- For this roulette winning strategy to work, you need to make larger bets or win in order to recoup losses, and if you can’t do either then you want to walk away. The Reverse Martingale Roulette Strategy. As might be expected given the name, this method of roulette gameplay is the opposite of the Martingale Strategy. Instead of raising your.
- How to Win at Roulette. Winning at roulette doesn’t take a magic formula or a secret system. It’s purely a game of luck. So if you’re looking for a secret strategy or surefire way to win, you’ll probably be disappointed by the information on this page.
Along with blackjack, roulette has been a staple of casinos for centuries.Naturally, when online casinos emerged around the mid-1990s, roulette was developed for the digital world. In Casino Juggler’s latest guide, you can improve your roulette winning strategy with these 10 simple tips.
Roulette was the first casino game I ever learned how to play. It’s also one of the most popular casino games in the world, especially in Europe, where the rules variations make it a mathematically gentler game than its American version. The purpose of this page is to explore the history of roulette, explain how to play, and provide some insight into which strategies for winning at roulette actually work, if any.
Strategy To Win Roulette online, free
The History of Roulette
Roulette has a more colorful history than many other casino games. It originated in France, and in fact, the word “roulette” literally translates as “little wheel.” Blaise Pascal invented the first roulette wheel in the 1700s as he was trying to create a perpetual motion machine. The game spread quickly in the 1790s and later, but it really took off in the 19th century, especially in the United States and Europe.
Over time, two distinct forms of roulette became popular—American roulette and European roulette. The only difference between the two games is the number of zeros on the wheel. American roulette has a 0 and a 00, while European roulette only has a 0. This seemingly small difference makes a major difference in the mathematical advantage of the game. A single zero roulette game offers the house and edge of 2.7%, but a double zero roulette game offers the house an edge of 5.26%.
The house edge is the percentage of each bet that the casino expects to win based on the math of the game. If you’re betting $100 per spin, over the long run (which is thousands of spins), you’ll lose close to the house edge of $2.70 per bet on a European table, but you’ll lose $5.26 per bet on an American-style table. That’s almost twice as much for the same game.
American Roulette Strategy
How to Play Roulette
One of the reasons for the perpetual popularity of roulette is the simplicity of the game. The wheel has a number of pockets in it—38 on an American wheel, and 37 on a European wheel. The 0s are green in color, while half of the other numbers are black and the other half red.
The player bets on where the ball lands. The most basic bet is on a single number—for example, if you bet that the ball will land in the pocket with the 38 in it, you’ll win if that’s where it lands, and you’ll lose if it doesn’t. You can also bet on whether or not the ball will land on a particular color, whether or not the ball will land on an even number, and so on.
The harder it is to win, the more the bet pays off. On a single number bet, you’ll win 35 units for every unit you bet if you hit, but the chances of winning are 37 to 1 against you (36 to 1 on a European wheel.) On a black or red bet, you win even money, but the odds are slightly against you because of the green zeros on the wheel.
Almost all casinos offer classes on how to play the various casino games, including roulette. These can be worth the time, but in the case of roulette, the game is so simple that anyone can catch on very quickly.
Roulette appeals to players who are looking for a slower-paced game where they can socialize with the other players at the table. The game moves slowly, but it’s still a lot of fun. People who want to make decisions that affect their chances of winning will find little appealing about roulette, as it’s a complete guessing game. No decision made by the player can make a difference in terms of the odds except for one—the decision about whether to play an American roulette game or a European roulette game.
In the movie Havana, the Robert Redford character helps Lena Olin at the roulette table—he moves her bet to one of the even money bets. She asks him if that will help her to win, and he explains, “No, you’ll still lose. You’ll just lose more slowly now.”
That scene sums up roulette pretty well.
Winning Strategies for Roulette
Many people shill various “winning strategies” for roulette on the Internet. The math behind all of these winning strategies is bogus. The only winning strategy for roulette that actually works is crossing your fingers and hoping to get lucky.
The most popular of these flawed strategies is the Martingale System, which has a seemingly endless number of variations. The idea behind the Martingale is to always bet on an even money bet, and double your bet after each loss. When you eventually win, you’ll be ahead by one unit.
For example, suppose you’re playing roulette using the Martingale System, and you bet $5 on black. You lose, so on your next bet, you play $10. If you win, you’ve won back the $5 you lost on the previous bet, plus you’re ahead by $5.
Seems foolproof at first, doesn’t it?
The problem is that players underestimate a couple of things. They underestimate the dramatic effect on the size of their bets that doubling after each loss has. And they also underestimate the likelihood of a bad streak.
All casinos have a maximum betting limit. At that $5 roulette table we talked about earlier, the maximum bet is probably $500. How many times in a row would you have to lose before your next bet would be greater than the table limit? Let’s look:
The first bet is $5. The second bet is $10. The third bet is $20. The fourth bet is $40. The fifth bet is $80. The sixth bet is $160. The seventh bet is $320. The eighth bet is $640.
So if you lose seven times in a row, the system breaks, because you can’t place a bet large enough to recoup your losses.
Keep in mind, too, that the Martingale System forces you to risk large amounts of money to win an eventual payoff of only a single unit. If you win that seventh bet of $320, you’re only going to be up $5 for the whole session. Anyone who’s willing to bet $320 to net a win of $5 is delusional.
The probability of losing eight bets in a row is 1 in 207. So it’s possible that if you have a large enough bankroll, you could play the Martingale System for a long time without losing much money, but you won’t book much of a profit during your winning streak, either. And if you play any negative expectation game long enough, you’ll eventually lose your entire bankroll.
