What is Call Bet (Roulette)?

A call bet is a roulette wager placed by naming a named group of numbers rather than by putting chips on each pocket. The groups follow the order of the wheel, not the layout of the cloth, and are shown on the oval racetrack beside the table. The standard four are Voisins du Zéro, seventeen numbers around zero; Tiers du Cylindre, the twelve opposite it; Orphelins, the eight left over; and Jeu Zéro, the seven closest to zero. A neighbour bet covers a chosen number plus a set number of pockets either side of it. The important point is that these change nothing about price. Each is a bundle of ordinary straight-up and split bets, every one of which carries the same house edge, so on a single-zero wheel a call bet costs the same 2.70 percent as everything else on the table. What they do change is the amount at risk. Voisins du Zéro is placed as nine chips, Tiers as six, Orphelins as five. A player used to betting one chip who clicks Voisins is staking nine, so a session at an unchanged habit costs several times what it did. One legal note: in Great Britain a true call bet — betting on credit without staking first — is not permitted, so the same bets are offered as announced bets and must be funded before the spin.