En Prison and La Partage

1Recover Half of Your Losses with La Partage

If you have read the previous articles in this guide, you likely know that the green zero gives the house its edge, which stands at 2.70% in European and French roulette. The zero reduces a player’s chances of winning with all available bet types. However, its negative impact is especially pronounced when betting on outside wagers.

The category of outside bets includes dozen and column wagers, along with even-money propositions based on number characteristics. All outside bets lose immediately when the ball lands in the zero pocket.

The zero shares none of the characteristics of even-money bets. It is neither red nor black and has no parity in the context of this casino game. It is also not included in the high/low, column, or dozen categories.

This is where La Partage comes in handy. The French term translates as “sharing” or “dividing,” an apt description that captures the essence of the rule.

Here is how La Partage works: it applies automatically to all red/black, even/odd, and high/low bets when zero is spun. Instead of losing their wagers in full, even-money bettors have their initial stakes divided into two halves.

The house keeps one half of the losing wager, while the player retains the other half. This reduces losses for players who consistently place even-money bets. La Partage is available at both land-based and online roulette tables that use single-zero wheels. This favorable rule also applies in some live-streamed online versions of the game hosted by professional dealers.

2Second Chance for Even-Money Bets with En Prison

The En Prison rule resembles La Partage because it also applies to outside bets that pay even money when successful. The French phrase translates as “in prison”, which aptly describes how the rule works.

So, how is En Prison different from La Partage? When the ball settles in the green pocket on a single-zero table, even-money bets do not lose right away but instead receive a second chance. The dealer places a marker on top of the even-money wagers rather than immediately raking the chips off the layout.

The marker indicates that these bets are “imprisoned” for the next round of play. If the bet wins the following round, the dealer returns the player’s original stake in full instead of paying it at even odds of 1 to 1. This way, the player breaks even, neither winning nor losing money to the green zero.

3Example of the En Prison rule in action

Let’s imagine you have a $10 bet on even numbers. The ball lands in the green zero pocket, and the dealer places a token on top of your $10 bet to mark it as imprisoned. Several scenarios can occur afterward:

• Zero is spun again, and you lose your $10 bet.
• The ball lands on one of the 18 odd numbers, and you lose the $10 you originally wagered on even.
• One of the 18 even numbers appears, in which case the dealer simply removes the En Prison token from your chips and returns your original $10. You can leave the chips on the layout and bet on even again or use them to place another type of wager.

Depending on the policies of the particular casino you play at, your bet may remain imprisoned if zero appears twice in a row. The player’s initial bet must then win once to move out of double imprisonment and return to its original En Prison position. If the bet wins again, the player receives their initial stake in full.

If the opposite even-money outcome occurs during this sequence, you lose your money. Casinos may very rarely offer triple or even quadruple imprisonment when several consecutive spins of zero occur. Of course, the probability of zero appearing three, four, or more times in a row is minuscule.

So far, we have not encountered online roulette variants that offer En Prison on even-money bets. To our knowledge, it exists only in land-based games that follow European rules and is rarer than La Partage.