Quiz · Quiz · 8 min

Side Bets and Unusual Games

Ten questions on side bets, odd wheels and card roulette, drawn from a pool of fifteen. Most answers are not 2.70%.

Short answer

Colors, Newar, Prime Time, the Bonus Box, Pro-Aggressive, Lightning Launch, card roulette, Chinese Roulette and one joke system. Multiple choice, shuffled each time, with a link to the page that explains each one you miss.

questions

10 of 15

pass mark

hardest

the birthday wheel

source

Bollman (2021)

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Oklahoma charges a $1 ante on every spin. What is the edge on a $100 five-number bet?
- 5.26%
- 7.89%
- 8.89%
- 25.26%
Colors pays 8 to 1 when one color comes up three spins in a row. On a single-zero wheel, who has the edge?
- The house, 2.70%
- The house, 4.34%
- The player, about 3.6%
- Nobody: it is a fair bet
Newar bets paid 3 to 1 on the eight red even numbers and 2 to 1 on zero. At the same payouts, what would a bet on the red odd numbers be worth?
- −5.41%, the same
- −2.70%
- Exactly 0%
- +16.2% for the player
Prime Time pays 299 to 1 for seven primes in a row and costs 7.22%. Roughly what would that line have to pay to bring it to 5.26%?
- 320 to 1
- 414 to 1
- 1,000 to 1
- No payout could
A results board shows the last 16 spins of an American wheel. What is the chance that no number appears twice?
- About 98%
- About 65%
- About 25%
- About 2.5%
100 To 1 Roulette has 105 pockets and pays 32 to 1 on a three-number bet. What is that bet’s edge?
- 3.81%
- 4.76%
- 5.71%
- 7.14%
Riverboat Roulette’s Teal bet loses 18.18% per resolved bet and 5.26% per spin. Which is its house edge?
- 18.18%
- 5.26%
- Both, measured two ways
- Neither
Alphabetic Roulette’s Bonus Box lets a winning stake ride on a repeated letter. Which choice is cheapest after the first repeat?
- Collect after the second repeat
- Ride to the third repeat
- They cost the same
- Both favor the player
What wins Pro-Aggressive Roulette’s line jackpot?
- Three spins that form a line on the layout
- One color three spins in a row
- Three neighboring pockets on the wheel
- The same number three times
Lightning Launch settles a $1 Bonus bet on one number across four balls. How often does it win anything?
- About 1 time in 38
- About 1 time in 10
- About 1 time in 4
- About 1 time in 2
Why do California casinos deal roulette from cards?
- Cards are cheaper than wheels
- The law bars a ball or dice from deciding a bet
- Players prefer poker
- Cards lower the house edge
Triple Flop’s Royal Jackpot costs 36.1%. Which payout sets its price?
- 1,000 to 1 for A-K-Q of diamonds
- 100 to 1 for a royal made with a joker
- 250 to 1 for the other natural royals
- The pair of aces
In a three-card poker hand, which is rarer?
- A flush
- A straight
- A pair
- They are equally rare
Chinese Roulette deals a card when 0 comes up and returns your bet on an 8 or higher. What is the edge?
- 2.70%
- 1.35%
- 1.25%
- 0%
Mike Caro’s 1997 joke system lists the bets to avoid. What is its edge?
- 2.70%
- 5.26%
- 0%: it never places a bet
- It favors the player

Scoring

10: you could price a new side betbetSide betAn optional extra wager attached to the main game, usually on a streak, a bonus event or a jackpot. Almost always dearer than the standard bets.Read full → before the casino does.

8–9: you read pay tablesmoneyPay tableThe list of what each bet or result pays. On machines and side bets, it is where the house edge is set.Read full → the way the house does.

5–7: the Side Bets and Unusual Wheels pages cover the rest.

Under 5: start with House EdgemathHouse edgeThe share of each stake the casino keeps on average: 2.70% in European roulette.Read full →, then come back.

Where the questions come from

Most of them come from the exercises in Bollman’s Mathematics of the Big Four Casino Table Games (2021), and the answers are our own working. Every one has the same moral as the standard bets: count the outcomes, multiply by the payoutsmoneyPayoutWhat a winning bet returns, quoted as “X to 1” on top of the returned stake.Read full →, and the price is what is left. The difference is that here the price changes from bet to bet, and twice it favors the player on paper.

Questions

Why is the results-board question so hard?

Sixteen spins feels like too few for a repeat. With 38 pocketsequipmentPocketOne of the 37 numbered compartments on the rotor. Also: slot, cup.Read full → a repeat is about 97.5% likely.

Are these games still played?

Some are, most were short-lived. The arithmetic carries over to whatever replaces them.

Comic relief

Fifteen questions. None of the answers is 2.70%.

Sources

Bollman, M. Mathematics of the Big Four Casino Table Games: Blackjack, Baccarat, Craps, & Roulette. CRC Press, 2021. Chapter 2, roulette.

reviewed 2026-09-28model: European, single zeromethodology ↗sources ↗