Roulette is a game of chance. You can’t win with strategy alone and no amount of tips will help you secure a fortune. However, that hasn’t stopped players from creating strategies.
Some of these have been around for almost as long as Roulette has, while others have surfaced in the last few decades. They can all be very risky and we can’t advocate their use as a result, but if you’re going to try this game out for yourself then it may benefit you to know what strategies other players are using:
1. Martingale - By far the most common and popular Roulette betting strategy, the Martingale is also one of the easiest to adopt. This strategy is said to have been so popular that it led to limit caps being placed on Roulette tables in casinos around the world.
The basis of the Martingale system is that you double your bet after every loss and, ideally, stick to Outside bets. As an example, if you start with a bet of $1 and lose your first 5 before winning your 6th, it would look like this:
- $1 = Lose
- $2 = Lose
- $4 = Lose
- $8 = Lose
- $16 = Lose
- $32 = Win
On the surface, it looks bad as you’ve lost 5 games and won just 1. But the nature of this system means you’re actually slightly in profit. You’ve lost $31, but you’ve won $32. The nature of this system means that as long as you keep doubling your bet, then no matter how many times you lose, you will eventually win your money back.
Of course, this is a very slippery slope and you could find yourself betting and losing money, only to chase those losses with even bigger ones.
2. Paroli - The Paroli system is similar to the Martingale system, only you increase your bet after you win and not after you lose. If you win three times in a row, then you reset your bet and begin at your starting stake.
- $1 = Lose
- $1 = Lose
- $1 = Lose
- $1 = Win
- $2 = Win
- $4 = Win
- $1 = Lose
In this case, you’ve had four losses and three wins, which is fairly common for 7 spins on a Roulette table. Again, you might expect to fall short when faced with such a pattern, but you’ll actually be $3 in profit, which will cover you for another 3 losses.
The beauty of this system, when compared to the Martingale, is that you will never increase your bet by more than 4x, because it only increases when you win and it’s capped at 3 wins in a row.
3. D’Alembert - There are supporters and detractors for every Roulette betting strategy. People may think that the Martingale is risky, or that the Paroli is not risky enough. Opinion tends to be split down the middle, but when it comes to the D’Alembert, there is an almost universal dislike from seasoned gamblers.
That’s because the basis of this strategy is a fallacy. It suggests that if you’re betting on Outside bets and the board has shown a Black twice in a row, then the next outcome will be Red. This is simply not how probability works, which is why this strategy doesn’t work.
