Gambling systems explained
Martingale system
A particular favourite with Roulette players, the Martingale is the simplest of all gambling systems.
The Martingale system works as follows:
as long as you're winning, keep to a 1 unit stake.
Every time you lose, you double your stake to win back your losses and maintain the 1 unit profit. players today. NB If you'd like to test the Martingale system, we've included a FREE roulette game to try it on. Just scroll to the bottom of this page.
Sequence of bets
The sequence of wagers in a losing streak is therefore:
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 etc.
Guaranteed profit (?)
The advantage of the Martingale gambling system is that you're guaranteed to make this 1 unit profit, unless you hit a long losing streak, or run out of funds.
The main problem with it is that you are often asked to risk a lot in order to win a little eg 6 consecutive losses results in a bet of 64 units for an overall 1 profit.
Test
1. Alternating win (W,W,L,W,L,L,W,L,W,W,L,W)
2. Alternating loss (L,L,W,L,W,W,L,W,L,L,W,L)
3. Consecutive win (W,W,W,L,L,W,W,L,W,W,W,L)
4. Consecutive loss (L,L,L,W,W,L,L,W,L,L,L,W)
5. Good win (W,W,W,W,L,L,W,W,W,W,W,W)
6. Bad loss (L,L,L,L,W,W,L,L,L,L,L,L)
Overall result for all 6 tests
Result
7 units profit
4 units profit
7 units profit
4 units profit
10 units profit
61 units loss
29 units loss
Unbeatable - in theory
As any number of systems sellers and players' forum users will tell you, the Martingale can't fail. And our tests show that, as long as your sequence ends on a win, the Martingale gambling system will always return a profit.
But the casinos still allow you to use it at their tables. So what's going on?
In theory, the Martingale is unbeatable. In reality, two factors stand in your way:
Bankroll
As the last test shows, your losses mount very quickly on a losing streak of 5 or more. Lose 10 in a row and you've lost over 1000 betting units in search of 1. A problem for most gamblers, but not if you're a high-rolling millionaire. Which is where the second factor comes into play:
House Limits
Even if you were prepared to bet a million, in the hope of winning 1 unit, casinos have an upper betting limit (the House Limit) which means you can't continue gambling beyond that point.
And as you may have guessed, the House Limit for Roulette is set just at the statistical point where they can encourage players to use the Martingale, knowing that every so often they're going to catch a huge loser which more than makes up for those consistent 1 unit wins.
Martingale - a high-risk system
The Martingale system can give you small, high-risk wins in the medium term. If you're a high-risk gambler who enjoys the thrill of placing high wagers for small profits (or maybe a millionaire with cash to burn), this system will suit your style.
The key to the Martingale is in recognising when you're in an unbeatable losing streak. This is difficult because with this system you're always betting that the streak will end.
If you use the Martingale system, bear in mind our overall strategy and decide for yourself when to cut your losses instead of chasing that 1 unit profit.
Test the Martingale system for FREE
Why not test the Martingale system out RISK FREE on roulette?
The game opposite is a great Flash (NO download) version of European Roulette from Bodog, which you can play for FREE, without registering or depositing.
You'll get 1000 play money credits and as long as you want to play the game. That should give you enough time to give the Martingale (or any other of our Roulette systems) a thorough test.
Once you've had enough fun in the FREE casino, why not Play for REAL money at Bodog.
