Roulette bets on a phone screen

Roulette bets on a phone screen: the short version

A roulette layout has three zones. The number grid holds 0 and 1 to 36, and any chip placed on or between numbers is an inside bet. The boxes along the edge hold the outside bets: red, black, odd, even, 1-18, 19-36, the three dozens and the three columns. Many games also add a racetrack, an oval drawn in wheel order, for call bets that cover whole sections of the wheel.

On a phone, each zone is small, so most games let you zoom, switch to a larger view or rotate the screen. The rules of the game and the payouts must be available before you play, under the Gambling Commission's rules on game descriptions (opens in a new tab), so the info screen is the place to confirm anything that looks different from the standard layout described here.

This page is part of our mobile casino games hub. If you are new to the game, read the roulette app guide first, then come back here for the detail on each bet.

How the roulette layout fits on a phone

The number grid has 12 rows of three numbers, running 1-2-3 across the first row up to 34-35-36, with zero above it. On a desktop the grid lies sideways; on a phone in portrait it often stands upright, so the dozens and columns can appear in unfamiliar places. The maths is the same either way.

Where a chip sits decides what it covers. In the middle of a number it is a straight-up; on the line between two numbers it is a split; at the end of a row it is a street; at the point where four numbers meet it is a corner; and at the end of the line between two rows it is a six line. On a small screen, those last three spots are only a few pixels apart.

Inside roulette bets: straight, split, street, corner and six line

Inside bets win less often but pay more. Payouts are quoted 'to 1', so a winning £1 straight-up pays £35 and you keep the £1 stake, for £36 back in total. The chances below are for a single-zero wheel of 37 pockets.

Notice the pattern: each payout is what the bet would pay if the wheel had 36 numbers. The single zero is the 37th, and that gap is the house edge. Wizard of Odds' worked example puts it simply: a 1-unit straight-up wins 35 units once in 37 spins and loses 1 unit the other 36 times, so the average loss is 1/37 of a unit per spin.

Outside roulette bets: colours, halves, dozens and columns

Outside bets are the easiest to hit on a touchscreen, because the boxes are large. They also win more often, which makes a session feel steadier. Zero loses every outside bet, unless a French table's La Partage rule applies to even-money chances.

Columns run the length of the grid: 1, 4, 7 and so on up to 34 in one column. On an upright phone layout, the column boxes may sit at the bottom or top of the grid rather than the side. If you prefer to compare wheel types first, our European roulette guide sets single, double and French wheels side by side.

Bets that include zero, and the American five-number bet

You can bet on zero like any other number: a straight-up on 0 pays 35 to 1, and splits with 1, 2 or 3 pay 17 to 1. Single-zero tables may also offer a first four (0-1-2-3) or trio bets (0-1-2 and 0-2-3). Payouts for those are not consistent across sources, so read the game's paytable before you use them.

Double-zero tables add a five-number bet on 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. It pays 6 to 1 and wins 5 times in 38, which works out at a 7.89% house edge: the worst standard bet in roulette. Every other bet on a double-zero wheel costs 5.26%. If an app offers both wheels, a single-zero table is the cheaper place for any bet you like.

Racetrack and call bets on a touchscreen

Call bets cover sections of the wheel rather than rows of the grid. One tap on the racetrack places several chips at once, which is convenient on a phone but easy to misjudge: a single tap on voisins du zéro stakes nine chips, not one. Pragmatic Play's Mega Roulette is one live game that lists Zero Game, Tiers, Voisins and Orphelins on its racetrack.

The chip layouts come from standard descriptions of the racetrack: voisins, for example, puts two chips on the 0-2-3 trio, one each on five splits and two on the 25-26-28-29 corner. Wizard of Odds' page on sector bets (opens in a new tab) confirms that every one of these carries the same 2.70% edge. Call bets are a single-zero feature, so you won't find them on American tables.

Why every roulette bet costs the same 2.70%

This is the most useful fact about roulette bets on a phone screen. Whether you put £10 on one number or spread it across ten, the average cost on a single-zero wheel is £10 × 2.70% = 27p per spin. Any fixed spread, including the well-known 'James Bond' style, is just a bundle of bets that each cost 2.70%, so the bundle does too.

What a spread changes is the shape of your results. Covering more numbers wins more often, but each win is smaller and some 'wins' return less than the total you staked. UK rules stop games from celebrating a return that is less than or equal to your stake, so a spin that pays £6 on a £10 spread should not be dressed up as a win.

• Exception one: French tables with La Partage cut even-money bets to 1.35%.
• Exception two: double-zero tables cost 5.26%, or 7.89% on the five-number bet.
• Exception three: multiplier games change the payout on straight-ups. Lightning Roulette pays 29 to 1 on an unboosted straight-up instead of 35 to 1. Our live roulette on mobile page covers those tables.

Our glossary entry on the house edge shows how the figure compares with other games.

