Definitive Guide to Roulette Terminology

If you're new to roulette, you may be overwhelmed by the all the alien sounding lingo. You may have even stood at a roulette table scratching your head at what the croupier is saying. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. We bring you a list of common roulette terms and will soon have you sounding like an expert. 

Let’s start with the easy ones:

Wheel – It’s the main focus of the game and is what the ball spins around. The wheel has little pockets with numbers on them. If you are playing European Roulette you will see numbers 1 to 36 with a single 0 and a double 0 if it’s American Roulette. 

Ball – is what goes around the roulette wheel. Where it lands after the wheel is spun determines the winning number and colour. 

Black / Red - are the black and red shaded numbers on the roulette table

Block Betting – is when you bet on a set of numbers on a specific section of the wheel.

Combination Bet - is when you use one or more chips in the same position to bet on more than one number at the same time

En prison - En prison is a rule only available on some European wheels. If you place an even-money bet on a roulette wheel with the en prison rule in effect and the number 0 comes up, your bet is held over to the next spin instead of losing altogether. If your bet loses the second time, you lose your wager, but if you win the second time, you get your wager back without the additional winnings. 

House Percentage – The advantage that the house has over the player in roulette, usually expressed in the form of a percentage. You can use this to figure out how much you expect to lose per spin or per pound

Green numbers – are the zero and double zero

Parlay or Press – To leave your winnings from your previous wager on top of your current wager

Table Limit – is how much you can place on a specific bet. 

Straight up – is the simplest bet there is and pays out the highest return. This is where you pick a number and bet on it. 

Black / Red Bet –is a bet on the number the ball lands on being black/Red. Pays 1-1.

Corner Bet -  A bet placed on the corner of four boxes on the table. Pays 8-1.

Dozen Bet - A bet on 12 numbers, similar to a column bet. The 1st dozen is 1-12, the second dozen is 13-24, and the 3rd dozen is 25-36. Pays 2-1.

Column Bet - A bet on 12 numbers, defined by the columns on the roulette table. Pays 2-1. The 1st column is: 1,4,7,10,13,16,19,22,25,28,31,34. The 2nd column is: 2,5,8,11,14,17,20,23,26,29,32,35. The 3rd column is 3,6,9,12,15,18,21,24,27,30,33,36.

Odds / Evens Bet - is when you bet that the ball lands on to be odd / even number. Pays 1-1.

Outside Bet - is any bet that is not a number, i.e. odd, even or colour.

Inside Bet - is a bet placed on the number grid/betting board on the table.

Split Bet - is when you bet on two numbers.

Trio Bet -  is a bet on three numbers

Voisins du Zero - translates as “neighbours of zero” and is a term for betting on the 17 numbers on a roulette wheel from 22 to 25.

Tiers de Cylindre - translates to ‘a third of the cylinder’ and is the numbers between and including 27 and 33. 

Les Orphanes - are the section of numbers between the above tiers. The Orphans include 17, 34 and 6, which leaves The Orphelins as 1, 20, 14, 31 and 9.

One of the advantages of playing roulette online is that most online casinos have a handy Help section that breaks down all the bets and more often than not, you can even try out different roulette variations in Fun Play mode, which would definitely get you familiarised with the game.