What is Outside Bet?

An outside bet in roulette is a wager placed on the boxes around the edge of the layout rather than on individual numbers, covering large groups of results at once. The main outside bets are red or black, odd or even, high or low, the three dozens and the three columns. Because each covers many numbers, they win far more often than inside bets but pay much less: the even-chance bets pay 1 to 1, while dozens and columns pay 2 to 1. Crucially, covering more numbers does not reduce the house edge, which stays the same across almost every roulette bet because the zero is excluded from all of them. Outside bets simply produce smaller, more frequent swings rather than better long-run value.