How to place roulette bets on a phone, step by step

Controls vary between games, so treat this as the general order of events rather than a description of any one app. The game's help screen names its own buttons.

1. Decide your total stake for the spin before you open the table, and keep it the same until you have a reason to change it.
2. Pick a chip value from the chip tray. Check it: a £5 chip and a 50p chip can look alike at small sizes.
3. Zoom or rotate the layout if your game supports it, so each number is large enough to hit cleanly.
4. Tap the spot for each bet. For splits, corners and streets, aim for the line or intersection, not the number.
5. Read the total-bet figure. If it isn't what you planned, use the undo or clear control before the timer ends.
6. Confirm or wait for betting to close. On live tables, a late tap after the window shuts won't be accepted.
7. After the spin, check the result against your bets in the game history if anything looks wrong.

If you play live, the betting window is short. A re-bet control is allowed under UK rules because you still press it each round; autoplay is not. See game speed rules on mobile for the timing rules.

Roulette bets and a £20 budget: what to expect

Take £20 and 40 spins at 50p each on a single-zero wheel. Your total staked is £20, so the expected loss is £20 × 2.70% = 54p whichever bet you choose. The experience, though, is very different.

The arithmetic for the last row: the chance of missing a single number 40 times in a row is (36/37) to the power of 40, about 33%. So two times in three you will hit at least once, and the 35 to 1 payout can put you ahead for a while, but one time in three the £20 is gone with nothing back. None of these choices makes money on average. Pick the ride you enjoy, set a deposit limit, and stop when the budget is spent.

Bet sequences and systems: what the maths says

Systems tell you how much to bet next, not what will come up, so they can't touch the edge. Wizard of Odds puts it bluntly: betting systems not only fail to beat games with a house advantage, they can't even dent it. Its simulations of the Martingale, d'Alembert, Fibonacci and Labouchère all finished with losses matching the house edge.

• Martingale: double after each loss. With a 50p start and £20, five straight losses cost £15.50, and the sixth bet of £16 is out of reach. Five losses in a row on even-money bets happens about 3.6% of the time.
• d'Alembert: add a unit after a loss, take one off after a win. In Wizard of Odds' tests it hit its session goal most of the time, yet the expected result was still negative.
• Fibonacci: move up the sequence after a loss, back two after a win. The money lost to money bet came out at the house edge.
• Labouchère: a written line of numbers you cross off. Usually a small session win, at the cost of very large losses when it fails.

Table limits and your own budget make doubling systems riskier still. For the full numbers, read Wizard of Odds on betting systems (opens in a new tab).

UK rules that shape roulette betting on a phone

Roulette in a UK app sits under the Gambling Commission's remote technical standards. Since 17 January 2025, those include rules written for slots and extended to other casino games.

• Each game cycle must be started by you: no autoplay on RNG or live roulette.
• At least 5 seconds must pass from the start of one roulette game to the next.
• You can't play several roulette tables, or other casino games, at the same time.
• Your net spend and time played must be visible in real time.
• Rules, payouts and the likelihood of winning must be available before you play, and can't change while the game is live.
• Slot stake limits of £5 and £2 don't apply to roulette, so the table limits set by the game are what count.

For the background, see our guides to the autoplay ban and how to find a game's RTP in an app.

Casino apps that list roulette and live tables

Bet types are set by the game, not the app, so the same Evolution or Pragmatic Play table behaves the same in any licensed app that carries it. What differs is the lobby, the device support and the cashier.

• Coral Casino is a standalone casino app whose App Store listing names roulette and Live Casino. It needs iOS 18.0 or later.
• Casumo runs on iPhones with iOS 15.0 or later and lists live casino on both stores. Its listing mentions Face ID and Touch ID login.
• 10bet puts its casino inside one sports and casino app, with live casino tables in its store description and a UK phone line for support.

See the best roulette apps for our ranking of these three on roulette.

Roulette bets and welcome offers

Welcome offers rarely help roulette players. Free spins are for named slots, and deposit bonuses usually exclude table and live games or count them at a lower rate towards wagering, so check the terms before you stake bonus money on a roulette bet. 18+, terms apply.

• Casumo: new customers who opt in get a 50% bonus up to £100 on a first deposit of at least £20. The bonus must be wagered 10x within 7 days, with bets capped at £5 while it's active, and game, play and payment restrictions apply.
• 10bet: new UK customers who pick the casino welcome bonus at sign-up and deposit within 7 days get a 100% match up to £25, wagered 10x on slots within 3 days. Bonus winnings are capped at £1,000, and Skrill and Neteller deposits don't qualify.
• Coral Casino: new players who deposit and bet £10 or more on slots receive 100 free spins on selected games at 10p a spin, to accept within 48 hours and use within 7 days. Free-spin winnings carry no wagering; certain payment methods are excluded.

18+. Every casino game has a built-in house edge, so over time you should expect to lose what you stake. Set a budget before you play and stop when it’s gone: safer gambling tools and support. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.