French Roulette, also known as ‘Roulet a la Francaise’ is one of the most famous variations of the game along with the American and European versions. 

Both French and European Roulette are played on the typical roulette wheel with 36 numbers and a zero. However, the American roulette version is played with 36 numbers with an additional slot for double zeroes, making overall 38 slots, and thus 38 possible results contrary to the 37 results in European and French Roulette. This may seem like a very little difference, but it’s enough to make a big change in terms of the edge it gives to the house.

When you play American roulette, the casino has an advantage of 5.25%. Dropping the extra double zeroes from the European version reduces this advantage to 2.7%. What is even better, is that the inclusion of a few extra rules in French roulette further reduces this advantage to 1.35%. 

When you play French roulette, you will find that its table layout is a little different compared to that found in European roulette. Moreover, the wheel is located in a different place and the betting section of the table is laid out differently. Also worth noting is that chips are referred to as jetons! However, the roulette balls spin in the same way and lands on one of the numbers from 1 to 37. In order to play French roulette, you should place your bet with a jeton on at least one of the fields on the table, or on a group of numbers.

The French roulette table is separated into two different sections: inner and outer sections. You can see the numbers displayed within the inner section, while the outer section comprises several groups of numbers ‘pair et impair’ (even or odd) or ‘rouge et noir’ (red and black).

1. Inside Bets: In order to make inside bets, you will need to put your jeton directly on the number. You can also place the jeton on the line between two or four numbers, which indicates that you have placed the bet on the all the numbers touched by your jeton. Your bet is then spread across the different numbers.
2. Outside Bets: In order to make outside bets, you need to put your jeton on one or more areas on the outer segment of the table layout. There are various options to place inside bets including ‘colonnes’ (columns), ‘manqué/ passe’ (1 – 18 or 19 – 36), even/ odd, red/ black, or on one of the ‘three douzaines’ (dozens). You win when the ball lands on any of the betnumbers during the round, also known as ‘croup’ in French.

‘La Partage’ is one of the effective rules found only in French Roulette. This rule improves the chances of winning to a sit affects the outcomes when the ball stops at zero after the spin (when you have put the stake on even money bet including high/low, odd/even or red/black). When the situation occurs in other roulette versions, the player usually loses the bet. However, with the inclusion of ‘La Partage’ rule, means that the player only loses of half of the amount of the bet, recovering the other half. The word ‘Partage’ is the French word that means sharing and it indicates, that when the ball lands on zero you are share your loss with the casino. Therefore this rule offers higher percentage and a lower house edge to players than any other version of roulette.

The En Prison rule is similar to the La Partage rule. It is applied when the player has put an even money stake, and the ball lands at zero, or green. When this occurs, the bet is locked and the wheel is spun again. Now, if the ball then lands on your number or numbers, instead of winning, your bet is returned to you. However, if on the second spin the ball lands in the green pocket again, you lose your bet.

The neighbour bet is a nine jeton bet that envelopes numbers displayed on both the side of the single zero pocket; thus, allowing the players to bet on 17 numbers in total. This bet offers a huge coverage of the wheel, which in turn provides favourable winning odds of one in two. Also popular as Neighbours of Zero or ‘Voisins du Zero Bet’, it also offers the players to put the stake on single numbers of their choice.

There is no benefit or drawback in roulette for neighbour bets. The bet winnings are the same as if you were playing single numbers or on the outside. Neighbour’s bets in roulette are just slight variations on the types of roulette bet you can place.