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La partage is a French single-zero rule that returns half of a losing even-money stake when zero lands, halving that edge to about 1.35%.
By Anja Wiedenhöft · September 8, 2026 · 5 min read
La partage is a single-zero roulette rule. When the ball lands on zero, an even-money bet loses only half its stake rather than the whole amount. That refund halves the house edge on those bets from the standard 2.70% to roughly 1.35%, the fixed statistical cost the casino keeps.
La partage is one of the two French rules that make single-zero roulette a little kinder to even-money bettors. Understanding it is mostly a matter of understanding what the single green zero does to the maths, and how the rule softens that effect on a specific group of bets.
La partage, French for ‘the division’ or ‘sharing’, is a settlement rule that applies when the ball lands on zero. Instead of losing your entire even-money stake to the house, you lose only half of it; the other half is returned to you. The rule is standard on many French roulette tables and appears on some European tables as an optional feature.
The name captures the idea neatly: the stake is divided between you and the house rather than swept away in full. There is no extra decision to make and no further spin to wait for. When zero lands, the dealer simply returns half of each qualifying stake.
La partage covers only the even-money outside bets . Those are the three pairs of near-half chances on the layout:
It does not apply to inside bets such as a straight-up number, a split or a corner, and it does not apply to the other outside bets like the dozens or the columns, which pay 2 to 1. If zero lands and you are on any of those, the stake is lost in full. The rule exists specifically to blunt the impact of zero on the bets that are closest to an even chance.
On a single-zero wheel there are 37 pockets: the numbers 1 to 36 plus a single green zero. An even-money bet such as red wins on 18 numbers and loses on 19 (the 18 black numbers plus zero). Over 37 equally likely outcomes the expected loss works out to 1/37, which is 2.70% . That figure is arithmetic, not opinion, and it is the same for every even-money bet on the wheel.
La partage changes only what happens on the zero. Instead of losing a whole unit on that one pocket, you lose half a unit. The expected loss becomes 0.5/37 instead of 1/37, which is about 1.35% . In other words, the rule halves the even-money house edge. The table below shows the effect.
That 1.35% is among the lowest edges you will find on a roulette layout, which is why French tables with la partage are often described as the most player-friendly version of the game.
Both rules address the same problem, the loss of an even-money stake to zero, and both produce roughly the same 1.35% edge. The difference is in how they resolve it. La partage settles at once by handing back half the stake. En prison instead ‘imprisons’ the whole stake for one more spin: if the next spin wins, the stake is returned, and if it loses, the stake is gone. La partage is quicker and simpler; en prison keeps the full stake in play for a second chance.
No. Each spin of a fair wheel is an independent event, and the chance of any given number or colour is the same on every spin regardless of what came before. La partage does not alter those probabilities at all. What it changes is the settlement of even-money bets on the zero, and therefore the long-run cost of playing them. It is a rule about payouts, not about outcomes.
This is an important distinction. The house edge is a fixed feature of the wheel and the pay table. La partage lowers that fixed cost on a defined set of bets, but no rule, sequence of bets or staking plan can remove the edge entirely or make an even-money bet a long-run positive proposition.
Imagine you place a 10-unit bet on red at a single-zero table with la partage. There are three things that can happen on the spin. If a red number lands, you win 10 units, the same as on any even-money bet. If a black number lands, you lose the full 10 units, exactly as you would without the rule. The rule only matters on the third outcome: if the green zero lands, you lose 5 units instead of 10, because half the stake is returned. Over many spins that single softened outcome is what pulls the long-run cost down from 2.70% to about 1.35%. Nothing else about the bet changes.
It is worth stressing that the rule does nothing to help on a normal losing spin. If black comes up, red loses in full. La partage is not a safety net against ordinary losses; it is a narrow refund that applies only to the zero.
La partage is most closely associated with French roulette, where it is often built into the table rules as standard. It also appears on some European single-zero tables, sometimes as a named variant. It is essentially never offered on American double-zero wheels, which already carry a much higher 5.26% even-money edge. Table signage or the game rules screen will state whether the rule is in force, and it is always worth checking before assuming it applies, because two otherwise identical single-zero tables can differ on this one point.
For anyone who prefers the even-money bets, la partage is mathematically the friendliest setting available, because it cuts the edge on those wagers in half. It only helps if you are actually betting red/black, odd/even or high/low, since it does not touch inside bets or the 2-to-1 outside bets like the dozens and columns. If you tend to bet on single numbers or the dozens, a la partage table gives you no benefit at all, so it is only worth seeking out if the even-money bets are your main interest.
Whatever you bet, the underlying mathematics does not shift. The house edge is a fixed property of the wheel and the pay table, and while la partage lowers that fixed cost on a defined group of bets, it cannot erase it or turn roulette into a long-run advantage for the player. The sensible way to treat the game is as paid entertainment with a known, fixed cost, and to set time and money limits before playing rather than relying on any pattern or staking plan.
La partage is French for 'the division' or 'sharing'. On a roulette table it describes a rule where a losing even-money stake is split with the house when zero lands, so you forfeit only half of it rather than the full amount.
Only the even-money outside bets: red or black, odd or even, and 1-18 or 19-36. Inside bets such as straight-up numbers and outside bets like columns and dozens are not covered and lose in full when zero appears.
On a single-zero wheel the standard even-money edge is 2.70%. Because you lose only half your stake when zero lands, the effective edge on those bets is halved to about 1.35%, one of the lowest edges available on a roulette layout.
They are related but not identical. La partage settles immediately by returning half the stake. En prison instead holds the whole stake for one more spin. Both roughly halve the even-money edge, but they resolve the zero result in different ways.
No. It reduces the house edge on even-money bets but does not remove it. The wheel still carries a fixed statistical edge, every spin is independent, and no rule or staking method changes the long-run mathematics of the game.