American roulette online is the double-zero version of the classic wheel game, and it remains a fixture at UK casino sites and live dealer studios alike. Its wheel carries 38 pockets, one more than the European and French wheels, and that single extra pocket shapes everything from the payout maths to the long-run cost of every spin.
On this page you will find where to play, how a round unfolds, every inside and outside bet with its chip placement, a complete table of American roulette payouts and house edge figures, and a side-by-side comparison with the single-zero versions. We close with the betting systems players most often try at the American table and a plain explanation of what each one actually does to your stakes.
Where to play American roulette online in the UK
You can play American roulette online at UK-facing casinos such as Blue Fox Casino and PlayOJO, both legal options for players in Britain.
Before you open an account anywhere, confirm that the operator is licensed to serve British customers; our guide to casino licensing explains what a valid licence looks like and why it matters. It also pays to check how a site handles deposits and withdrawals, since a fast, fee-free cash-out is worth more than a flashy lobby. If you are weighing up several brands, our walkthrough on how to choose a casino lists the checks that matter most.
Most casino lobbies offer the game in two formats. The digital table is played against software, and many sites let you try it in a free demo mode, which is the ideal place to learn the layout without touching your balance. The live dealer table streams a real wheel and a human croupier from a studio. At these tables every player bets against the house rather than against each other, so the chips other people place never change your result. Our live roulette guide looks at these studio tables in more detail.
Studio suppliers such as Evolution Gaming run American roulette alongside a long list of other wheel games, so a single live lobby can hold several formats side by side. Our overview of game providers shows which studios build which tables, and our casino games hub covers the wider range of table titles you will find at the same sites.
How American roulette works
American roulette asks you to predict the numbered pocket where the ball will come to rest once the wheel stops turning.
The wheel holds a single zero, a double zero and the numbers 1 to 36, which makes 38 possible outcomes on each spin. As a double zero roulette game, it gives the house one extra pocket compared with single-zero wheels, and that pocket is the root of every difference you will read about further down.
The betting layout on the table mirrors the wheel. The 0 and 00 sit at the top of the grid, the numbers 1 to 36 run below them in three columns of twelve, and the boxes for the broader bets frame the outer edge. The game itself is not complicated, but knowing how each bet behaves helps you pick wagers that suit your bankroll and steer clear of the one bet that costs noticeably more over time.
What happens in a round
A round of American roulette follows the same rhythm whether you sit at a land-based table or play from your phone.
- Get your chips ready. In a bricks-and-mortar casino you swap cash for dedicated roulette chips, and each player at the table receives a different colour so that nobody’s bets get mixed up. Online, you simply need enough money in your casino account to cover your stakes.
- Place your bets. Put your chips on the numbers, lines or outer boxes that match the wagers you want to make.
- Watch the spin. The dealer sets the wheel turning and drops the ball onto it. As the wheel loses speed, the ball settles into one pocket, and that number wins.
- Collect your winnings. The dealer pays every winning bet at its fixed payout and clears the losing chips before the next round opens.
American roulette bets explained
American roulette bets fall into two families: inside bets on specific numbers and outside bets on large groups of numbers.
The trade-off is simple. Inside bets pay more because they win less often, while outside bets land far more frequently but return smaller amounts. Where you put your chip tells the dealer exactly which bet you want, so it helps to learn the placements before you play for real money.
Inside bets
Inside bets cover between one and six numbers on the main grid, and the position of your chip defines the bet.
- Straight-up: one number. Your chip sits squarely on that number, and the 0 and 00 count too.
- Split: two numbers that sit next to each other. The chip goes on the line dividing them.
- Street: a row of three numbers. Place the chip on the outer line at the end of that row.
- Corner: a square of four numbers. The chip sits on the point where all four meet.
- Five bet: the 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 together. The chip goes on the edge of the layout where the 0 and the 1 meet, and this wager only exists on the double-zero table.
- Line: two neighbouring rows, six numbers in total. Put the chip at the end of the rows, on the line that separates them.
Outside bets
Outside bets sit around the border of the layout and each covers twelve or eighteen numbers; the 0 and 00 lose on all of them.
- Column: every number in one of the three vertical columns. Place your chip on the 2:1 box at the foot of the column you want.
- Dozen: the first, second or third group of twelve numbers on the grid, each with its own box.
- Red or black: the colour of the winning number. Use the red or black box.
- Odd or even: whether the winning number is odd or even, backed on the matching box.
- Low or high: the low numbers from 1 to 18 or the high numbers from 19 to 36, each with its own box.
Your mix of bets shapes how a session feels. A run of outside bets gives smaller, steadier swings, while straight-ups bring long gaps between wins that are much larger when they arrive. If any of the table terms are new to you, our casino glossary collects them in one place.
American roulette odds, payouts and RTP
American roulette odds give the casino a 5.26% house edge on almost every bet, rising to 7.89% on the five bet.
