You sit down to place a bet on one of the 36 numbers on the wheel. Assume for a moment that you came across a ‘no zero’ roulette wheel at a casino in some alternate dimension. One of the easiest ways to understand the house edge–as well as the concept of getting ‘fair odds’ on a bet–can be seen in roulette single number bets. The house edge in single zero roulette is 2.7% while the house edge in ‘double zero’ roulette is 5.26%. The roulette wheel has 36 numbered spots and either one zero for a total of 37 spots or a zero and a ‘double zero’ for a total of 38 spots. This is significant since this is where the ‘house’ gains its primary mathematical advantage. The terms ‘American Roulette’ and ‘European Roulette’ simply refer to the number of zeros on the wheel. Historians have dated both ‘double zero’ and ‘single zero’ roulette back to the late 1700’s and although the popularity of the game has spread worldwide and ebbed and flowed the 18th-century player would have no problem recognizing today’s version of the game. Roulette has changed very little over the past few centuries. These are terms that you’ll hear often in roulette discussions so it’s a good idea to take the time and understand what these terms mean, the differences between the games and the odds on each variation of roulette.
