Is there anyway to gain a competitive advantage in roulette?

Question

This has probably been asked a thousand times before so bear with me. I have also heard 1000 times that there is no way to beat the house, which I believe but I'd like clarification.

I had my first experience with roulette last night, and I'm not sure if all games let you do this but you can bet anything you'd like. For instance if I so choosed, I could be both black and red, odds and evens, odds and 1-12 etc. With that said, if you bet say both Red and Odds, then there are 8 red evens and 8 black odds that you will break even on if you land on. Further, there are 10 red odds that would result in a profit from the bet. That said, if there are 38 different numbers on the board, the house only has a 32% chance of taking your money doesn't it?

Answer 1

You're using flawed reasoning. It doesn't matter the percentage of taking money, but rather your total win/loss.

You're essentially making 2 bets here. Going on your numbers:
16 possibilities: break even
10 possibilities: +2
12 possibilities (other black numbers plus 2 green numbers): -2

This works out to -0.105 bets per spin. Thus, if you were making 2 bets of $100 (total $200), you would expect to lose $10.50 per spin.

To show why this is flawed, think of putting money on each number except 2 (36 of 38 possibilities). The house would take money from you less than 6% of the time, but you would lose so much from the bets that you lost that you would still expect to lose money.

Sorry, house wins ;)

Answer 2

The problem with roulette is the number 0, which is green and does not count as odd, even, red or black. In America there is also a 00, which makes things even worse the player.

So if you bet $10 or odd, even, red and black, 1-12, 13-24, 25-36 that will cost you $70. Most of the time you will get your money back, but 1 in 19 times you will hit either 0 or 00. This is when you will lose your money.

So in theory in 19 spins you will spend $1330 in bets, win back $1260. The house edge is 5.26% and nothing you can do will change that.

Answer 3

It is impossible to beat roullette long term

Every bet you make has a 5% house edge. Every single bet

To prove this, i will use your example of betting red and odd.
The house may only have a 32% chance of taking your money but you still lose long term

Ok let's say you always bet $10 on red and $10 on odd
Long term, in 38 spins, all 38 numbers get hit.
So like you said
8 red evens break even
8 black odds break even
10 red odds - profit $20 -- 20*10 = +200
12 other numbers -- lose $20 = 20*12= -240

So over 38 spins, betting $20 per spin, you lose 40 dollars
That means you bet 20*38=760 and lost 40 dollars

So you lost 40 -- risked 760 ----- 40/760 = 5.26%

Try this for any bet -- and assume 38 spins all 38 numbers come up and you will get the same answer

Answer 4

I wonder if I had a job as a janitor what kinda cleavage show would give me competitive advantage?

Answer 5

Everyone know roulette can be beaten with computers. What people don't know is that it can also be beaten with the human brain as well. But yah i'm not going to tell you how because that would be stupid.

Answer 6

Always avoid the tables with the 00 space... it doubles the house edge over the single 0 space boards

Answer 7

this is how I play roulette

Pick your number bet $5....... then bet bet that color...... bet the Odd or even....... bet the section of that number...... put a $2 bet on all the numbers in that section of the same color

so u have back up bets and u win big when your number comes up