The table below lines up each wager with the number of pockets it covers, its payout, the house edge and the return to player.
| Bet | Numbers covered | Payout | House edge | RTP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Straight-up | 1 | 35 to 1 | 5.26% | 94.74% |
| Split | 2 | 17 to 1 | 5.26% | 94.74% |
| Street | 3 | 11 to 1 | 5.26% | 94.74% |
| Corner | 4 | 8 to 1 | 5.26% | 94.74% |
| Five bet | 5 | 6 to 1 | 7.89% | 92.11% |
| Line | 6 | 5 to 1 | 5.26% | 94.74% |
| Column | 12 | 2 to 1 | 5.26% | 94.74% |
| Dozen | 12 | 2 to 1 | 5.26% | 94.74% |
| Red/Black | 18 | 1 to 1 | 5.26% | 94.74% |
| Odd/Even | 18 | 1 to 1 | 5.26% | 94.74% |
| Low/High | 18 | 1 to 1 | 5.26% | 94.74% |
The more pockets a bet covers, the more often it lands. A straight-up bet covers one pocket out of 38, which works out at a 2.63% chance per spin. A split doubles that to 5.26%, a street reaches 7.89%, a corner 10.53%, the five bet 13.16% and a line 15.79%. Column and dozen bets each win 31.58% of the time.
Payouts
A payout is the multiple of your stake that you win when a bet comes in, and on this table it runs from 35 to 1 down to 1 to 1.
Inside bets carry the bigger multiples because they are harder to hit. At the top of the scale, a straight-up pays 35 to 1, so a £1 chip on the winning number earns £35 in winnings. At the bottom, the even-money bets on red or black, odd or even and low or high pay 1 to 1, which means you win an amount equal to your stake.
Return to player
Return to player, or RTP, is the share of all money staked that flows back to players as winnings over a very large number of spins.
On the American wheel it sits at 94.74% for every bet except the five bet, which returns 92.11%. Put simply, across thousands of spins about 94.74% of the money wagered on a standard bet goes back out to players as winnings. That figure describes the long run only; any single session can finish well above or well below it.
House edge
The American roulette house edge is the mirror image of RTP: the percentage of every wager the casino keeps over time.
It averages 5.26% here, which is on the high side for casino table games and close to twice the figure on a European wheel. The five bet deserves particular caution, because covering the 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 pushes the edge up to 7.89%, the worst rate anywhere on the layout. If you are comparing table games before choosing where to spend your bankroll, our blackjack and baccarat guides set out how those games work.
American vs European and French roulette
American roulette differs from European and French roulette mainly in its wheel: a 00 pocket lifts the total to 38, against 37 on single-zero wheels.
All three versions use the numbers 0 to 36, so the double zero is the only extra pocket, yet it explains most of the gap in returns. You will also notice smaller differences in rules and bet types between the three, so it is worth opening the rules panel of any table before you play. For the wider family of wheel games, start with our online roulette hub.
| Variant | Pockets | Zeros | Bet types | RTP | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American roulette | 38 | 0 and 00 | Inside, outside | 94.74% | 5.26% |
| European roulette | 37 | 0 | Inside, outside, call bets | 97.30% | 2.70% |
| French roulette | 37 | 0 | Inside, outside, call bets | 97.30–98.65% | 1.35–2.70% |
American vs European roulette
The extra 00 pocket is the whole story when you compare American and European roulette.
With 38 numbers instead of 37, a single-number bet wins one time in 38 rather than one time in 37, while the top payout on the American table is still 35 to 1. That small shift is why the house edge climbs from 2.70% on the European wheel to 5.26% on the American one. European tables also accept call bets, which you will not find on the American layout.
American vs French roulette
French roulette shares the 37-pocket, single-zero wheel, so it already beats the American version on return before any extra rules come into play.
On top of that, it adds two rules that the American game does not use: En Prison and La Partage. Both apply when the ball lands on zero while you have an even-money bet on the table, and they bring the house edge on those bets down to 1.35%. That gives French roulette the best return of the three, with an RTP of up to 98.65%. If maximising long-run return is your priority, our guide to best payout casinos shows where the strongest returns are found.
Betting systems players try at the American table
Betting systems change how much you stake from one spin to the next; they do not change the 5.26% house edge built into each bet.
Roulette depends heavily on luck, which is why plenty of players simply follow a hunch. Others prefer a set routine for sizing their stakes, and the systems below are the ones you will see most often at an American table. Treat each one as a way to give your sessions structure rather than a route to guaranteed profit, and always decide on a budget before the first spin.
The Martingale system
The Martingale is a doubling system: after every losing bet you double your stake, and you keep going until a bet wins.
The thinking is that you must win eventually, and when that win comes it should be large enough to cover all the losses that came before it. The weakness is how quickly stakes grow during a cold run. Starting at £1, just three straight losses take you to £2, £4 and then £8, and the stakes keep doubling from there, so a long losing streak can exhaust your budget or bump into the table maximum before the recovery win arrives.
The Reverse Martingale
The Reverse Martingale turns the original on its head: you double your stake after each win instead of after each loss.
