Roulette Systems and Strategies to Beat the Casino

Ever since the game of roulette was introduced, players have been trying to develop working systems or strategies that would guarantee success. And roulette isn’t an exception here. Basically, there isn’t a casino game for which players haven’t tried to develop a system that would guarantee the player’s success. Here is an article, if you are interested in blackjack strategies. The strategies for winning at casino games are usually based on modification of the amount of the consecutive bets and the goal is to have at least a small gain at the end of the final round.

There are many different strategies and variations of existing ones have been developed. Using a system or a strategy in roulette isn’t strictly forbidden, although the rules of the game are set in a way that will guarantee that nobody can trick the house. In other words, there are no functioning strategies or systems. The most popular systems or strategies are the Martingale strategy, the Paroli strategy, Labouchere system and D’Alembert system.

Caution! There Are no Functioning Roulette Systems or Strategies

There’s one thing that should be stated clearly and all roulette players and potential players should be aware of it at all times. There’s no successful roulette strategy or system. Simply put, there’s no way that you can be sure that you are going to win. If there was such a strategy, everyone would’ve been implementing it in their game and all casinos would’ve gone broke. Clearly this is not the case. Strategies and systems haven’t worked and they are not going to work. At least, not consistently.

In fact it should be clearly stated that no such strategy could ever be developed, for roulette or any other game of chance. This doesn’t mean that all bets are the same or that you should or shouldn’t follow certain tips and advice when you’re playing, because one can make either intelligent or less intelligent wagers. It’s a good idea to bet intelligently, of course, although this is a game and entertainment should be our leading principle. In this article, we’ll go through some of the most (in)famous roulette strategies that have been developed. They have been applied in real roulette games with greatly varied success.

Overview of the Most Famous Roulette Strategies

The Martingale System

The Martingale system or strategy is one the oldest betting strategies, and it can be applied on any game that has a bet with winning odds that are 50% or close to 50%. The point is to start with a certain, usually small, amount of money and double your bet after every loss. If you do win, you go back to the initial betting sum. The logic behind the Martingale seems clear. No matter how many times you lose, when you eventually win, you’ll get all your money back, plus a little extra.

However, the Martingale system has one obvious flaw. Firstly, most casinos have a bet limit. So, if the minimum bet is £1 and the maximum is £100, by the time your bet reaches £64, you won’t be able to double your bet after a possible loss.

It may seem that you’ll never lose 7 times in a row, but it can happen. Also, even if there isn’t a limit or the limit is rather high, you may simply run out of money and not be able to cover your next bet.

The Martingale strategy is a clear instance of the gambler’s fallacy. There are some variations of this strategy for winning, but the basic structure is the same. You can read about other systems, some of which are based on the Martingale in the paragraphs that follow.

The Paroli System

This strategy is supposedly older than the Martingale and it was designed to be used in games where the winning odds are again close to 50%. The main point of the Paroli is to double the bet amount after a win, rather than a loss and that’s why it is often called anti-Martingale. In Paroli the point is to get to 3 wins in a row. So, say that you bet £2 at first. If you do win, then you bet £4 and if you win again, you wager £8. After your third win you start all over again. And after every loss you go back to your initial wager. First of all, there’s no such thing as a winning streak. This is another instance of gambler’s fallacy.

The logic behind the Paroli strategy is that even though you will lose more often than you’ll win, each win is 7 times greater than the initial bet. Imagine a situation where you have 2 consecutive wins 10 times in a row. You’d have 20 wins and 10 losses. However, you’d have actually lost 20 units. Even if it happens so that you have a positive balance after a certain number of rounds, that’s not due to the Paroli, it’s due to the fact that your bet turned out more times than not.

The Labouchere System

This is another gaming strategy used in roulette. It is often called split Martingale. The first step in applying the Labouchere system is to pick the amount of money that you’d like to win. Then you can divide the sum in units and then divide the total amount of units in a groups of units. Then you write the combination on a piece of paper.

When you start betting you combine the first and the last sum from the list. If you win, you cross them over and go with the next first and last sum. If you lose, you write the total sum at the end of the list.

This may sound a bit confusing, so here’s a practical example. Say that you want to win £200. And then you divide them into 20 units, which means each unit is consisted of £10. You write down a list, say: 3-3-3-2-3-3-3. In the first round you bet 6 units, or £60. If you win, you cross the first and the last number and if you lose, you add 6 to the end of the list. So next time you bet 9 (resulting from the first unit of 3 and the final unit of 6) and so on.

The system is considered to conserve capital, but again you have to admit that even in the long run no certain gains can be achieved with it. It’s possible that you have a very good outcome after 10 to 20 rounds, but the longer you play, the more secure it is that you will have some loss at the end of the game.

The D’Alembert System

This strategy was also designed to be used with 50:50 bets, like red/black or odd/even. Here you can also divide all your playing money in units and you always start with one unit. There’s no ending point in the D’Alembert system, instead you should stop playing when you feel you’ve won enough money, or maybe set the amount you’d like to win.

The system is simple, you start betting with one unit and add another one in case you lose. Say you start with £1. Then, after a loss you should bet £2. If you lose again, you should bet £3. Then if you win, you should decrease your wager by one unit and bet £2 in the next round and if you win again, you should bet £1. Basically, you add a unit after a loss and you take one out after a win. The logic is similar to the one in the Martingale, but the dynamic is different.

You won’t win and lose as quickly as with the Martingale system. This strategy may be less dangerous than the Martingale, but it can’t guarantee that your balance would be positive in the end. The house edge favours the house (just as its name suggests), so in the long run you will end up losing. It’s as simple as that.

In case you want to go off immediately and try your luck in a real roulette game online, you could try William Hill Casino, which is a reputable operator, offering plenty of bonuses that can be used to get familiar with various games, including roulette. Remember, the first and foremost while playing should be fun!