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Martingale Gambling System
How does the Martingale work?


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.
Test the Martingale system on  Bodog's FREE Roulette!
Test the Martingale system on  Bodog's FREE Roulette!
7 units profit
4 units profit

7 units profit
4 units profit

10 units profit
61 units loss
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)
Unbeatable - in theory


The tests show that, as long as your sequence ends on a win, the Martingale gambling system will always return a profit.

In theory, then, 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.


House limits

Even if you were prepared to do the above, most casinos have an upper betting limit which means you can't continue gambling beyond this point.



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, 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 for free


If you wish to test the Martingale for free on the relatively simple 50/50 roulette bets (Odd/Even, Red/Black, 1-18/19-36), rather than one of our featured games, we are pleased to provide the following link:

Test the Martingale Gambling System at Roulette - for free.
The Martingale system - tested
Sequence


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.
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To help you test the Martingale system, we've included this free-play European Roulette game from Bodog casino.

Click on the image to the left and you'll get 1000 practice credits to try it out!
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