i know you have a better chance of not hitting the zero with European than American, with American they have the 0 and 00. i play roulette tourneys and play european. i have found that the highest paying number is 2 and if you put your money on 2 and the surrounding numbers, which is 0-1-4-5-6-3 the payout is sweet. if memory serves me correctly in the tourneys i play there is a 500 max bet if i put 25 on the number two and the remaining 475 on surrounding numbers more dollars on the zero side i think it pays 8250.00. i usually don't play that number, on the number i play on a 500 bet it pays 6975.00. as far as french roulette i didn't know there was such a game, the places i play roulette at only have european and american and the payout seems to be the same but you can hit the 0 and 00 in american so odds of not hitting 0 is better with european. hope this helps