Why is the five-number bet the worst wager on an American bitcoin roulette table?
Roulette wheels in American casinos have 38 pockets, one for each number 1 through 36, plus one for zero. Standard bets on a 38-pocket wheel carry a house edge of 5.26 per cent. Each payout formula is consistent across all positions. crypto.games/roulette/bitcoin breaks from this consistency with the five-number bet. Nearly 3 full percentage points are above every other wager on the same table with its 7.89% house edge.
Five-number bets are also called basket bets and top line bets. On the American layout grid, all five sections meet in the upper-left corner. Because single-zero tables have no 00 pocket, that specific corner only occurs on double-zero layouts. One chip at that corner activates all five pockets. If any of the five is spun, the bet wins. If any of the remaining 33 pockets is spun, the chip is lost. No other chip placement on any standard roulette layout covers exactly this combination of five pockets at a single junction point.
What breaks down for five numbers?
Standard roulette payouts follow a formula: divide the number of non-covered pockets by the number of covered pockets, then subtract one. On a 38-pocket wheel with five covered pockets:
- Non-covered pockets: 38 minus 5 equals 33.
- Divide non-covered by covered: 33 divided by 5 equals 6.6.
- The correct payout would be 6.6 to 1.
- Fractional payouts are not usable on a live table, so the result is rounded.
- Rounding down to 6 to 1 rather than up to 7 to 1 creates a systematic underpayment of 0.6 units per win.
The same formula applies to all other wagers on the 38-pocket wheel. Taking 37 and dividing by 1 gives 37, minus 1 gives 36, payout is 35 to 1. A 17 to 1 payout is calculated by dividing 36 by 2 and subtracting one. It pays 5 to 1 on six lines on six numbers: 32 divided by six equals 5.33. Although the rounding on six lines creates a slight edge, the house edge on the six lines stays at 5.26 per cent since the rounding is small. Due to greater five-number rounding than covered pocket count, there is an edge jump.
7.89% edge vs all other double-zero wagers
The house edge on a 38-pocket wheel is exactly 5.26 per cent except for the five-number bet. Straight up, split, street, corner, six-line, column, dozen, red, black, odd, even, high, and low all produce 5.26 per cent under their individual payout formulas. The five-number bet is the sole exception, sitting at 7.89 per cent, which is 50 per cent higher than every other wager at the same table.
A player placing 100 one-unit bets on the five-number position over a session expects to retain approximately 92.11 units from 100 wagered. A player placing 100 one-unit bets on any other position at the same table expects to retain approximately 94.74 units. Across a longer session, the gap widens without any visible indicator on the layout pointing to the difference.
