How is the probability of Roulette related to the betting odds?
Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at
9:31 am
Im doing an assignment and it is completely whacked but anyway i have to do it and if anyone has played roulette than how is the probability related to the odds of that gambling game?
Tagged with: gambling game • odds • probability • Roulette
Filed under: Roulette
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!




All casino games are related to probability. Roulette is a classic example.
There are two types of Roulette wheel; American and European. An American Roulette wheel has 38 sections the ball can land in. The numbers 1-36, 0, and 00. A European Roulette wheel is identical except it does not have a 00 section. The rest of my discussion will assume a European Roulette wheel for simplicity, however the ideas can easily be carried across to American Roulette.
In European Roulette, players can place numerous different bets on each spin. They can bet on an even or odd number coming up, a low (1-18) or high (19-36) number, an individual number, or many other things. For full details please see Roulette in Wikipedia.
Each bet a player can make has certain odds of occuring. For example, if a player bets on a 34 coming up, he/she will have a 1 in 37 chance of being correct. The casino, however, only pays 36 times the amount bet. The casino pays an amount such that the expected return of the best is less than 100%. So if a player bets $1 on number 34, for 37 times in a row and won once (as mathematically expected), he/she will actually lose 1 dollar. This is called an expected loss and it is how casinos make money.
Similarly if someone bets on ‘evens’. The zero section is not counted as evens so the probability of winning is 18/37 which is less than half. The casino only pays out $2 per a dollar bet so again on average the player loses.
There are many other bets one can place in Roulette, however in each case, the expected payout is less than the amount bet. For more details of Roulette, betting probabilities and payouts, see Roulette in Wikipedia.
the probability and payoffs are close in roulette but the casino maintains a house edge and skims the payoff so you the player are NOT getting true odds on your money based on the probability of hitting your number(s)
This ensures that even when you win the casino is still winning because they are keeping money for themselves and NOT paying you true odds
1 in 38 or straight up number only pays 35 to 1
even money bets like black,red, high , low , odd, even your at a 52.6 to 47.3% disadvantage its not a 50/50 EVEN money bet , but they only pay you even money
every bet on the board the casino has an edge in skimming off the true odds based on the true odds /probability of you being a winner!
There is an awesome website that lists the odds of all of the casino games. It’s called Wizard of Odds. Below is a link to their section on roulette.
Find out the game probabilities and payout odds for Roulette here! … So when you are betting on a single number, you have a 1/38 chance of winning
Red: Payoff: 1:1 True Odds: 47.37%
Black: Payoff: 1:1 True Odds: 47.37%
Odd: Payoff: 1:1 True Odds: 47.37%
Even: Payoff: 1:1 True Odds: 47.37%
numbers 1 to 18: Payoff: 1:1 True Odds: 47.37%
numbers 19 to 36: Payoff: 1:1 True Odds: 47.37%
numbers 1 to 12: Payoff: 2:1 True Odds: 31.58%
numbers 13 to 24: Payoff: 2:1 True Odds: 31.58%
numbers 25 to 36: Payoff: 2:1 True Odds: 31.58%
Any one number: Payoff: 35:1 True Odds: 2.63%
Two number combination: Payoff: 17:1 True Odds: 5.26%
Three number combination: Payoff: 11:1 True Odds: 7.89%
Four number combination: Payoff: 8:1 True Odds: 10.53%
Six number combination: Payoff: 5:1 True Odds: 15.79%
0,00,1,2,3 combination: Payoff: 6:1 True Odds: 13.16%