Martingale Strategy for Roulette Explained

How many times have you heard someone say, “I’ve got a profitable blackjack betting system’? While it’s true they may have a system that sometimes makes them a profit, there is simply no way that any betting system can beat roulette over any length of time.

Think about it for one second. If there were a foolproof roulette betting system, we would all be millionaires within days. And all the casinos would go bust. The truth of the matter is that every live and online casino has a house edge in blackjack, ensuring they make a profit they can use to continue operations (and allow us some fun).

With all that being said, many casino players do like to use betting strategy systems because they can bring short-term wins - and it’s quite entertaining to try these things out. If you want to give it a try, there are many live casinos to enjoy in the US, while this site is a good read as it shows the increasing number of online casinos available to US players.

The Martingale Strategy

Perhaps the best-known of the roulette betting systems is the Martingale Strategy. It’s easy to follow, and you don’t need a head for figures to keep up with it. You must place all your bets on a 50/50 chance to play the Martingale system. So in roulette, that would be red or black, or odd or even.

You must begin with a low starting bet. For simplicity, let’s say $1. If you win, repeat the $1 bet. But if your bet fails, you must wager double the amount, so $2 on the next spin of the wheel. Lose again, and double the bet to $4. Keep doubling your losses until you win, in which case you go back to the start and $1 again.

The logic behind the Martingale Strategy is that even though you might get alarmed by having to double your losing bets, you will eventually win a spin and get your money back, plus keep all your $1 wins to make a profit.

But, And it’s a Big But

While this sounds like a glorious license to print money, it’s not. Why is that? Three reasons make the Martingale and similar progressive bet strategies dangerous:

1. How deep are your pockets?

It doesn’t take too much of a losing streak to see your bets having to rise alarmingly fast. Starting at $1, if you lost just eight times in a row, your next bet would have to be $256. Is your bankroll big enough to sustain having to bet this figure (keeping in mind you have already had to bet $128, $64, $32, $16, $8, $4, $2, and $1 - a total of $255 already? And what if you lose the ninth spin? You are now in a hole more than $500 deep and must lay out another $512 on the next spin!

Losing streaks of eight and above are not uncommon, so you must be prepared for the bad news.

2. What are the casino limits?

Perhaps you have loads of money and can afford to keep double your bets until you win. However, you may run into another issue: the house may not allow you to do so because they have a stakes limit at the roulette table. If you run into this, you have no way of continuing your strategy to win your money back.

3. The odds do not favor you

While you might like the idea of chasing 50/50 shots, thinking you will win half the time, it’s not strictly true in roulette. That’s because although there are 18 red numbers and 18 black, and 18 odd numbers and 18 even, there is also a 37th segment on the roulette wheel - the green zero. Land here, and you lose your bet. So you have 18 chances of winning and 19 of losing on every spin.

Is the Martingale Strategy Recommended?

As a way of making a long-term profit, no, and you might have just as much chance of winning by playing on the slots. If you avoid a long losing streak in any given roulette session, you will make a profit. But it takes just one losing streak to make a big loss, which might easily wipe out many short-term wins.

On the other hand, the Martingale is quite entertaining, and following a predetermined strategy is likely to stop you from making random bets that might not be in your best interests.

Other roulette betting systems include the James Bond strategy, which spreads your bet over three segments. Again, while you might feel like something from a James Bond film, it won’t make you a millionaire.

Happily, many online casinos offer you the option of play money roulette, so you can try out the Martingale Strategy at no risk to see how it works. Once you get comfortable with it, you might feel like trying with your own cash. Fine, as long as you appreciate it is not a guarantee for success.