Live roulette rules: every bet, what it pays and the house edge

Live roulette is a real wheel, a real ball and a dealer on camera, with the betting grid on your screen. On the European wheel there are 37 pockets: the numbers 1 to 36 and one green zero. Every standard bet on that wheel has a house edge of 2.70%, and a wheel with a second zero takes 5.26%.

Below you will find each bet, its payout and the arithmetic behind the edge, followed by the lightning-style tables that rewrite the pay table. Blackjack and baccarat get the same treatment on the live table rules and payouts reference.

How does a round of live roulette work?

A betting timer opens on screen. You drop chips on the grid until it closes, the dealer spins the wheel one way and the ball the other, and the ball comes to rest in one pocket. Every bet that covers that number is paid, and every other bet is collected.

The length of the betting window is set per table. Evolution says its Speed Roulette runs 25 seconds from spin to spin, about half a standard round, while Pragmatic Play gives 20 seconds to bet in Mega Roulette. Evolution also runs Auto Roulette, where an automated wheel replaces the dealer.

Bets on single numbers or small groups inside the grid are inside bets. Bets on the printed boxes around it, such as red, odd or the first dozen, are outside bets. The zero belongs to no outside box, so when it lands every outside bet loses.

Which bets can you place and what does each one pay?

A payout of 17:1 means 17 units of profit for each unit staked, and your stake comes back as well. The chance of a win is the count of pockets the bet covers divided by 37. The last column turns the payout into shillings for a KES 100 chip.

Each payout is priced as if the wheel had 36 pockets. The wheel has 37, so every bet gives up the same one pocket in 37. A single number and a bet on red cost the same over a long run of spins; they differ only in how often they win and by how much.

The racetrack on many live tables offers call bets such as Voisins, Tiers and Orphelins. Pragmatic Play lists these alongside the standard bets in Mega Roulette. Each call bet is a bundle of the single numbers, splits, streets and corners in the table above, so it carries the same 2.70%.

Where does the 2.70% come from?

Illustrative example: you stake KES 20 on one number, the smallest online bet that section 71(1) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025 allows. Picture 37 spins in which each pocket lands exactly once. You win one spin for KES 700 profit and lose KES 20 on the other 36, which is KES 720, so you end KES 20 down on KES 740 staked: 1/37, or 2.70%.

Illustrative example, same 37 spins with KES 20 on black: 18 wins bring KES 360 and 19 losses cost KES 380. The result is the same KES 20 loss. Change the bet and the swings change, but the cost stays put.

Real spins do not arrive in neat sets of 37. The edge describes the average over a very long run, and one evening's result can sit well above or below it. No sequence of bets changes the figure, because a sequence is only a sum of bets that each cost 2.70%.

Why does a double-zero wheel cost more?

American roulette adds a 00 pocket next to the 0, so the wheel has 38 pockets while the payouts stay the same. Evolution's American Roulette page describes this layout and an extra bet it names the Five Bet. The page does not print what the Five Bet pays, so check the table's pay table before using it.

French roulette moves the other way. It keeps the single-zero wheel and, according to Evolution's roulette overview, applies the La Partage rule: an even-money bet loses only half its stake when the ball lands on zero. That halves the edge on those bets and leaves the others at 2.70%.

Illustrative example: KES 100 on red at a French table, over 37 spins with each pocket once. Eighteen wins add KES 1,800, eighteen losses take KES 1,800, and the zero takes half the stake, KES 50. The net loss is KES 50 on KES 3,700 staked, or 1.35%.

How do Lightning Roulette and Mega Roulette change the payouts?

Some live tables attach random multipliers to single numbers and fund them with a lower base payout. In Evolution's Lightning Roulette, one to five Lucky Numbers are struck each round and given payouts of 50x to 500x. The game page says a straight-up win on a number without a multiplier pays 29:1, and splits, corners, red or black and dozens pay standard odds.

Evolution's XXXtreme Lightning Roulette adds Chain Lightning, which can raise the lucky spots to ten in a round, and Double Strikes that lift a multiplier to between 600x and 2,000x. Only a straight-up bet on a struck number collects a multiplier, the page states. Pragmatic Play's Mega Roulette is also single zero, with one to five Mega Multipliers of 50x to 500x applied to selected straight-up bets on each spin.

Evolution describes the Lucky Numbers as RNG wins added to a live wheel: the ball is physical, the multipliers come from a random number generator. How wheels, cards and generators are checked is covered in how live dealer games are kept fair.

The 2.70% figure does not describe these games, because the multipliers and the cut in the base payout change the sum. Here the return to player that the provider publishes is the figure to look for, and the guide to published RTP figures for live games lists the ones providers state.

What must a Kenyan operator show you at the table?

Regulation 20(2) of the Gambling Control (Conduct of Gambling Operations) Regulations, 2026 (L.N. 112) requires a licensee to display the rules of games, the odds, the house edge and the average return to the player. Regulation 20(3) applies that duty to online gambling, with the necessary modification. On a live roulette table, the pay table and the help panel are where those figures belong.

Regulation 23(1) of L.N. 112 requires the odds, rules and terms of each bet to be clearly displayed, and regulation 23(2) bars a licensee from altering a bet's terms once it has been accepted. A 29:1 straight up has to be shown before your chips go down, not explained afterwards.

Gambling is for adults of the age of majority, which in Kenya is eighteen. Section 72(3) of the Act requires proof of age of majority before an operator registers any player.

What this guide does not cover

This page explains prices, not predictions. A results board shows where the ball has been; the wheel has no memory, and the next spin carries the same 1/37 for every pocket.

Table limits are set by the operator and the studio. The Act fixes a minimum online bet of KES 20 and sets no maximum, and the guide to minimum and maximum bets at live tables explains the ranges. For the term itself, read what house edge means.