How to Quickly Calculate Roulette Odds and Payouts for Any Bet

The three most popular types of online roulette are American, European and French. While all three of these types of the game have their own differences, the core payout structure of all three of them happens to be the same. What that means is that you can learn how to very quickly and easily calculate the payout rate of any single bet that you make no matter how complicated it is. Here we’re going to show you how to do this quick mental calculation that will make you look like a gambling whiz when you do it in front of your friends.

The Basic Structure of Roulette

When you take away the green zeroes and any special French rules, you’re left with the numbers 1-36 and a set of standard bets like even, odd, black, white, the column bets and the other standard wagers. This part of all three types of roulette are the same. All of the available bets, including the advanced ones, have payouts that are based around the number 36. If you can do some basic division, then you can quickly calculate the payout rate of any bet thanks to this inherent structure that all three types of roulette share.

The Calculation Itself

The calculation itself is very straight-forward, and it only has two steps. Start off by dividing the number 36 by the total number of squares that your bet covers. Next, subtract one from that result. The value that you get after subtracting one is the payout rate of the bet. For example, a straight-up bet only covers one number, so you should divide 36 by 1 to get 36. Then you would subtract 1 to get 35. Then you know that the payout rate for a straight-up bet is 35:1. If you bet $10 on a straight-up bet in American, European or French roulette, then a win is worth a $350 payout.

This same calculation can be used for bets on multiple squares, and we’re going to look at some examples of that here. However, understand that these examples aren’t here for you to memorize the values. Instead, they’re to show you how to do the calculation quickly at the table. It’s not worth the mental space to try to remember all of these different values.

The Column and 1-12 Bets

There’s a bet you can place called a column bet that bets on an entire column of 12 numbers. For example, if you place your chip on the bottom line under the 34 spot, that will cover the entire column from 1 down to 34. You’ll win on 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31 and 34. That’s a total of 12 numbers. To find the payout for this bet, you’ll divide 36 by 12 to get 3. Then subtract one to get a payout of 2x or 2:1.

You can also place a bet on the numbers 1-12 by placing your chips on the square for that particular bet. As you can see, since it covers twelve numbers, it will have the same 2:1 payout rate. These two bets are worth pointing out because some players like to place chips on each of them at the same time.

Corner and Row Bets

Probably the most popular type of “advanced” bet in roulette is called a corner bet. You place this bet by putting your chips on the corner of four squares. For example, if you wanted to bet on 4, 5, 7 and 8, you would place your chips on the corner between those four numbers. Since you can win on four different values, getting your payout will require you to divide 36 by 4 and then subtracting one. When you do 36 divided by 4, you get 9, so you can subtract 1 to get a payout of 8:1.

A row bet is very similar to a corner bet in that it’s a bet on a connected set of numbers. However, this is a bet on a row of three different numbers. For example, if you wanted to bet on the 7-8-9 row of numbers, then you would place your chips on the outside line on the side of the nine spot without touching either of the corners. You win on three spots, so your payout rate is found by doing 36 divided by 3 to get 12 and then subtracting one for a payout rate of 11:1.

General Overview

This shortcut for calculating the payouts of almost all bets in the three most popular types of roulette is extremely useful to learn if you play roulette very often. Overall, it’s one of the best shortcuts that a general casino player can learn because it’s easy to remember and only takes a short moment to to do the necessary calculations.