Free roulette lets you spin a real-rules wheel with play-money chips, so you can see how the bets pay before any money is involved. This page runs three wheels (European, American and French), counts every spin, and compares what you won or lost with what the maths expects.
The chips have no cash value, cannot be bought, and cannot be cashed out. Nothing you do here changes the odds, and that is the point: roulette is a game where the house keeps a fixed edge on every bet, and a few hundred spins make that visible.
How does free roulette work on this page?
Pick a wheel, click the numbers or outside bets you want, and press Spin. You start with 1,000 play chips. After each spin the panel under the wheel shows your result, how many chips you have left, and the average amount the house edge says you should have lost by now.
- Choose a wheel. European has one zero, American has a zero and a double zero, and French uses the single-zero wheel with the La Partage rule.
- Place chips. Click a number for a straight-up bet, or use the outside bets (red or black, odd or even, dozens, columns). The selector adds splits, streets, corners and the six-line.
- Spin once or 100 times. The Spin 100 button repeats your bets and adds up the totals, which is the quickest way to see variance.
- Read the comparison. The panel lists your actual net result next to the average result for your total stake. A single session can be far above or below the average. A long run drifts toward it.
A reminder appears after 15 minutes of play, and the Session summary button shows what you staked, what came back, and what the edge predicted. Chips are held in this page only. Nothing is saved to your browser or sent anywhere.
Which roulette wheel should you choose?
Choose the wheel with the fewest zeros. A single-zero wheel costs 2.70% of every stake on average, a double-zero wheel costs 5.26%, and French roulette with La Partage costs 1.35% on even-money bets. The layout is the same; only the zeros and the zero rule change the price.
| Wheel | Pockets | Edge on most bets | Edge on red, black, odd, even, high, low |
|---|---|---|---|
| European (single zero) | 37 | 2.70% | 2.70% |
| American (double zero) | 38 | 5.26% (7.89% on the five-number bet) | 5.26% |
| French with La Partage | 37 | 2.70% | 1.35% |
The edge comes from one place. A straight-up bet pays 35 to 1, but there are 37 pockets on a European wheel, so the fair payout would be 36 to 1. The missing 1 unit in 37 is the 2.70%. On an American wheel there are 38 pockets and the same 35 to 1 payout, so the gap is 2 in 38, which is 5.26%.
What does each roulette bet pay, and what does it cost?
Every roulette bet has the same house edge on a given wheel, so the bet you pick changes how often you win and how big the win is, not what the bet costs. The only bet with a different edge is the American five-number bet (0, 00, 1, 2 and 3), which pays 6 to 1 and costs 7.89%.
| Bet | Pays | Chance on a European wheel | Chance on an American wheel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight up (1 number) | 35 to 1 | 2.70% | 2.63% |
| Split (2 numbers) | 17 to 1 | 5.41% | 5.26% |
| Street (3 numbers) | 11 to 1 | 8.11% | 7.89% |
| Corner (4 numbers) | 8 to 1 | 10.81% | 10.53% |
| Six line (6 numbers) | 5 to 1 | 16.22% | 15.79% |
| Dozen or column (12 numbers) | 2 to 1 | 32.43% | 31.58% |
| Red, black, odd, even, 1-18, 19-36 (18 numbers) | 1 to 1 | 48.65% | 47.37% |
Notice that the chance to win and the payout move in opposite directions. A straight-up bet wins on 2.70% of European spins and returns 36 units (your stake plus 35). A red bet wins on 48.65% of spins and returns 2 units. Averaged over many spins, both give back 97.30 units for every 100 staked.
How is the 2.70% house edge worked out?
Take the average return of a bet and subtract it from 100%. For a 1 unit straight-up bet on a European wheel, you win 35 units with probability 1/37 and lose 1 unit with probability 36/37. That is (35 x 1/37) minus (1 x 36/37), which equals minus 1/37, or minus 2.70%.
Example: bet 10 units on every spin for 40 spins an hour (an assumed pace, since real tables vary). That is 400 units staked. At 2.70% the average cost is 10.80 units an hour on a European wheel and 21.05 units an hour on an American wheel. Some hours will be better and some worse, but the average does not move.
Try your own numbers with the roulette house edge calculator or see the full table in our roulette odds and payouts guide.
What is La Partage, and why is French roulette cheaper?
