Home
Roulette Strategy & Tips – That (Actually) Work
Roulette Strategy Explained
You won’t find a casino game with more betting systems than Roulette. Although using them does not guarantee success, it does not mean that having a Roulette strategy cannot have a positive effect on your betting. Below I give you two systems from our list of 45+ Betting Systems that are quite successful and low risk. I have played them both at various casinos with some decent results.
Roulette is a game of many options to bet, some of the equal chance bets such as odd and even (these are known as even bets even though it is less than that when the number zero is taken into account), and others with 35 to 1 payouts (betting on individual numbers).
Therefore, plenty of people have come up with a system which they believe will be a foolproof way to win money.
If any person came up with one of these, it could potentially take down a casino as they will be losing all the time over the long run. There is no such thing as a Sure win Roulette strategy or a sure winning system for any other casino game for that matter.
There are plenty of sites that promise you loads of fame and fortune if you pay them for their magical, guaranteed formula. If they really had one, though, why would they want to sell it to make money as opposed to using it themselves to win at online or land-based casinos around the world?
It follows that the first point to make is never pay anything to anyone who professes to have a guaranteed winning system or Roulette strategy as you will lose your money.
We have heard so many times over the years that if a number hasn’t come up for a while, it must be ‘due’ to come in. This is nonsense as any number has the same chance of coming in each spin irrespective of whether it came in the last spin, 10 spins ago or 100 spins ago.
This has become known as ‘the Gamblers Fallacy’. This seems to be the basis for the vast majority of betting systems and as such, means the system is flawed from the start. An example would be if 3 even numbers come in a row, it is, therefore, more likely that the next number will be odd.
This is simply not the case as in a casino website a Random Number Generator (RNG) is used to determine the outcome of a given hand and it doesn’t ever take into account previous results; in the same way, a land-based casino uses a wheel in which the speed of the spin and speed of the roll are not constant and so again, the outcome of the next spin is in no way related to the past spins.
That being said, I have provided below two popular betting systems that I’ve been very successful with when playing Roulette.
The Martingale System
This system gets you to gamble on even money bets such as odd/even, high/low, black/red etc.
Every time you lose a bet you need to double your bet every time you lose.
The thinking behind this is simple enough. If you start with €1 and lose 4 bets in a row, you will lose €1 the first bet, double this to €2, double this to €4 and then double this to €8. Therefore you are €15 down. The next bet would be for €16 and if this wins, it returns €32, so a total profit over the 5 hands of €1.
There is an obvious flaw to this system, however, in that if you were to lose the 5th bet, you are suddenly €31, the next bet is €32 which would result in a loss of €63. Although the chances of losing 6 even bets in a row are slim, there is a possibility and if you find yourself at the end of your bankroll, you can face a substantial loss.
To overcome this problem I recommend that you place a cap on the 3rd bet in the round. Therefore, if you start with a $10 bet and loose, the next bet doubles to $20, and the 3rd bet doubles to $40. This will limit your losses and you will find that more often than not you will be able to complete a series of rounds without loosing 3 spins in a row. I usually set a goal for winnings that represents a series, so for example, if betting $10 per round I would set the goal at $150 or $200 to complete the series. I then take a break before playing again or finishing for the day. If in a series you do hit 3 losses in a row this is not the end and you can still recover, but this adds more risk and time to that session of play.
You can read a more in-depth article on The Martingale Betting System here.
The 1-3-2-6 Staking Plan
This is actually a reasonable way to bet a small amount and sensibly enjoy yourself without risking too much.
The name is basically a 4 stage betting system with the number shown the number of units for each bet.
Again, it concentrates on even money betting as opposed to the larger odds.
Starting with a bet of 1 unit, we will use €1 as an example. The thinking behind it is that as the chances of guessing correctly are near enough 50/50 – slightly less due to the Zero, as long as you are playing European or French Roulette, which have only one Zero – it is possible that you could win 4 times in a row every so often which will result in the winnings from that 4 bet cycle overcoming any losses.
