Roulette System Tips

In an attempt to gain the elusive upper hand, millions of casino patrons have attempted to find a method of beating any negative expectation game, and roulette system seekers are no exception. I'm sure I won't be the first to tell you the notion of a roulette system is a myth, but maybe I can help explain why. I can be as open minded as the next guy, but any spurious logic that comes my way will be completely disregarded (that's not true, it will be squashed and then disregarded).

There are people out there selling systems who advertise themselves as having '30 years of experience', and a roulette system 'tested over 15 years', and a million other reasons to make you believe they can break the laws of probability or physics. I've never really understood this. If you have a winning system and have been using it for 15 years, why do you need to make money selling it? Don't give me any of that, "I'm a nice guy and want to share my secret bull," nobody makes an effort to build a business publishing print material because they are a nice guy; they're in it for the money. A roulette system that works on the other hand, should and could provide much easier money, so unless this roulette system sucker seeker is a lifelong friend, don't give them the time of day.

Unfortunately, it's easy to convince someone of a roulette system that works. Take this example: In roulette the odds against you are pretty standard for every bet on the board, at a somewhat nasty 5.26% house edge. This means the house will win 5.26% more of the bets on the table than they lose. Of course, if you've been paying attention at the casino you'll realize it's more than this. Say you bet on two columns on the same spin at the roulette table, the odds are you'll win 24-14. So how is it that the casinos don't go broke? This is how roulette system sellers nab their victims. Let's dispel this false logic right now.

There is another factor that has to be considered, and it's called the payoff. The house's advantage stems from the fact that a payoff for a winning bet is a bit below the odds overcome to do so. Read that sentence again, it makes sense, it's just not poetry. Basically, if you bet on two columns in roulette for 12 bucks each (24 bucks total) and win, you get paid $12. But on odds of 24 to 14 the casino should pay back 14 dollars, on an even playing field. The casino knows it can profit sufficiently even against the odds if it matches its payouts appropriately. The casino profits by taking $24 when you lose, but only paying $12 when you win.

False logic of the Martingale system

Many people become consumed by the seemingly intuitive math behind the martingale roulette system (which can also be applied to other games). The system works as follows: on even money outside bets with a near 50-50 chance, bet once. If you lose, place a bet for twice as much on the same spot. If you lose again, double the previous amounts bet. In the end, the theory is your bet has to win at some point and if you have kept doubling down on losses, the last bet will recoup everything you've lost and add an even money win on the original wager, putting you ahead, if just a little.

The logic here is riddled with problems. First of all, in roulette you can't have a pure 50-50 chance bet because of those pesky green pockets. That fact aside, the system would seem like it has some legs, from a logical point of view. What roulette system sellers don't want to you realize is, the casinos have already guarded against any Martingale users by placing table limits on the bets. Ever wonder why there is an upper table limit? Don't the casinos want you to risk large amounts of money? The Martingale system is the exact reason for a table high existing. Following the Martingale method, you keep doubling your bets on a loss, and after a short string of losses in a row your bet is extremely large. From $5, to $10, $20, $40, $80, $160, $320, $OVER the table limit. So on the last bet before you can no longer double, you are putting $320 on the table with a potential for making $5… are you crazy? And what if you lose that last bet, you're out $635 bucks, if you win you're only up $5, ouch. This is a serious flaw in applying any Martingale type system to a casino game with upper table limits.

My opinion on any roulette system is the same as my opinion on all other systems. For the most part they do not do what they purport (or say) to do. Now, I'm not saying they are useless, in fact they do usually have a use, and that's to spread your money around multiple bets, which often has the beneficial effect of stretching your money out over a longer period of time. There is no value in attempting to employ a roulette system to 'beat the casino', because if you were smart enough to, the casinos would likely put you to work for them, and that has very little to do with how casinos hire.

I have nothing against looking at some more serious attempts to bring the advantage towards the players. One of these techniques is the search for biased wheels. There is some merit to this endeavor. I'm sure a few people have made real money off of a biased wheel, but the effort involved is phenomenal. Casinos spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on a roulette wheel, and don't have any desire to replace it every year. Over a long period of time it's possible that the detailed engineering that went into the roulette wheel's construction has degraded from extensive use. Once this happens, a tilt in the wheel or any one of a million small but consistent anomalies may arise. If you had a computer to measure the exact spinning patterns of a roulette wheel, you could record results consistently and try to determine any patterns that repeat. If there are, you can alter your play to exploit this advantage. Biased wheels are not just hard to find, but even if you do, they are difficult to take advantage of. You would be required to have a mini-computer watching the wheel at least initially to find the bias, and modern casinos monitor their entire floor for any electronic device emitting a signal. Online is a different story of course, and many software applications exists that monitor online casino roulette wheels for biases. The problem is, the online casinos have this software too, and most likely test the heck out of their software before releasing it. You can find some of this type of software in our download section.

I have come across 'researchers' on the net that claim to be doing some proper scientific research on the subject of beating roulette. I don't believe they are basing their work on biased wheels, so I would be interested to know if it is illogical research or if it has a solid footing. It could be a simple roulette system, but I don't believe any simple system will be effective. The statistics are all laid out for you, and many a mathematician has looked at the game before. I will not link to their site here, as it does not contain any relevant information, and it's very difficult these days to differentiate honest folk from slick advertisers.