Every Roulette and Baccarat Bet Explained: What Each One Pays and What It Actually Costs You
A roulette table has more than a dozen different bets on its felt, and a baccarat table has three, but both share the same trap: the bet that pays the most is rarely the one with the best odds. Here's what every common bet on each game actually pays, and what the house edge costs you on top of that payout.
Roulette Inside Bets: Payout and House Edge
Inside bets sit on the numbered grid itself. All of these figures assume European (single-zero) roulette, since the house edge on American double-zero wheels is roughly double across every bet on this table.
| Bet | Where it sits | Payout | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight Up (En Plein) | A single number | 35 to 1 | 2.70% |
| Split (À Cheval) | Two adjacent numbers | 17 to 1 | 2.70% |
| Street (Transversale) | A row of three numbers | 11 to 1 | 2.70% |
| Corner (En Carré) | Four numbers meeting at a corner | 8 to 1 | 2.70% |
| Line (Six Line) | Two adjacent rows, six numbers | 5 to 1 | 2.70% |
Every one of these carries the same 2.70% house edge on a single-zero wheel, because the mathematics behind each bet cancels out identically: a bet covering fewer numbers pays more per win but wins less often, and the two balance to the same expected loss per pound staked. A 35 to 1 payout on a Straight Up bet is not a better bet than a 5 to 1 Line bet. It's the same bet, wearing a different payout.
Worked example: stake £10 on a Straight Up number. Win, and you collect £350 profit on top of your returned £10 stake, so £360 total back. Lose, and the £10 is gone. Over many repeated £10 Straight Up bets, the 2.70% edge means you'd expect to keep back roughly £9.73 of every £10 staked, on average, across enough spins for the maths to show up reliably.
Roulette Outside Bets: Payout and House Edge
Outside bets sit around the numbered grid and cover broader groups of numbers.
| Bet | Covers | Payout | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red/Black | 18 numbers | Evens (1 to 1) | 2.70% |
| Odd/Even | 18 numbers | Evens (1 to 1) | 2.70% |
| High/Low (1 to 18 / 19 to 36) | 18 numbers | Evens (1 to 1) | 2.70% |
| Dozen (Douzaine) | 12 numbers | 2 to 1 | 2.70% |
| Column | 12 numbers | 2 to 1 | 2.70% |
Same edge again, 2.70%, because a single green zero pocket is the only thing giving the house its advantage on a European wheel, and it sits outside every single one of these bet categories equally. The payout looking bigger or smaller doesn't change what the bet actually costs on average.
Worked example: stake £20 on Red. Win, and you get £20 profit, £40 back total. Lose, and the £20 is gone. Across many repeated £20 Red bets, the 2.70% edge means an expected average loss of about 54p per bet, small on any single spin, real over a long session.
Myth: A Number Being "Overdue"
A number that hasn't hit in 40 spins is not more likely to hit on spin 41. Each spin is a fresh, independent event, and the wheel carries no memory of what came before it. This belief is common enough at roulette tables specifically that it has a name, the gambler's fallacy, and it applies with equal force to red and black, odd and even, and every other outside bet on this table. Betting bigger because a colour hasn't shown up in a while doesn't shift your odds on the next spin in any direction.
Baccarat: The Three Bets
Baccarat strips the table down to three possible bets, each on a different outcome of the same hand.
| Bet | Payout | House edge |
|---|---|---|
| Banker | 0.95 to 1 (after 5% commission) | 1.06% |
| Player | 1 to 1 | 1.24% |
| Tie | 8 to 1 (varies by table, sometimes 9 to 1) | 14.36% |
The Banker bet's lower headline payout, 0.95 to 1 rather than an even 1 to 1, comes from a commission most tables deduct because the Banker position statistically wins slightly more often than the Player position across a full shoe. Even after that commission, Banker carries the lowest house edge of the three bets by a meaningful margin, which is the opposite of what the smaller-looking payout number might suggest at a glance.
Worked example: stake £50 on Banker. Win, and the table takes its 5% commission from the £50 profit, meaning you collect £47.50 profit rather than a full £50, for £97.50 back total. Stake that same £50 on Tie instead, win, and you'd collect £400 profit at 8 to 1, for £450 back total, a far larger number, but Tie wins so rarely that its 14.36% house edge is more than thirteen times worse than Banker's over repeated play.
Why Tie Looks Tempting and Usually Isn't
An 8 to 1 payout is the single largest number on a baccarat table, and it's also attached to the worst bet on it by a wide margin. A Tie happens on roughly 1 in every 11 hands under standard multi-deck baccarat, and the 8 to 1 payout doesn't compensate for how rarely it lands. The Tie bet's edge, above 14%, is closer to a lottery ticket's expected return than it is to Banker or Player, both of which sit under a percent and a half.
Reading a Table's Bet Layout Before Playing
Both games print every bet's payout directly on the felt or the digital betting interface, but house edge is never printed there, since it isn't the operator's figure to advertise. Working it out yourself, or checking a table like the ones above before sitting down, is the only way to see past the payout number to what a bet actually costs on average. A 35 to 1 number on a roulette wheel and an 8 to 1 Tie in baccarat both look like the standout bet on their table. Neither one is, once the edge sits next to the payout rather than being left off entirely.
Responsible Gambling
Every bet covered here carries a built in house edge, and no betting pattern, stake size or sequence of previous spins changes that edge on the next spin or hand. Confirm any operator holds a UK Gambling Commission licence before playing, and GAMSTOP offers free self-exclusion across every licensed UK operator, with BeGambleAware providing confidential support for anyone who wants it.