulette wheel has to determine the odds. And as you’re going to learn in this post, you have better odds on roulette wheels with 37 numbers than on wheels with 38 spaces.
Winning Numbers per Bet
You also need to know how many winning numbers there are for each bet to determine roulette odds. But just like learning how many numbers the roulette wheel has, you can easily see how many numbers win each bet.
All roulette bets that pay 1 to 1 or even money have 18 winning numbers. These bets include odd, even, black, red, 1 to 18, and 19 to 36.
Single number bets have 1 winning number. Column bets have 12 winning numbers. And row bets have 3 winning numbers.
These bets aren’t the only available roulette bets. But you can quickly see how many winning numbers there are for each available bet.
Roulette Odds for Popular Bets
Now you have all of the information to determine roulette odds for every bet. I mentioned that roulette odds can be displayed in different ways. The easiest way to show roulette odds is to state them as how many winning numbers are available out of the total number of numbers.
Here are examples of odds for popular roulette bets:
- Even money bets have 18 out of 37 odds or 18 out of 38 odds.
- Single number bets have 1 out of 37 or 1 out of 38 odds.
- Column bets have 12 out of 37 or 12 out of 38 odds.
- Row bets have 3 out of 37 or 3 out of 38 odds.
By looking at roulette odds this way you can see how many chances you have to win any bet out of the total number of spaces.
Another way to use odds like this is if you bet on an even money wager and played 37 times on a wheel with 37 spaces, you win 18 times on average. This also means you lose 19 times on average.
Converting Roulette Odds to Percentages
Some gamblers find it easier to convert odds to percentages. When you convert roulette odds to percentages you get the percentage odds of winning.
To get the percentage odd of winning, divide the number of spaces that win by the number of total spaces.
Here are some examples:
The percentage odds of winning an even money bet are 48.65% on a 37 number wheel and 47.37% on a 38 number wheel. As you can see, you have better odds on a 37 number wheel than on a 38 number wheel.
You have a 2.7% chance when you bet a single number on a 37 space wheel and a 2.63% chance on a 38 number wheel.
The percentage odds on a column bet are 32.43% on a 37 number wheel and 31.58% on a 38 number wheel.
Finally, you have an 8.11% chance of winning a row bet on a 37 number wheel and a 7.89% chance on a 38 number wheel.
Conclusion
Roulette odds are simple when you understand how to use them. If you prefer looking at how many chances you have to win using whole numbers, use the first method. And if you prefer using percentages, use the second method.
Compare the roulette odds to how much each bet pays. No roulette bet pays enough to overcome the odds. But it’s clear that you get better odds playing on a wheel with 37 numbers than playing on a wheel using 38 numbers.