This isn’t to say you should avoid roulette. If you enjoy the game, by all means, play. I play roulette all the time, and I’m a bit of an expert on casino math. Just don’t think that some bogus betting scheme is going to tilt the odds in your favor, because that won’t ever happen. Enjoy it when you get lucky, and accept that the losses are just part of the game when you lose—that’s a way to guarantee that you’re winning even when you’re losing.
Winning at roulette doesn’t take a magic formula or a secret system. It’s purely a game of luck. So if you’re looking for a secret strategy or surefire way to win, you’ll probably be disappointed by the information on this page. On the other hand, if you’re interested in learning the real odds of winning and what you need to do in order to be a winner, you’ll be thrilled by the info on this page.
The Odds of Winning at Roulette
An America roulette wheel has 38 numbers on it—the numbers 1-36 (inclusive), a 0, and a 00. Calculating the odds of winning a bet on any single number is simplicity itself—you have one way to win out of 38 possible outcomes, which makes the odds of winning 37 to 1. This bet pays out at 35 to 1 odds.
Of course, the single number bet isn’t the only way to win at the roulette table. A plethora of betting options await the roulette player, in fact. These betting options have different odds of winning, but they also offer different payouts.
Another easy example of roulette odds are the even money bets. 18 of the numbers on the roulette wheel are red. 18 of them are black, and two of them, the 0 and the 00, are green. So if you bet on black (or red), then you have 18 ways to win and 20 ways to lose. Your odds of winning are slightly less than 50%. 18/38 is 47.36%. This bet pays out at even odds.
If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that in both of these scenarios, your odds of winning are less than the payout odds. This is what gives the house an edge over the player. In the short run, anyone can walk away from the roulette table a winner. But in the long run, the house is always going to come out ahead.
So how do you become a winner at roulette?
The Maximum Boldness Strategy
Let’s assume that your goal is to just double your money. How do you maximize your chances of doing that?
The correct mathematical strategy is to make one bet of your entire bankroll, cross your fingers, and hope you get lucky. If you lose, you’re out of money, but if you win, then you’ve succeeded in your goal.
The maximum boldness strategy entails placing a single even money bet and hoping to get lucky. You’ll have a 47.36% chance of doubling your money.
Suppose, on the other hand, that you’re going to place two bets with half your bankroll. You’ll have to win both bets in order to double your money. What’s the likelihood of that happening?
That isn’t hard to calculate either. When you’re calculating the probability of two events happening, you multiple the probability of each event happening. So you would simply multiply 47.36% by 47.36%.
The result?
22.42%
Your chances of doubling your bankroll drop dramatically in that case, don’t they?
Suppose you divided your bankroll into four separate bets. Your chances of doubling your money would drop even further.
47.36% X 47.36% X 47.36% X 47.36% = 5.03%
So if your goal is to double your money, the best strategy is to place a single bet. The more bets you place on any negative expectation wager, the more likely the house edge is to catch up with you.
You might still walk away a winner in this situation, but it will be a smaller win. And you’ll be less likely to double your money.
What about Systems?
Roulette systems don’t work. Most of them involve increasing or decreasing your bet based on the outcome of your previous bet. The idea is that the odds of losing several bets in a row is smaller than the odds of losing a single bet, and vice versa.
The problem with this line of thinking is that you’re not placing a single wager on a series of bets. You’re placing multiple wagers on multiple events, and the odds of each event are independent of each other.
The house’s edge over the player doesn’t change based on the previous spin of the wheel. If you bet on black and lose, then the odds of black hitting on the next spin are still 47.36%. The probability doesn’t change because of what happened previously.
The most common of these bogus systems is the Martingale system, which requires you to double your bet every time you lose. The idea is that you’ll eventually win back your previous losses plus a single unit.
Here’s an example. Suppose you bet $5 on black and lose. On your next bet, you wager $10 on black. You lose again, so your next bet is $20. This time you win, so you’ve won back the $15 you lose on the first two bets, plus $5.
At first glance, this seems like a pretty good system. But it has two problems.
The first is that you’ll eventually hit a losing streak where your next bet will be too high for your bankroll. It only takes eight losing bets in a row to get to the point where you’ll need $1280 to place your next bet. (The progression looks like this: $5, $10, $20, $40, $80, $160, $320, $640, $1280.) And remember—you don’t just need $1280 for the last bet. You’ve already lost $1275 by this point in your betting progression.
If you do win this $1280 bet, you’ll only be up $5, which means you’re making a large wager for a very small return.
The other problem is that even if you do have a sufficient bankroll to cover this kind of progression, all casinos have maximum bets. If you’re playing at a $5 roulette table, the maximum bet is probably $500 or $1000. So you’ll be unable to continue your progression.
You might be thinking, how often will I have a losing streak of eight in a row, though?
That answer is not often, but it will happen often enough to make sure that you’re not a long term winner at roulette.
So How Do You Win at Roulette?
In the short run, the only way to win at roulette is to get lucky and walk away. In the long run, the only way to win at roulette is to get even luckier and quit while you’re ahead. The more you play a negative expectation gambling game, the more likely you are to become a net loser.
Does this mean you shouldn’t play roulette?
That’s not our point at all. If you enjoy roulette, then play. Just don’t think you can make a living at it by using some mathematically bogus system or strategy. Earmark your roulette money as an entertainment expense. Then play as much as your bankroll allows until you’re no longer having fun.