Roulette’s a simple enough game. It consists of a spinning wheel with colored numbers on it. All roulette wheels have the numbers 1 through 36 on them, and those numbers are red and black (half of each).

Depending on where you play, the wheels also have between one and three other outcomes on them. These outcomes are green, and include the zero, the double-zero, and another symbol which can vary by casino.

Roulette is a very social game, and usually draws large crowds in Las Vegas. If you want to concentrate on the game, it can be hard to do so. However, playing online, it is just you and the computer, so you can focus on improving your play.

1. There are four types of roulette in Las Vegas. The options are European, single zero, double zero and triple zero. The best game in terms of payback to players is European. This game has a 1.35% house.
2. Double zero roulette has a house edge of 5.26%, while triple zero roulette is 7.69%. All Las Vegas casinos that deal roulette have a double zero table. Some offer another version, too. A few Las Vegas Strip casinos deal three versions of the game. Where to play roulette in Las Vegas. This section covers all four roulette games played in Las Vegas.
3. Playing live dealer roulette is as close as you’ll get to the Vegas casino experience or even better since you don’t have to be within crowds. Just as you would at a brick and mortar casino, you choose the type of roulette game and table you want and proceed to play.
4. This entry was posted in Gambling, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Casinos, Roulette on September 22, 2020 by Scott Roeben. Post navigation ← Charcoal Room at Palace Station Brings the Value Resorts World Announces Hotel-Within-a-Hotel, Crockfords Las Vegas →.

The croupier (the roulette dealer) spins a metal ball around the outside of the roulette wheel and, when it stops, it lands on one of the numbers.

You win in roulette by betting on the number where the ball lands. You can place a bewildering number of bets at the roulette table, but the easiest to understand is the single-number bet.

First, you bet on a number. If the ball lands on it, you win 35 to 1 odds on your bet. Those are the basics for roulette everywhere. The rest of this post covers how roulette actually works in Las Vegas today.

American Roulette, European Roulette, and Sands Roulette

You can differentiate the different types of roulette by looking at the number of green outcomes on the wheel.

The standard roulette game in Las Vegas is American roulette. That wheel has 38 numbers total, the 36 black and red numbers that all games have, along with a green zero and a green double-zero.

A variant of this that’s available at some casinos is European roulette, which only has 37 total numbers on it. Instead of having both zeros, European roulette only has a single green zero.

Sands roulette is a newer variation which has the zeros from American roulette along with an additional zero. You’ll also see this variation called “triple zero roulette.”

The last zero usually has an “S” symbol on it, but that can vary, too. The different number of zeros is what determines the house edge.

How the House Edge Works in Las Vegas Roulette

All casino games in Las Vegas, and everywhere else, have an innate mathematical edge in favor of the casino. This is what keeps the casino in business.

This edge can be understood as the difference between the odds of winning the bet and the payout odds.

If there were no zeros on the board in roulette, the bets would all be even money propositions without a house edge. Therefore, the more zeros, the higher the house edge becomes.

You have 38 possible outcomes on an American roulette wheel. If you place a single number bet, your odds of winning are 37 to 1. You have 37 ways to lose, and only 1 way to win.

The payout for a winning bet is 35 to 1. Suppose you bet $100 on a single number on a theoretically perfect set of 38 spins. You would lose $100 on 37 spins, for a total loss of $3700.

On one of the spins, you’d win $3500. (The bet pays off at 35 to 1.) If you have $3700 in losses and $3500 in winnings, you have a net loss of $200.

If you average that by those 38 spins, you have an average loss per spin of $5.26. Since $5.26 is 5.26% of $100, we can say that the house edge is 5.26%.

The house edge for the three versions of roulette is as follows:

• Single zero roulette – 2.70%
• Double zero roulette – 5.26%
• Triple zero roulette – 7.69%

As you can see, the best roulette games in Las Vegas are the games with a single zero, the European roulette games.

Other Betting Options in a Las Vegas Roulette Game

You’re not limited to betting on a single number. You have a myriad of bets available on various combinations of numbers. You can, in fact, bet on almost half of the numbers at one time by placing some of the outside bets.

