The game roulette originated in France back in the 17th century and the word roulette in French actually means ‘little wheel’. Now you know! Early descriptions of the game showed the inclusion of “two slots for the bank”, the 0 and 00 numbers. These slots on the wheel provided a great house advantage over players. It wasn’t until 1843 that the current form of European roulette was born. Two smart Frenchmen developed a roulette wheel with only a single zero and by removing the double zero. This meant their roulette game had a decreased house advantage and players were winning more often.
Of course, this new type of roulette spread in popularity across casinos around the world. However, some places continue to use the original double-zero layout which is now familiarly known as American roulette.
Now that you have a quick background history about house edge, let’s dive into the details of French roulette — which is basically European roulette with a couple of extra options.
How to Play French Roulette
How is French roulette different from American roulette?
French roulette is like the American and European versions of roulette, but the French version offers special bets that you won’t find anywhere else. The wheel features 37 numbers from 1 to 36 and a green 0.
To make a bet, all you need to do is place your chips on where you think the roulette ball will land on the wheel. This can be on a single number, multiple numbers, odds or evens, black or red, and many other betting choices.
You can pick low variance bets like red or black that win around 48.6% of the time and pay even money or go to the other extreme and bet on individual numbers that have only a 2.7% chance of being chosen but reward 35x the bet amount.
The many types of French roulette bets fall into 3 categories, inside, outside, and special bets. Inside bets are when you place a bet on the numbers. Outside bets are all the bets outside the numbered grid such as betting on red or black. Special bets are based on making a bet on the ball landing in a certain area of the roulette wheel. These are also referred to as “Announced Bets” as you may need to announce them to the dealer when you make your wager. Here are a few examples of specials bets:
- Voisins du Zero: The English translation is “neighbors of zero” and covers 17 numbers. When looking at the roulette wheel these are all the numbers from 22 to 25. You will need to wager nine chips on a combination of splits, corners, and trios for this batch of numbers.
- Le Tiers du Cylindre: The English translation is “thirds of the wheel” and represents the numbers opposite of zero on the wheel, from 27 to 33. This bet will set you back six chips as you’ll be wagering six split bets to cover this batch of numbers.
- Orphelins: The English translation is “orphans” and this bet represents the 8 numbers not covered in the previous two bets and will set you back five chips. This bet involves wagering across four splits and a single additional chip on number 1.
These special bets are found on both European and French roulette tables but there are two betting rules that are unique to French roulette that you should be aware of, La Partage and En Prison. You always need to check if the French roulette table you are playing at is offering one of these rules because not all of them do.
The La Partage and En Prison betting rules both concern outside bets that are even money wagers, e.g. red or black, odd or even, and 1-18 or 19-36. With La Partage, if the ball lands on the green zero, you’ll get half of your stake back.
The En Prison variation is also with an even money outside bet, with the ball landing on the green zero. In this instance, your bet will be trapped on the table until the next round. If your bet wins on the second spin, you only get your original stake back and not any profits. If the bet loses, then the house takes it. Both of these French roulette variations give the lowest house edge of all types of roulette, with only a 1.35% house advantage.