Because your stakes only climb while you are winning, a hot streak can build into a sizeable return, while a losing run costs comparatively little. The aim is to ride good spells hard and avoid the steep stakes that make the standard Martingale so risky.
The Fibonacci system
The Fibonacci system takes its stakes from the sequence in which every number is the sum of the two before it.
The sequence runs 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 and onwards. To set your next stake, you add your two previous stakes together. Begin with a minimum stake of £1; after a win you stake £1 again, which keeps you on the sequence, and a second win lifts your next bet to £2, followed by £3, £5 and so on. Its slow climb in the early steps makes it a popular pick for cautious players.
The D’Alembert system
The D’Alembert is one of the gentler progressions, moving your stake up or down by just £1 at a time.
Every time you win, you take £1 off your next stake; every time you lose, you add £1. Because the stakes shift in small steps, the swings in your balance stay modest. If your wins and losses come out level over a session, the system is designed to leave you with a profit.
The James Bond strategy
The James Bond strategy was devised by Ian Fleming, the author who created 007, and the spy uses it at the roulette table in several films.
It is a flat spread that needs £200 per spin, divided three ways:
- £140 on the high numbers, 19 to 36
- £50 on the six numbers from 13 to 18, placed as a line bet
- £10 on the 0
On an American wheel this leaves the numbers 1 to 12 and the 00 uncovered. If the ball lands in one of those pockets, the full £200 is lost; if it lands anywhere else, at least one of your bets comes in and you finish the spin ahead.
Tips for playing American roulette with a clear plan
American roulette rewards a little preparation: learn the bets, know the 5.26% house edge and test any system in free play first.
- Practise for free. Use the demo version at casinos that offer it to learn the layout and see how a system behaves over dozens of spins before you stake real money.
- Skip the five bet. At 7.89%, its house edge is the highest on the table, and every other wager returns more over time.
- Match bets to your budget. Outside bets keep swings small; straight-ups and splits suit players happy to wait for a larger hit.
- Weigh up single-zero tables. If return matters more to you than the double-zero format, European and French tables offer a lower house edge.
- Set limits before you play. Decide what you can afford to spend, stick to it and never chase losses with bigger stakes.
New to casino games in general? Our beginner’s guide covers the basics of getting started, and our casino bonuses section explains how welcome offers work if you want extra value when you sign up.
Final thoughts on American roulette
American roulette is a simple, luck-driven game, but understanding its bets and returns makes every session more informed and more enjoyable.
The double zero gives the house a 5.26% edge, so it pays to know which bets carry that figure, which one costs more and how the game compares with single-zero wheels. Try a few different systems in free mode until you find a rhythm that feels right, then take that approach to a real-money table at a licensed casino. Played with a budget and realistic expectations, American roulette online delivers plenty of suspense with every spin of the wheel.
Frequently asked questions
What is the house edge in American roulette?
The house edge in American roulette is 5.26% on every bet except the five bet, which carries 7.89%. The extra 00 pocket is the cause: it adds a losing outcome for most wagers without raising the payouts, so over time the casino keeps a larger share of stakes than it does on single-zero European or French wheels.
Is there a free demo version of American roulette?
Yes, many casinos offer American roulette online in a free demo mode that you can use before you deposit. Free play is the best place to learn the layout, try inside and outside bets and test systems such as the Martingale or the D’Alembert without risking your bankroll. Once you feel comfortable, you can move on to real-money tables, including live dealer versions.
Is American roulette worse for players than European roulette?
Yes, on pure numbers the American version gives players a poorer return. Its 38-pocket wheel produces an RTP of 94.74% and a house edge of 5.26%, while the 37-pocket European wheel returns 97.30% with a 2.70% edge. A single-number bet also wins one time in 38 instead of one in 37, so a single-zero table is the better pick if return matters most.
How much does a straight-up bet pay in American roulette?
A straight-up bet in American roulette pays 35 to 1, the highest payout on the table. Stake £1 on the winning number and you collect £35 in winnings. You can back any single pocket this way, including the 0 or the 00. The bet lands 2.63% of the time and, like most wagers on the layout, has an RTP of 94.74%.
Which bet has the worst odds on an American roulette table?
The five bet has the worst odds on an American roulette table. It covers the 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3, pays 6 to 1 and carries a house edge of 7.89%, compared with 5.26% on every other wager. That drops its RTP to 92.11%, so any other bet on the layout gives you a better long-run return for the same stake.
Do the En Prison and La Partage rules apply in American roulette?
No, En Prison and La Partage belong to French roulette and are not part of the American game. On a French table they come into play when the ball lands on zero while you hold an even-money bet, cutting the house edge on those bets to 1.35%. At an American table, even-money bets simply lose when the ball lands on 0 or 00.
Do betting systems lower the house edge in American roulette?
No, betting systems such as the Martingale, Fibonacci or D’Alembert only change how much you stake from one spin to the next. The house edge on each bet stays fixed at 5.26%, or 7.89% on the five bet, whatever stake you choose. Use a system to give your sessions structure, and set a firm budget before you start playing.