What is european roulette?
Definition and example from our casino glossary.
Definition
European roulette uses a wheel with 37 pockets, numbers 1 to 36 plus a single zero, giving a house edge of about 2.70%.
The European, or single-zero, wheel has 18 red numbers, 18 black numbers and one green zero. Payouts are the same as on every standard roulette table: 35 to 1 on a single number, 1 to 1 on even-money bets, and so on. Those payouts would be fair on a 36-number wheel; the zero creates the house edge of 1/37, about 2.70%, on every standard bet. That makes European roulette markedly cheaper to play than the American double-zero version at 5.26%. French roulette uses the same wheel and may add la partage or en prison on even-money bets, lowering their edge to about 1.35% to 1.39%. Many online variants keep the European wheel but add side bets, multipliers or reduced straight-up payouts, which change the edge, so check the rules screen for the RTP before playing a branded version.