The payoffs for these bets go down in relation to the probability of winning. And the house edge stays the same regardless of which bet you’re placing.

You can divide the bets at the roulette table into outside bets and inside bets.

Here are the outside bets available along with their payouts:

• Column bet – The numbers are organized into three columns with 12 numbers in each column. This bet pays off at 2 to 1, and the odds of winning are almost 2 to 1.
• Dozens bet – The numbers can also be organized into first 12, second 12, and third 12. (That’s 1-12, 13-24, and 25-36). The payout is 2 to 1 again, and the odds are still slightly less than that because of the zeros.
• Red or black – Half of the numbers are red, and half are black. You can bet on either color and win even money if you guess right. Of course, the zeros are green.
• Odd or even – Half the numbers are odd, and half are even. You can win even money betting on either. The zeros are neither odd nor even, though.
• High or low – Half the numbers are high (19+), and half are low (18-). You can win even money on either of these, too, but guess what? The green zeros are neither high nor low.

Generally, you’ll win more often placing the outside bets, but the payoffs are lower. In the long run, it won’t matter, you’ll still lose based on the house edge eventually.

But you’ll probably stay in the game a lot longer.

Here are the inside bets available along with their payouts:

• Single number – This is also called a straight-up bet, and it’s a bet on a single number. It pays off at 35 to 1.
• Split bet – This is a bet on two numbers. If either number lands, you win 17 to 1. Your chances of winning double are higher, but the amount you win is cut in half.
• Street bet – This is a bet on three numbers. If any of those numbers hit, you win 11 to 1.
• Corner bet – This is a bet on four numbers at the same time. The corner bet pays off at 8 to 1 if one of your four numbers hits.
• The five–number bet – This is one of the most interesting bets. It’s a bet that the 0, 00, 1, 2, or 3 will come up. It pays off at 6 to 1. It’s the only bet on the roulette table that has a different house edge than the other bets, but it’s not good news. The house edge for the five-number bet is 7.89%, making it the worst bet available. It’s also only available on an American roulette wheel.
• Line bet – This is a bet on six numbers at the same time. If any of them hit, you win 5 to 1.

The main thing to remember about all these roulette bets is that they all have the same house edge (with the exception of the five-number bet, which we recommend you should never make).

Place bets based on how aggressive you like to be and what your risk tolerance is like. If you prefer fewer wins that are bigger, you should place inside bets. If you prefer more wins more often, even if they’re smaller, stick with the outside bets.

Just don’t make the mistake of thinking some bets are better than others mathematically, other than that one exception with the five-number bet.

Las Vegas Casino House Rules Related to Roulette

The main differences from game to game and from casino to casino in roulette usually have to do with minimum and maximum bet sizes and the number of zeros on the wheel.

Minimum bets start around $5 at some of the more low-roller friendly casinos. But you’ll also see plenty of casinos with minimum bets of $10, $15, $50, or even $100.

The maximum bets can best be thought of as a multiple of your minimum bet. The bigger the betting spread, the better off you are if you’re a Martingale player.

Some casinos allow you to bet up to $2000 with a $5 minimum bet. Other casinos with a $5 minimum bet have a maximum bet of $200.

The biggest high roller roulette tables in Las Vegas have maximum bets in the $5000+ range. It would be rare to find a game with a $10,000 maximum bet.

Although, if you can afford that kind of action, you can probably talk the casino into offering you that game. These games usually have a minimum bet of $100.

There’s one other rule difference I should point out. Not all single zero roulette games are the same. Some of these single zero games are “European” roulette games.

If you get a chance to play in such a game, that would be the best to play. These are usually the higher limit games in casinos like Aria, Bellagio, and Encore. Any of the bigger casinos that attract high rollers might have such a game, including Mandalay Bay, Mirage, or Wynn.

Can You Beat the Roulette Games in Vegas?

There might have been a time when you could find a dealer with a signature or a biased roulette wheel. Books have been written about it.

What does that mean exactly? Well, a dealer signature is a phenomenon that occurs when a dealer habitually releases the ball at the same spin and at the same point.

This makes some numbers more likely to occur than you’d expect. If you can time it right, you can bet on those numbers with an edge over the house.

