What is the La Partage rule in roulette?
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La Partage is a French roulette rule that applies when the ball lands on zero. Instead of losing your full even-money outside bet, you receive half your stake back. The other half goes to the casino.
How it reduces the house edge
On a standard European wheel, zero costs outside bet players their entire wager. La Partage halves that loss. Mathematically, it cuts the house edge on even-money bets from 2.7% to 1.35%. Over large volumes of play that’s a meaningful difference. Even-money bets are the most common roulette wagers, so La Partage helps the majority of players.
La Partage vs En Prison
En Prison is an alternative to La Partage found at some French tables. Instead of taking half back immediately, your bet stays ‘in prison’ for the next spin. If it wins, you get the full stake back. If it loses, you lose everything. Statistically the two rules are equivalent in expected value for a single zero occurrence, but En Prison adds variance since the imprisoned bet might lose on the next spin.
Ben Barber got into the gambling industry through the poker rooms of London in the early 2000s. After building up a solid grounding in casino, sports betting and poker, he made the move to Malta where he spent close to a decade writing for some of the biggest affiliate networks in the region. A few years ago he relocated to Bali, which shifted his focus toward website strategy and affiliate marketing. The casino side never really left, though. He still writes reviews, how-to guides and in-depth pieces on everything from slots and live dealer tables to crypto casinos and sweepstakes sites. His approach is fact-first: help players understand how online gambling actually works before they deposit a cent.