The first bet, the 1, would be for $1.
If any bet loses, the next bet would be for 1 unit again as the cycle needs to be restarted. If the bet wins, you then have $2 on the table and you need to add a further €1 to ensure the second bet is for 3 units. The good thing about this System is that this is the only time during the cycle you need to add more funds, the rest are taken from winnings.
If the 2nd bet loses, you end up down $2, the maximum loss for any stage. If the 2nd bet wins, you have €6 on the table.
You would now remove $4 and leave the remaining €2 for the 3rd bet of the cycle. If this bet was to lose, you would end the cycle up $2 as you risked $1 on stage 1, $1 on stage 2 and pocketed $4 after the end of stage 2. Should stage 3 win, you have $4 on the table and would now add a further $2 from your winnings to make $6.
The 4th and final stage would result in you breaking even for that stage, whereas a win would give you the maximum return of a $12 profit over the 4 bets.
As mentioned, this is only a unit, so if you wanted to risk more, you can start with $2 instead of $1 and double each level, if you wanted to reduce and the table allows it, you can start with a $0.50 bet and half the other levels.
To summarise, using the 1-3-2-6 Staking Plan playing $1 per unit, you would:
Lose $1 if you lost on Bet 1.
Lose $2 if you lost on Bet 2.
Win $2 if you lost on Bet 3.
Break Even if you lost on Bet 4.
Win $12 if you win on Bet 4.
Potentially, you could actually lose 6 cycles in a row on Bet 2, resulting in the maximum loss each time of $2, but just one win of the 4 consecutive bets would see you break even.
You can read here a more in-depth article on The 1-3-2-6 Staking Plan.
Roulette Tips
Roulette is a hard game to win on because it has some of the worst odds of all casino games but there are some things you can do to reduce the house edge. Use the following roulette tips as a supplement to a good roulette strategy.
- Always choose the European or French Roulette wheels over the American Wheel as this wheel will give you a 2.63% edge over the house.
- Find a table with limits you’re comfortable with. Each roulette table should have its minimum and maximum bets clearly posted.
- If you have noticed that one number is being spun more often than the others out of around 100 spins then you may have what is called a biased wheel. This is one of the only true advantages a player has against the casino. This is for playing at live casinos
- Never play the five number bet, 0-00-1-2-3. This bet has the worst odds on the roulette table.
- Depending on the casino, column bets are often the best roulette bet for the online games. Choose a column and hang in there with it.
- Because of the luck/chance nature of roulette, players should always bear in mind that with games such as these the number one priority should be to have fun, whilst making a profit.
- You can place as many bets as you like on a single spin of the wheel up to the table maximum.
- Some casinos use a rule called en prison. When a zero or double zero hits, the player loses half the bet or can let the bet remain in play, with the results to be determined on the next spin. This rule only applies to even money bets.
- With the 38-number American wheel, the house has a big 5.26 percent edge. (Whenever 0 or 00 are hit, all bets lose.)
- With the 37-number European wheel, the house advantage is 2.7 percent. In other words, on every $100 bet the house makes $2.70. With the en prison rule, this edge drops to just 1.35 percent.
- If you use a betting system, such as the Fast Double Bet or the Flat Bed Counting, try to win more money in fewer spins.
- Roulette Tip: A Roulette wheel has no memory so every single spin is independent of spins that occurred in the past. Knowing this makes betting systems let effective instantly.
- Roulette Tip: Do not think you can beat the house edge at Roulette, it’s simply too big. If you win in the short term, cash out because if you keep playing the house edge will more then likely defeat you.
- Roulette Tip: Increase your bets when you’re winning and not when your losing.
Read on to Part III the final part of this series “Roulette Payouts & Odds” below
Part I – How to Play Roulette
Part II – Roulette Strategy & Tips
Part III – Roulette Payouts & Odds
