I'm working on ideas as well to turn the house edge into a player edge.
Making roulette a fair game - no edge either way - is very easy.
Just forbid bets on green, and if the ball hits green, respin. Done. It's a fair roulette game.
If you want to add some crazy and a player edge... three green in a row, and everybody's number wins! (This turns inside bets into a 0.5249% player edge, if my math is good. Paying everyone on two green in a row would result in a 9.9723% player edge, which is a bit much.
For a 5% player edge... any time a green hits, everybody on the inside gets paid off, but even money instead of 36. (That's a 5.2632% player edge.)
For a 2.6% player edge, make the green 0 a push for everyone, but the green double 00 means everyone gets paid even money on the inside.
For this last one, you can relabel the 0 or 00 as Eagles, or a custom logo. Some
old US roulette wheels actually had an eagle on them for an extra house edge.)
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Alternate, if you want the greens to still be bettable:
If a green hits, all other inside numbers push, but the green gets paid off.
That rule, by itself, makes all the numbers except the greens a fair odds bet. Then add this:
If 1 or 3 hit, the greens push; other numbers pay/lose normally.
This brings the greens up to being fair odds. You can use any two numbers, but I like using the corners nearest the greens, so that it's easier to remember not to sweep the greens off the table when they hit.
Again, unless I'm mistaken, that should make it an even game.
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Both of these assume continuing the normal Roulette payouts of 35:1.
A third way to modify:
Play normally, but instead of paying 35:1, pay 37:1.
Bang. Fair game. But good luck with the math.
For a player edge?
Play normally, inside bets pay out 39:1 - for a 5.2632% player edge.
Paying 39:1 is actually easy - each chip becomes 40. Five chips? Make it 200 (pay 195.)
