The Best and Worst Bets on a Roulette Table
Roulette bets look wildly different — a single number pays 35:1, red pays even money — but underneath, almost all of them cost exactly the same. Ranking them properly takes two steps: sort by house edge first, then by how the variance fits your session. Do that and one bet falls straight to the bottom of the table, and one narrow family rises to the top.
Play provably-fair roulette →How to rank a roulette bet honestly
There are only two numbers that matter when ranking a wager: the house edge (what the bet costs you per unit wagered, on average) and the variance (how bumpy the ride is on the way to that average). Edge is the tiebreaker that actually moves money — a lower-edge bet is mathematically cheaper every single spin, forever. Variance is a preference, not a cost: a straight-up number and a red/black bet on the same wheel lose the same percentage in expectation, they just distribute the losses differently. So the ranking framework is simple. First, eliminate anything with a worse edge than the alternatives on the same table. Second, among the bets that remain — which will all share one edge — pick the payout shape that matches what you want from the session. Most 'best bets in roulette' articles get this backwards and rank by win frequency, which tells you nothing about cost.
The worst bet in roulette: the five-number basket
On an American double-zero wheel, one bet is objectively worse than everything else on the felt: the five-number basket covering 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. It pays 6:1, and that payout is subtly broken. Five numbers out of 38 win, so the fair payout would be 6.6:1 — the round-down to 6:1 pushes the house edge to 7.89%, versus 5.26% for every other bet on the same wheel (per Wizard of Odds). In plain terms: the basket costs you about 50% more per SUI wagered than the straight-up number sitting right next to it, with no compensating upside. There is no bankroll, no strategy and no session goal for which the basket is the right choice. It exists because the American layout makes it geometrically convenient to place, not because it belongs in anyone's game. If you remember one thing from this article, remember to never put chips on it.
Every other double-zero bet costs exactly 5.26%
Here is the fact that collapses most roulette folklore: on a double-zero wheel, every bet except the basket — straight-up, split, street, corner, six-line, dozens, columns, red/black, odd/even, high/low — carries an identical 5.26% house edge. The payouts are all calibrated to a 36-pocket wheel while the real wheel has 38 pockets, and that two-pocket shortfall taxes every bet type equally. A 35:1 single number and an even-money red bet lose the same 5.26 SUI per 100 SUI wagered in expectation. Nobody who tells you corners are 'smarter' than straight numbers, or that outside bets are 'safer value', is doing math — they are describing variance and calling it edge. Within the 5.26% family, no bet is better than another. Which leads to the real decision that most players skip entirely: choosing which wheel to stand at.
Single zero cuts the price to 2.70%
Remove the 00 pocket and the same payout schedule suddenly costs half as much: a European single-zero wheel has 37 pockets, and every bet on it runs a 2.70% house edge (Wizard of Odds). Same 35:1 on a number, same even money on red — you just stop paying for a pocket that only exists to double the house take. That makes wheel selection the single most powerful 'bet' in roulette: choosing single zero over double zero is worth more than any combination of chip placement ever will be. On Llamabet the wheel type is stated up front and every spin is provably fair — the server-seed hash is committed on Sui before you bet and revealed afterward, so you can verify the pocket was determined honestly. An honest 2.70% beats an unverifiable anything.
The best bets: even money with la partage or en prison
The genuine top of the ranking is a narrow family: even-money bets (red/black, odd/even, high/low) on a single-zero wheel that applies the la partage or en prison rule. Under la partage, when the ball lands on zero, even-money bets lose only half the stake instead of all of it; en prison instead locks the stake for the next spin with a similar effect. Either rule cuts the house edge on those specific bets from 2.70% to 1.35% — the cheapest widely available wager in all of roulette, per Wizard of Odds. Note the fine print: the discount applies only to even-money bets. A straight-up number on the same la partage table still costs 2.70%. So the full ranking, best to worst: 1.35% even-money with partage rules, 2.70% anything on single zero, 5.26% anything on double zero, and the 7.89% basket dead last.
Matching the bet to your session goal
Once you are on the cheapest wheel available, pick payout shape by intent. Want a long session with lots of decisions and shallow drawdowns? Even-money bets win about 48.6% of spins on single zero — your bankroll moves slowly and 20 SUI can last an evening at 1 SUI minimum bets. Want a real shot at a big multiple? Straight-up numbers pay 35:1 and hit about once every 37 spins; budget for long droughts and treat any hit as the event of the night. Dozens, columns, corners and streets sit in between, trading hit frequency against payout size at the same 2.70% price. None of these choices changes what the session costs in expectation — they change the distribution of outcomes around that cost. That reframing is liberating: there is no wrong chip placement on a single-zero wheel, only a wrong wheel and one wrong basket.
Ranking myths that refuse to die
Three myths do most of the damage. First, 'outside bets are better odds' — they hit more often, but the edge is identical, so they are not cheaper, just smoother. Second, 'cold numbers are due' — every spin is independent, and on Llamabet you can verify it: each result derives from a pre-committed server seed plus your client seed, with the commitment hash published on Sui before your bet, so past spins cannot lean on future ones. Third, 'combination systems reduce the house edge' — covering more of the board with multiple bets just wagers more money at the same per-unit cost; no arrangement of 5.26% bets sums to less than 5.26%. Rank by edge, pick variance by taste, skip the basket, and you are already playing better roulette than most of the table.
Frequently asked questions
What is the worst bet on a roulette table?
The five-number basket (0, 00, 1, 2, 3) on an American double-zero wheel. It pays 6:1 when the fair payout for five numbers out of 38 would be 6.6:1, giving it a 7.89% house edge — roughly 50% worse than the 5.26% carried by every other bet on the same wheel.
Which roulette bet has the best odds?
Even-money bets (red/black, odd/even, high/low) on a single-zero wheel with the la partage or en prison rule, at a 1.35% house edge. Without those rules, every single-zero bet ties at 2.70%, which still beats any double-zero bet at 5.26%.
Do all roulette bets have the same house edge?
Almost. On a given wheel, every standard bet carries the same edge — 2.70% on single zero, 5.26% on double zero — regardless of payout size. The two exceptions are the American five-number basket (worse, at 7.89%) and even-money bets under la partage or en prison rules (better, at 1.35%).