Inside and outside bets

Welcome to the lesson on roulette bet types.

I'm Annabel, and today we are going to do something practical.

I'm going to walk you around the roulette layout and explain what you're actually betting on with each type of wager, what it pays, and what it costs you.

There are some genuine surprises in here, and one piece of information that I consider genuinely essential for any player who has graduated beyond beginner status.

Let's start with the inside bets, the ones placed on the numbered grid.

A straight-up bet covers one number.

It pays thirty-five to one on a European wheel.

A split covers two adjacent numbers and pays seventeen to one.

A street covers three numbers in a row and pays eleven to one.

A corner covers four numbers sharing a single point and pays eight to one.

A six-line covers two adjacent streets, six numbers, and pays five to one.

If you keep dividing the wheel this way you get to columns and dozens, which cover twelve numbers each and pay two to one.

Now, here is the thing I need you to hear clearly.

On a European single-zero wheel, every single one of those bets carries exactly two point seven percent house edge.

Not approximately.

Exactly.

This is an algebraic identity in the payout structure.

The casino always withholds one thirty-seventh of everything wagered, regardless of how you spread your chips.

Beginners are told to bet outside bets because they are "safer," which is true in one specific sense: outside bets have lower variance, meaning the swings are smaller.

But you are not getting better odds on the house.

The edge is identical.

The only bets where outside bets genuinely outperform inside bets are on a French table with La Partage in play, where even-money bets drop to one point three five percent while inside bets remain at two point seven.

We cover that in the La Partage lesson.

There is one structural exception on the American double-zero wheel that is worth knowing so you can avoid it.

The basket bet, covering zero, double-zero, one, two, and three, pays six to one.

Every other American wheel bet carries five point two six percent house edge.

The basket bet carries seven point eight nine five percent.

The reason is arithmetic: five numbers in thirty-eight pockets gives a fair payout of six point two to one.

The casino rounds down to six, and that rounding creates a unique overcharge you don't see anywhere else.

It's the only bet in standard roulette where the payout formula produces a rounding error rather than a clean fraction.

Don't play the basket.

Now let's talk about the oval.

At European and French tables, you will usually find a separate betting area called the racetrack, or in French, la piste.

Its numbers run in wheel order rather than grid order, and it exists specifically for placing sector bets: wagers on adjacent sections of the physical wheel rather than the layout grid.

The four standard sector bets are Voisins du Zero, Tiers du Cylindre, Orphelins, and Jeu Zero.

Voisins du Zero, the neighbours of zero, covers seventeen numbers across the arc from twenty-two to twenty-five on the wheel.

It takes nine chips: two on the zero-two-three trio, two on the twenty-two to twenty-nine corner, and one each on five splits covering the remaining numbers.

Tiers du Cylindre, the thirds, covers twelve numbers on the opposite arc, from twenty-seven to thirty-three, with six chips on six splits.

Orphelins, the orphans, covers the eight numbers left over in two disconnected arcs, using five chips.

Jeu Zero covers seven numbers around zero with four chips, including a straight-up on twenty-six.

All four carry two point seven percent house edge on a European wheel.

They are a convenient interface, not an advantage.

There is one other sector bet worth knowing: the snake.

It covers twelve specific red numbers that trace a zigzag path across the layout: one, five, nine, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, nineteen, twenty-three, twenty-seven, thirty, thirty-two, and thirty-four.

It requires twelve individual chips placed at those numbers.

Its expected value is identical to a column or dozen bet.

It has no mathematical advantage over any other twelve-number coverage.

It is a display bet, the kind of thing you place at a private table to signal that you know your way around a layout.

The croupier knows what you're doing.

The pit boss knows what you're doing.

But it does look rather distinguished.

One genuinely useful piece of London-specific knowledge concerns the difference between a call bet and an announced bet.

In France and Monaco, a call bet is placed on credit: you announce the bet, the croupier places it, and you settle after the spin.

In the UK, this practice effectively disappeared after 2007, when the UKGC licensing conditions tightened to require that chips be staked before spin resolution.

What exists on UK floors is the announced bet: you declare the bet and the croupier places it on the racetrack on your behalf, but your chips must already be on the table.

It is a practical distinction.

The old credit call bet is a Monte Carlo convention.

British floors use the announced version.

If you announce "voisins" at a London table, you're making an announced bet, not a call bet, and the croupier will expect to see your chips.

One last thing.

Players who discover sector bets often feel they have found an insider's approach, unavailable to the grid-betting masses.

They have found a cleaner interface for the same bets.

The edge is identical.

The only players for whom sector targeting makes rational sense are those playing a biased wheel or reading a dealer signature, and in both cases the sector follows from analysis, not from the existence of the racetrack oval.

We cover both of those scenarios in their own lessons.

For now, know your layout, know what each bet costs, and know that the only truly different number on that table is one point three five percent, which requires a French table with La Partage to access.

Enjoy yourself at the layout. Don't mistake the architecture for an edge.