Finding a Roulette Strategy that Works

While many players claim to have winning roulette strategies, no strategy can hold up against the house edge of roulette.

Prediction-Based Roulette Strategies

Many roulette players believe that if they track which numbers or colors have not come up recently, they can bet on those numbers, increasing their chance of winning. This is referred to as the gambler’s fallacy. If the wheel is truly random, each spin is completely independent of all previous or future spins. Thus, if you see that the wheel has landed on black twenty times in a row, betting red on the next spin still has a slightly less than 50/50 chance of winning. If, on the other hand, you see that the ball consistently lands in one section of the wheel, then the wheel might have a bias. Today’s wheels are very rarely biased, but it can occur, especially in a casino which uses relatively old equipment. Players shouldn’t expect to find biased wheels, though. Most casinos check their wheels quite frequently to make sure that they are well-balanced.

Some players have tried to use computerized or laser-based roulette wheel and ball tracking. While sometimes these systems can work, they are generally considered illegal, and in some jurisdictions, players found using electronic equipment to assist them in their roulette strategies are prosecuted and fined or even jailed. Moreover, if the pit boss suspects you of using electronic equipment in order to win at roulette, you will likely be ejected from the casino and be put on a banned list in that region.

Betting-Based Roulette Strategies

When it comes to roulette strategies, most people who claim that they have winning methods use simple betting systems. The most commonly used systems involve doubling after a winning bet or doubling your bet after a losing bet. The first system actually guarantees a loss, but it will keep your sessions quite long. The second system will work as long as you don’t hit a particularly bad losing streak. Unfortunately, since profits are low, generally players will continue playing until they hit that losing streak and eventually they will lose their entire bankroll.

The first system of doubling after each winning bet works on the theory that you are actually risking the casino’s money when you double your bet. It’s a great theory, and it will certainly keep your roulette play time long, because it will often allow you to play a long time on one betting unit. The downside is that if you continue playing without setting yourself some type of limit, you will inevitably lose. Another version is simply to double twice, then pocket the original bet and the winnings and start again at one unit. If you have a reasonably lucky streak, this is one of the few roulette strategies that may help you. The Martingale system, in theory, guarantees that you will cover your losses. The problem is that it works on the theory that you can make an infinite number of bets with an infinite amount of money. Even with a good bankroll of 100 times your initial bet amount, you can only afford seven losses in a row before you’re bankrupt. The best roulette strategies involve pocketing your winnings quickly so that you don’t spend them.