French Roulette: La Partage and En Prison

French roulette is a version of the game on the same wheel as European: 37 cells, numbers from 0 to 36 and a single zero. The key difference is not in the wheel but in two rules for even-money bets - La Partage and En Prison. They return part of the bet to the player when zero comes up, and thereby lower the house edge on such bets almost by half. Below we break down how both rules work, what French bet names and wheel sectors there are, and how the French table differs from the European and American ones.

The wheel is the same as the European one

The French roulette wheel is no different from the European one. It has 37 cells: numbers from 1 to 36, colored red and black, plus a single green zero. There is no second zero as in the American version. The order of numbers on the wheel is the same, so the sector bets and payout calculations match European roulette.

The base math is also shared: on most bets the house edge is 2.7%, and the return (RTP) is 97.3%. The difference appears only on even-money bets, and it is exactly that which the French rules create.

The La Partage rule

La Partage translated from French means "the split". The rule works only on outside even-money bets: red/black, odd/even, low/high numbers. If zero comes up, such a bet does not lose entirely - the player gets back half the amount, and the other half goes to the casino.

Example: you bet 100 units on red, and the ball stopped on zero. By the usual rules the bet would be lost in full. With La Partage you get 50 units back. Over the long run this noticeably reduces losses on even money.

The En Prison rule

En Prison ("in prison") solves the same situation differently. When zero comes up, an even-money bet is neither taken nor returned by half, but stays on the table - "locked" until the next spin.

In the next round two outcomes are possible:

• the bet wins - the player is returned the original amount without a win, and the chip is freed;
• the bet loses - the whole amount goes to the casino.

The casino usually offers either La Partage or En Prison - in their effect on the math they are equivalent.

How these rules lower the house edge

Both rules work only on even-money bets and reduce the house edge there by exactly half. Without them the whole bet is lost when zero comes up, with them - on average half.

In figures:

• the ordinary European wheel: house edge 2.7%, RTP 97.3% on all bets;
• French roulette on even money with La Partage or En Prison: edge about 1.35%, RTP up to 98.65%.

An important caveat: the lowered edge applies only to outside even-money bets. On straight up bets, splits, dozens and columns the math stays European - 2.7%, so the 1.35% relates not to the whole table but to a specific group of bets. How the return on different bets is calculated and what RTP is are covered in a separate article on roulette RTP.

Neither La Partage nor En Prison removes the house edge entirely or makes the game profitable over the long run. They only soften losses on part of the bets - each spin is still independent, and the wheel has no memory.

French bet names

The layout of the French table is traditionally labeled in French. The main even-money bets are called:

• Rouge / Noir - red or black;
• Pair / Impair - even or odd;
• Passe / Manque - high numbers (19-36) or low (1-18).

It is these bets that La Partage and En Prison apply to. The remaining bets match the European ones in essence and in payouts.

Sector bets: Voisins du Zero, Tiers, Orphelins

A separate feature of the French and European layout are the sector (announced) bets. They cover groups of numbers that lie next to each other on the wheel. There are three such bets:

• Voisins du Zero ("neighbors of zero") - 17 numbers around zero, from 22 to 25 along the arc of the wheel; placed with 9 chips;
• Tiers du Cylindre ("a third of the wheel") - 12 numbers on the side opposite zero; placed with 6 chips;
• Orphelins ("orphans") - 8 numbers not included in the two previous sectors; placed with 5 chips.

A detailed breakdown of each sector and the chip placement schemes is in the article on roulette sectors.

How it differs from European and American

From European roulette the French one differs only in the La Partage and En Prison rules - the wheel, numbers and payouts fully match. In essence it is the European wheel with gentler rules for even-money bets.

From American roulette there are more differences. The American version has 38 cells: a second zero (00) is added. Because of it the house edge grows to 5.26%, the RTP falls to 94.74%, and there are usually no La Partage or En Prison there. On even-money bets the gap is especially large. More on the American variant and the double zero is in the breakdown of American roulette.

Where it is found online and how to watch statistics

In live casinos a separate French layout is found less often than the European one, but the La Partage rule is often included on European tables under the name "French rules". Such tables are offered by major live roulette providers, and the presence of the rule is worth checking in the table description before placing even-money bets.

Following such tables is convenient with live statistics: which numbers, colors, dozens and sectors have not come up for a long time, and what the history of recent rounds looks like. The service gathers this statistics for live roulettes in real time, and it can be opened in the roulette statistics section.

Remember: neither the French rules nor statistics analysis change the randomness of an individual spin. Statistics show the distribution of past results, not predict the next number. La Partage and En Prison only reduce the cost of zero on part of the bets.

Open roulette statistics →