How to Play Casino Roulette: Bets, Table Layout and Payouts

To play roulette, you place chips on the layout before betting closes, the dealer spins the wheel, and every bet that covers the winning number is paid at a fixed rate. Loto-Québec’s live roulette rules list the payouts: a single number pays 35:1, a split 17:1, a street 11:1, a corner 8:1 and a line 5:1; a column or a dozen pays 2:1; red or black, even or odd, and 1 to 18 or 19 to 36 pay 1:1. Zero is not covered by any outside bet. On a single-zero wheel every one of those bets returns 97.30% on average, so the bet you choose changes how often you win, not the average cost. We read the rules on October 19, 2026; PlayNow’s documents use the same payout table.

How is the table laid out?

The layout has two parts. The inside is the grid of numbers 1 to 36, arranged in three columns of twelve, with the zero at the top. The outside is the row of boxes around the grid: the three columns, the three dozens (1 to 12, 13 to 24, 25 to 36), red and black, even and odd, and low (1 to 18) and high (19 to 36).

Where you place a chip decides what it covers:

• Straight up: on one number.
• Split: on the line between two numbers.
• Street: at the end of a row of three.
• Corner: where four numbers meet.
• Line: across two adjacent rows, six numbers.
• Column, dozen, colour, even or odd, high or low: in the outside boxes.

What does each bet pay, and how often does it win?

On a single-zero wheel there are 37 pockets. Every bet pays so that its average return is the same 36/37, or 97.30%:

You can check the arithmetic for any row: a straight-up bet wins 35 units once in 37 spins and loses 1 unit the other 36 times, a net loss of 1 unit per 37 units staked, or 2.70%. A column bet wins 2 units 12 times and loses 1 unit 25 times: again a net loss of 1 unit in 37.

Which bet should you choose?

Since every bet costs the same on average on a single-zero wheel, the choice is about how your results swing. Over ten spins:

• A straight-up bet on one number wins at least once with a probability of 1 minus (36/37) to the power of 10, about 24%. Three sessions in four end without a single hit, and one hit pays 35 units.
• A dozen wins at least once with a probability of about 98%, but each win pays only 2 units.
• Red wins at least once in ten spins with a probability above 99.8%, and each win pays 1 unit.

Spreading chips over many numbers does not lower the cost either. If you put one unit on red and one on the first dozen every spin, each bet still loses 2.70% on average, and so does the pair.

What does a session cost?

Multiply what you stake by the house edge. Sixty spins at $5 on red is $300 staked; at 2.70%, the expected cost is about $8.10. At a La Partage table, where even-money bets lose only 1.35% on average, the same session costs about $4.05. The numbers apply to the total staked, including winnings you bet again.

How does a live round work?

On the live tables at Loto-Québec and PlayNow, a light shows when you can bet: green while bets are open, yellow when time is nearly up, red when betting has closed. The dealer then spins and produces the result, and the system settles bets. If something malfunctions, the round is void. Loto-Québec’s French Roulette rules add that the ball must complete at least 6 full revolutions before it drops, or the spin is invalid.

Does the wheel change the payouts?

The payouts stay the same, but the odds of hitting change. BetMGM’s live American Roulette in Ontario has 38 slots, including 0 and 00, and still pays 35:1 on a straight up, which pushes the house edge up to 5.26%. It also offers a five-number bet on 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 at 6:1, which costs more still. Our page on single-, double- and triple-zero wheels works through each.

Two rules can lower the cost of even-money bets on a single-zero wheel. With La Partage, half of an even-money bet is returned when zero comes up, which raises those bets to 98.65%. Loto-Québec’s French Roulette and PlayNow’s Live French Roulette use it; see our explainer on La Partage and En Prison.

What are the table limits?

Limits are shown on each table. On lotoquebec.com in October 2026: Roulette from 50¢ to $10,000, Lightning Roulette from 20¢ to $10,000, Roulette A from $1 to $5,000, and Casino de Montréal Roulette 14 from 10¢ to $10,000. On multiplier tables such as Lightning and Gold Vault Roulette, Loto-Québec lists a lower straight-up return of 97.10%.

What we could not confirm

• Payout tables at tables whose rules open only after login.
• Limits at PlayNow’s live roulette tables: shown inside the game.

Before your first spin

Open the table’s rules and check three things: the number of zeros, whether La Partage or En Prison applies, and the limits. Start with outside bets if you want to learn how a round flows: they win most often, and every bet costs the same on average. Then decide a session budget before you place the first chip.