Roulette Questions - Possible Sure Fire Win?

Question

Okay - now I'm sure there probably some "kink" in this strategy and I'm sure somebody thought of this by now but here goes anyway. The normal minimum at an Atlantic City roulette wheel is $ 15. What prevents you from doing this if you had a nice fat bankroll? You take 15 bucks and put it on red. If red wins, great. If not, you bet $45 on red. This way, if you win, you just covered your $15 loss and made $ 15 profit. If red loses, than you bet $ 90. If red loses, bet 180. If you win, you just covered the past losses and made profit. I can't see a flaw in this and have tried it with good results on Hoyle Casino for about 1/2 hour.

Can someone see a flaw in this? I know that you got to have a pretty large bankroll to play with just in case you have to keep covering losses but the law of averages says that you have almost a 50/50 chance of winning (curses to 0 and 00 !! )

Thanks for any input!

This is some great info! Thanks to everyone for contributing - it's going to be hard to pick best answer.

Answer 1

The 0/00 is the problem.

Try this simpler version. Always bet red. Without 0/00, you'd expect to win 50% of the time. So, you could (if the wheel was 100% random, which some say it's not) play forever. However, with 0/00, you'll actually lose in the long run.

What you're describing is trying to cover past losses by escalating your bet. That's not nearly as safe as what I described (since you'd need a much larger bankroll), but is basically the same thing.

Over time, your approach would net you $0 (if there was no 0/00).

The approach works only if you take advantage of a red streak and then quit.

If you want to take advantage of a streak, try this variant: with each red win, double your red bet. If you lose (i.e., get a black), go back to the $15 bet.

Streaks are illusory on a perfectly calibrated wheel. There are minor imperfections even in a well-calibrated wheel that do, over the very long term, favor certain numbers. However, people have gone broke trying to work this.

Answer 2

There are actually several flaws in your logic.

First off most casinos have an upper and lower limit to a roulette table. So if you keep doubling your bet you will very soon hit the upper limit if the lower limit is $15. So if you lose three times in a row you are already at $180 on your system. Five times in a row and you are up to $720 just to win your money back with a slight profit. If the lower limit is $15, then the upper limit is probably less than $500. So if you hit a run of bad luck you are going to max out what you can bet. You are then going to have to win two big bets just to get back on track.

Then you suggested that the odds were close to 50/50. But in reality the odds are 47/47 (rounded). The over 5.26% of the time the house edge, in this case the 0 and 00 kick in and make your venture even less profitable.

So playing like this will yield two problems. One is the house edge, and the other is it only takes a run of 5 numbers that don't help you to really hurt you financially. If you were super rich, the upper table limit would get in the way, unless you play a high stakes table. But then you are having to bet a much higher lower amount, which would escalate into an outrageously bad bet if you lost three or four times in a row.

Next time you go to a casino look at the tally board. It is not uncommon for the same color to hit four or five times in a row. That's when people trying your system go bust.

Answer 3

Well, you have noted that 0 and 00 kind of throw the averages out of whack. That is why they are on the wheel. You have also noted that you need to have a lot of money to back it up. What about bet limits? Are there any? Lets say a table has a limit of a few thousand dollars. If you ever reach that limit and lose then you have lost quite a bit of money.

It is possible for a table to hit red all night long and not hit black once. Possible but not probable, yet it can still happen. A lot of people have tried strategies like this over the years. I have never known one who actually made it big. Most will make a strategy and then write a book about it and make their money that way.

Doubling the money on each round will only give you $15 profit, no matter how many times you go. Tripling your money will give you better results but will make you need a bigger bankroll. 10 rounds of that will mean you placing a bet of a little under $300,000 on the table. However, that would also mean a chance to win $147,630 if you used this strategy. Not many people have that kind of money to chance and I am not even sure if that large a bet would be allowed at the table.

Eventually though, you will hit a bad streak that would wipe you out. That is the problem with gambling. Gamble for fun, but do not plan on making a lot of money out of it.

Answer 4

The flaw is as you pointed out--your bankroll could run out, and the zeros put the odds slightly against winning. Also, playing that strategy, you have to be able to walk away a winner. If you win four bets and are up sixty, and then lose and keep covering your losses, you could end up with all your money on the table.

I can't say it is a bad strategy, as it controls your losses, but it doesn't really help your odds.

Answer 5

The problem with this is you're not really making that much money.
It's even odds. If you're doing that just to stay in the money and play that's one thing but I can't imagine it's too much fun. It would be the same as betting 1 chip on a number. It pays $35 to 1 but the average person is betting $15 - 20 a spin even if they hit quite a few times averages has them loosing in the long term. The unfortunate truth is you have to be repeatedly lucky which rarely happens or bet a lot and hit one big one and then walk away.

Answer 6

Very Flawed!
For that you need unlimited money there is no guarantee that you could hit red for example even after 20 trials. Also you forgot about 0, and 00. That means your chances of hitting each colors is less than 50%! Even if you have unlimited money you won't make much. But if you think you are lucky it is better strategy than the others! Make sure to find a european roulette table which only have one 0 and doesn't have that 00

Answer 7

Let us assume that you are tossing a coin in sequences of 5 and are calling Heads all the time, but whenever Heads shows, the sequence ends and that you are doubling your stake each time it comes Tails. Over 32 sequences you will win 31 times - 96.875% of the time, very impressive - one unit each time, but if you happen to be present when the result comes Tails 5 times in a row - as it undoubtedly will one time out of 32 on average - you will lose 31 units in that sequence i.e. 1,2,4,8,16. So when the odds are even there is no win / no loss and no banker gives even odds. I once read a book by Meyrick Good, who years ago was a racing reporter for the Sporting Life, in which he recorded being at Monte Carlo when 24 reds occurred in succession. You could not cope with anything like that for a one cent limit never mind $15.

Answer 8

Yes there is a flaw in it..You will not get back everything you will win because if it misses several times in a row, the amount you bet will not cover the amount of losses. For example: if you were to bet $15 on red and it hit black then you bet $30 and it hits black you are down $45. Then if it hits black again you are down $90. But then if you bet $90 and it hits red you are only even so you arent actually setting yourself up for a profit, only tying what you started with...so in order for you to end up witha profit, you would have to hit consecutive times....

Answer 9

as an example lets use a dollar.....1.2.4.8.16.32.64.128.256..512..if you lose 9 times in a row you have lost $511 and you are now betting $512 to win one dollar and the odds are 20 to 18 that you will lose. the casino will let you make that bet all day long, every day of the week. only one flaw you lacked the necessary information to make an informed gambling decision. now you don't. if you double 15 dollars the maximum bet is 15 thousand so come with a lot of money. it is called the martingale system....

Answer 10

First I have never seen it hit the same color 20 times in a row.. Give me a break. Yes your system would work, but need to find a table that has a good Max. Your system is often used in Black because there too the odds are almost 50/50... I used it for awhile with ten dollar bets, if I won I would just bet another ten, if I loss I would double it, if I lost again than I would double it again, until I made a few hundred..


The real problem is that once your marked by the casino and they realize what your doing they will make you stop playing, they may even let you o it for awhile but eventually they will stop you.