En Prison & La Partage: Roulette's Half-Price Rules
Last reviewed: August 2026
Most roulette advice stops at “play the single-zero wheel.” There’s one more door: European tables carrying la partage or en prison rules charge just 1.35% on even-money bets — a quarter of the American wheel’s price, and cheaper than almost everything else in the casino that isn’t blackjack or craps odds.
The problem both rules solve
On even-money bets (red/black, odd/even, high/low), the zero is where you lose. Normally, zero landing means your whole bet is gone — that’s the standard 2.70% European edge. These rules soften exactly that event:
- La partage (“the split”): zero lands, you immediately get half your bet back. Simple, automatic.
- En prison (“in prison”): zero lands, your bet is locked for the next spin. Win that spin and your full bet is returned (no winnings); lose and it’s gone.
Both work out to essentially the same math: the zero now costs you half a bet instead of a whole one, so the edge on even-money bets drops from 2.70% to 1.35%.
Where that lands on the menu
| Bet | House edge |
|---|---|
| Even-money, French rules | 1.35% |
| Banker (baccarat) | 1.06% |
| Even-money, standard European | 2.70% |
| Even-money, American wheel | 5.26% |
A red/black bet under la partage is suddenly playing in baccarat’s league — remarkable for a game whose American version charges four times more for the identical wager.
The fine print
- The discount applies to even-money bets only — straight-ups, dozens, and columns still pay the full 2.70%.
- Look for “French roulette” tables, or single-zero tables that announce la partage; online versions state it in the rules panel.
- En prison variants differ on what happens if a second zero hits — la partage’s instant half-back has no such ambiguity, which is why we mildly prefer it.
If your casino offers it, this is roulette’s best version by a wide margin. See what 1.35% versus 5.26% does to a bankroll over a thousand spins — run both in the simulator.