The roulette house edge

You must know that in roulette the house or casino has an edge. And if somebody offers you to buy any systems how to beat the roulette wheel you should remember that they want to make money cause the roulette house edge is steady and may not be changed by any systems.

In the original gambling rooms the house advantage was established at 27-to-1, so the player could win $27 on his $1 bet. Nowadays, the roulette house edge is determined by casino and the winning odds are 34 to 1 or 35 to 1. It means that the player is paid off $34 or $35 of $1 bet, while the house keeps his initial dollar. This is in fact how casino earns money.

The house advantage is an average amount of money the player loses related to the type of bet he chose to place. For example, in American roulette the winner has the 1/38 probability to win 35 times the original bet and the possibility to lose is 37/38. Thus the house has the edge:

1*37/38 + 35*1/38 = 0.0526 (5.26% house edge)

In European or French wheel roulette house edge is:

1*36/37 + 35*1/37 = 0.0270 (2.70% house edge)

The introduction of single and double zero cells on the wheel and the corresponding spaces on the number grid leads to the roulette house edge. In case of outside bets the player loses every time the ball rests on single or double zero space. In case the player places the inside bets the payoffs on only one number is 35-to-1 though the real chance to win is 37-to-1. For instance, when you place $1 straight bet on all numbers (from 1 to 36 plus 0 and 00) you may win $35 betting $38. It should be emphasized that when you place Five-number bet the casino advantage is larger (7.89%), but this type of bet can be made only in American wheel roulette.

It happens that house edge may be mixed up with the hold that is the total amount of money given for the chips without those swept away from the table. It is the real amount of money the casino wins. On average the hold for American wheels is 21-30%, because the players repeat the bets after each win or loss of a pretty part of money. In gambling world it is known as "churning”.

As the total size of all bets is higher than that the gambler starts to play with he can not win or lose all the money at once. Actually the roulette house edge is applied not to the full sum of money but to a definite type of bet, hence the player risks to lose more than 5.26% (2.7%) of the original amount. For instance, when the gambler begins the roulette game with $100, he is able to place $10 bets on red or black more than 10 times, since without doubt he wins at times. Entirely, the gambler can place bet on red or black 20 times in one game. And the house edge grows 20*$10*5.26% = $10.52. That is why while the casino advantage in this game is 5.26%, about 10% of the money turns into the hold. In case the roulette player goes on betting he runs the risk to lose all money and leave the house 100% hold.