En Prison and La Partage

1Recover Half of Your Losses with La Partage

If you have read the previous articles from this guide, you sure know the green zero gives the house its edge, which stands at 2.70% in European and French roulette. The zero dilutes one’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 comprises the dozen and column wagers along with the even-money propositions on number properties. All outside bets are immediate losers when the ball lands in the zero pocket.

The zero does not share the characteristics of any of the even-money bets. It is neither red nor black and has no parity in the context of this casino game. This number is not included in the high/low, column and dozen categories, either.

This is where La Partage comes in handy. The name La Partage translates as “sharing” or “dividing” from French and is a perfect fit for this beneficial rule because it captures its very essence.

Here is how the La Partage works. It kicks in automatically on all red/black, even/odd, and high/low bets when the zero is spun. Instead of losing their wagers in full, even-odds bettors have their initial stakes divided into two halves.

The house keeps only one half of the losing wager. The player gets to keep the other half. This ultimately saves you money if you consistently have even-money bets in play. The La Partage is available at both landbased and online roulette tables that use single-zero wheels. This favorable 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 the La Partage in that it also applies to outside bets that deliver even-money payouts when successful. The meaning of the French phrase is again indicative of what the rule stands for as it translates as “in prison”.

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

The marker indicates 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 them 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 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 initially wagered on the opposite outcome, even.
• One of the 18 even numbers shows, in which case the dealer simply removes the En Prison token from your chips and gives you back your original $10. You can leave the chips on the layout and again bet on even or use them to post 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 would casinos 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 to offer En Prison on even-money bets. To our knowledge, it exists only in landbased games that play under the European rules and is rarer than the La Partage.