Roulette in California
The law bans roulette by name, so the casinos deal it from cards.
California has banned roulette by name since 1872, and the agreements that allow its tribal casinos cover card games but not a wheel or a ball. The casinos deal roulette from cards, and the standard bets keep the American 5.26%. Oklahoma played the same card games until 2018, and its fee on every hand became an ante on every spin.
Why California has no roulette wheels
California’s Penal Code has banned roulette by name since it was written in 1872, together with any banking or percentage game played with cards, dice or any device. The tribal casinos got their exception from compacts signed from September 1999 and from Proposition 1A, which voters approved in March 2000: slot machines, lottery games and banked card games. Roulette was not on the list. In a 2007 advisory the state’s Division of Gambling Control said that roulette decided by any device, multi-station electronic terminals included, stays illegal in tribal casinos. Dealt from a deck, roulette becomes a card game, which the compacts allow. The state’s commercial card rooms may not bank any game at all. Players play against each other, often with one of them taking a turn as the banker, and the card room charges a fee on every hand, commonly 1% of the bet with a $1 minimum, as Bollman (2021) notes. A fee that does not grow with the bet weighs most on a small one, like the Oklahoma antemoneyAnteA fixed amount paid to take part in a round, before anything is decided. It is gone whatever happens.Read full → below.
Card roulette and the Oklahoma ante
In California, then, roulette is played with cards: numbered cards or tiles decide the result, and standard bets keep the American odds. Some of these games add bonus bets that cost far more; one, paying 100 or 300 to 1 when your number lines up with a suit symbol, costs 30.33%. Oklahoma’s tribal casinos played similar card versions until a 2018 law, passed to raise money for teachers who were among the lowest paid in the country, allowed ballequipmentBallThe small ball launched along the track against the rotor. Modern balls are ivorine or Teflon, 18–21 mm.Read full → and dice games. As Bollman (2021) reports, the per-hand fee of the card games carried over as a $1 ante on every spin. A fixed fee weighs most on small bets: on an $N bet the edge becomes 1/19 + 1/N. The fee is how the house earns on games it does not bank: an Oklahoma correspondent told the Las Vegas Advisor in 2019 that WinStar’s 50-cent fee per hand was the only blackjack money the tribe could keep. A 2026 casino guide still says Oklahoma roulette players pay a commission to the house on every spin, without naming the amount, so ask at the table. In California the dispute is over who may run which card games: a 2024 law, SB 549, let the tribes sue the state’s licensed cardrooms, and in October 2025 a Sacramento court dismissed that suit as preempted by federal law. The tribes said they would appeal.
Fun with Math
Try these yourself first. Each solution is folded; open it when you are ready.
With a $1 antemoneyAnteA fixed amount paid to take part in a round, before anything is decided. It is gone whatever happens.Read full → on every spin, what does a $100 bet on the five-number basketbetBasketOn a single-zero wheel: 0, 1, 2, 3 with one chip, pays 8:1. Also: first four, quatre premiers.Read full → cost? And a $5 basket bet?
Show the solution
Answer 8.89% on $100; 27.89% on $5.
The basket covers 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 and pays 6 to 1. Over 38 spins it wins 5 times (+30) and loses 33 times (−33): −3 per 38, an edge of 7.89%, the dearest bet on the layoutequipmentLayoutThe printed betting grid on the table. Also: table, felt, cloth.Read full →.
The ante is a fixed $1, which is 1% of a $100 bet and 20% of a $5 bet. Add it to the 7.89%: 8.89% and 27.89%. The same $1 is a small charge on a large bet and a large one on a small bet.
Comic relief
No wheel, no ball. The same 5.26%.
Sources
- Bollman, M. Mathematics of the Big Four Casino Table Games: Blackjack, Baccarat, Craps, & Roulette.
- Las Vegas Advisor. “Why does the Oklahoma WinStar casino charge 50 cents per table game?”
- American Casino Guide. “Oklahoma Casinos.”
- California Department of Justice, Division of Gambling Control. Tribal Casino Advisory No. 5, “Roulette Games.”
- Legislative Analyst’s Office. “Proposition 1A: Gambling on Tribal Lands.”