A biased wheel is a wheel that is worn out or wasn’t built in such a way that each number has an equal probability of appearing. If you can figure out what numbers are more likely to come up, you can bet on them with an edge.

But in modern Las Vegas, most dealers are well-trained. Machinery, like roulette wheels, are replaced regularly. Modern Vegas casinos can afford good quality equipment.

At this time, I don’t think you can realistically get an edge over the casino playing roulette in Las Vegas.

Conclusion

And that’s the truth about how roulette actually works in Las Vegas today. If you have a different experience or disagree, please feel free to leave a message for me in the comments!

It started innocently enough. An additional space showed up on a roulette table.

It looked innocuous, just one additional space on one table at Venetian back in 2016, no big deal.

Then triple zero roulette popped up at Planet Hollywood and New York-New York. No big deal, right?

Well, it depends upon who you ask. Or possibly whom. Have you always been this obsessed with grammar? Lighten up, you’re reading a Las Vegas blog.

Math wizards were quick to point out each additional space on a roulette makes the game worse for players.

Longtime roulette players sometimes joke about triple zero roulette, “More ways to win!”

Um, no.

On a table with two zeros, the house edge is 5.26%. Not great, but a table with three zeros bumps the house edge up to 7.69%, or as we call it, the gambler discomfort zone.

Don’t try to hide that extra spot, Harrah’s.

Prior to the pandemic, the proliferation of triple zero roulette raised lots of hackles. We should know, we were one of the main hackle-raisers.

Mid-pandemic, lots of things we used to get riled up about seem relatively trivial. Still.

There’s a reason you don’t hear much about triple zero roulette anymore. It’s pretty much everywhere in Las Vegas now.

We’ve visited a number of casinos in the weeks since casinos reopened in June, and we’re hard-pressed to remember a casino where there wasn’t triple zero roulette.

Roulette In Las Vegas

Pretty sure Ben Siegel would’ve bugged out about this, Flamingo.

We’ve seen triple zero at Harrah’s, Flamingo, Four Queens, MGM Grand, Linq and others.

We used to keep a list of casinos with triple zero roulette, but that list seems almost quaint now.

We naively hoped lower demand would inspire casinos to dump triple zero roulette, but no such luck. So far.

Logos have more of a “Nothing to see here!” vibe than zeroes. Good going, MGM Grand.

So, why do people play triple zero roulette when there’s often a double zero roulette table nearby?

There are two answers: One, lower table limits. Two, they just don’t care.

Lower table limits make triple zero roulette tables tempting despite the greater house edge.

As for the “they just don’t care” aspect, we find ourselves in that camp lately.

We are a recreational gambler. We aren’t playing any game for hours on end. That’s true of most Las Vegas visitors, too. You’re lucky or you aren’t. It’s more about fun than math.

Best Roulette In Las Vegas

We knew we were fighting a losing battle when we saw triple zero at Four Queens and its sister casino, Binion’s. Bonus points for the blue felt, though.

Ultimately, gambling is gambling. The odds are always on the side of the house.

If you’re gambling to make money, while possible, you may want to find other pursuits.

One of the worst things that can happen is to let frustration about odds or rules or pay tables overtake your enjoyment of the gambling experience.

Unless it has to do with paper straws being used in your drinks. Those ruin everything.

Is now really the time to risk irking players, Linq?

While it’s not fun having to report triple zero roulette tables are everywhere in Las Vegas, there are bright spots!

For example, downtown’s Plaza hotel has a single zero roulette table on its casino floor.

Behold the unicorn of roulette tables, single zero at Plaza.

Cromwell has a single zero table, too. We miss you, Cromwell.

Playing Roulette In Las Vegas

A few other Las Vegas casinos have single zero as well, but they’re typically tucked away in high limit salons where table minimums can be sky high.

Our advice is to find a roulette table with solid drink service and friendly dealers, and just play for fun.

Lucky Luck will either smile upon you or plant her boot firmly in your posterior.

Gamble for the memories, not the return on investment.

And also avoid keno, because the odds absolutely suck.

Playing Roulette In Las Vegas

But mostly gamble for the fun! Life already has plenty of math.