La Partage is a French rule that returns half your stake on an even-money bet when the ball lands on zero. It cuts the edge on those bets from 2.70% to 1.35%, because the zero now costs you half a unit instead of a whole one. It only applies to even-money bets and only on a single-zero wheel.
The arithmetic is short. The zero comes up 1 time in 37, and you lose half your stake that time, so the cost is half of 1/37, which is 1/74 or 1.35%. Some tables use En Prison instead, which holds the stake for one more spin. Its edge is slightly higher at about 1.37% to 1.39%, depending on how repeated zeros are handled.
Can any roulette system beat the wheel?
No betting system changes the house edge. Every spin is independent, so the wheel has no memory of what came before, and any system that changes the size or timing of bets only changes how the same average cost is spread across wins and losses.
The Martingale is the best-known example. You double the stake after every loss, so one win recovers all earlier losses plus one unit. The catch is the string of losses. On a European wheel, six reds-or-blacks in a row against you happens with probability (19/37) to the sixth power, about 1.8%, which is roughly 1 in 55 for any given six spins. After six losses you have staked 63 units to try to win 1.
Try it here. Put 1 chip on red, press Spin, and double the bet by hand after each loss. You will see many small wins and an occasional large drop. The long-run average is still the same 2.70%, and a table limit or an empty bankroll ends the doubling before the run of losses does.
Patterns on the wheel do not help either. “Hot” and “cold” numbers, neighbours on the wheel, and a number that is “due” are all explained by chance. Ten reds in a row is not evidence that black is more likely next.
Is free roulette the same as online roulette?
Free roulette uses the same wheel layouts, payouts and house edge as online roulette, but no money is staked, so a loss costs nothing and a win pays nothing. Real-money online roulette adds deposits, withdrawal limits, faster rounds and sometimes side bets or multipliers that change the edge. Always read the paytable before you play any version.
Two kinds of online roulette exist. A virtual table uses a random number generator that is tested by an independent lab. A live-dealer table streams a real wheel. In both, the base edge is set by the zeros. Chancepedia does not link to operators or recommend where to play. If you wonder whether a site is licensed, check the licence number on the regulator’s own public register.
How does this page pick the winning number?
Each spin draws a random number with the browser’s secure random generator and uses rejection sampling, so all 37 or 38 pockets are exactly equally likely. There is no pattern, no streak control and no hidden adjustment. The code does not look at your bets before the ball lands.
We tested it before release. A chi-squared test over a large number of simulated spins found pocket counts consistent with a fair wheel, and an exact count of all outcomes confirmed the return of every bet type in the tables above.
Does playing free roulette make real gambling more likely?
Research on young people finds that playing simulated gambling games goes along with gambling for money and with gambling problems. A 2022 study of Australian 12 to 17 year olds found this link, but it was a one-time survey, so it cannot show that the games cause the later gambling. The authors call for consumer protections on simulated games.
For that reason this page is for adults, shows the real cost on every spin, and has no prizes, levels or rewards. If you notice that you are playing for longer than you planned, or thinking about real money, take a break and read our Safer play toolkit. Free confidential help is listed on Get help.
What should you try next?
- Play 500 spins on the European wheel, then 500 on the American wheel with the same bets, and compare the average cost.
- Switch to French roulette and put the same chips on red every spin to see La Partage at work.
- Read the roulette odds and payouts guide, then explore the other roulette articles.
- Work out what a session would cost with the expected loss calculator before you ever place a real bet.
How to read your session
After each spin the panel shows your chips, your net result, and the average result for your total stake at the wheel's house edge. A single session can sit far from the average. The gap narrows only over many spins.
How it is calculated
House edge for a bet is 1 minus its average return per unit staked. A straight-up bet wins 35 units with probability 1/37 and loses 1 unit otherwise on a European wheel, so the average result is -1/37 = -2.70%. An American wheel has 38 pockets, giving -2/38 = -5.26%. La Partage on even-money bets halves the zero loss: 1/74 = 1.35%.
Worked example
Worked example
10 units a spin, 40 spins an hour: 400 units staked. European wheel: 400 x 2.70% = 10.80 units average cost. American wheel: 400 x 5.26% = 21.05 units. French La Partage on red or black only: 400 x 1.35% = 5.40 units.
Limits
The average cost is a long-run figure, not a prediction. Real tables differ in pace, limits, and in the zero rule. Online variants with multipliers or reduced payouts have different edges. This page does not model table limits.