En Prison and La Partage

1Recover Half of Your Losses with La Partage

If you have read the previous articles in this guide, you surely 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 one is betting on the outside.

The category of outside bets includes dozen and column wagers, along with the 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 within the context of this casino game. Additionally, it is not included in the high/low, column, or dozen categories.

La Partage helps mitigate this disadvantage. The French term translates to “sharing” or “dividing,” an apt description that captures the very essence of the rule.

Here is how La Partage works: it activates automatically on 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 only one half of the losing wager, while the player retains the other half. This ultimately saves you money if you consistently place even-money bets. La Partage is available at both land-based and online roulette tables that use single-zero wheels. The rule even applies in some live-streamed online versions of the game that are hosted by professional dealers.

2Second Chance for Even-Money Bets with En Prison

The En Prison rule resembles La Partage in that 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 single-zero tables, even-money bets do not lose right away but instead receive a second chance. The dealer places a marker atop the even-money wagers rather than immediately raking the chips off the layout.

The marker shows that these bets are “imprisoned” for the next round of play. If the bet wins the second time around, the dealer returns the player’s original stake in full instead of paying 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 finds its way into the green-zero pocket, and your 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 irrevocably.
• 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 hits twice in a row. The player’s initial bet must win once to get out of the 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 in between spins, you lose your money. On very rare occasions casinos will offer triple or even quadruple imprisonment when several consecutive spins of zero occur. Of course, the probability of zeros hitting three, four, or more times in a row is minuscule.

So far, we have not come across online variations of roulette that offer En Prison on even-money bets. To our knowledge, it exists only in land-based games that play under the European rules and is rarer than La Partage.