Betting systems

The internet is quite literally crammed full of unscrupulous people attempting to sell you inside secrets on how to beat the casino out of hundreds of thousands of pounds through the use of their secret systems. Here is a free word of advice, do not even consider buying them, they do not work!

Think about this logically for a moment, if you had discovered a system that would allow you to use your favourite casino game as a cash register, would you keep it to yourself and a few select friends or sell it on the internet for £20 at a time and risk the casinos being able to close any loophole?

The main reason every single betting system fails eventually is that the house has a mathematical advantage over the player. Regardless of how small the edge is, it just being there means that in the long run it is impossible for the player to beat the casino, though in the short term luck is a major factor and one of the reasons gambling at the casino is so popular.

A common betting system people employ is the Martingale system, which originated in France in the 18th Century. The system was designed to try and beat a simple game that involved tossing a coin and if it landed on heads the player won his stake but if it landed on tails he lost. By doubling their stake each time they lost, the player was guaranteed to wipe out all of their losses, and even win the stake amount, when the coin finally landed on heads. It is quite easy to see why the system gained in popularity extremely quickly, but even in this 50/50 scenario the system is flawed as it assumes the player has infinite wealth and that there are no limits on the betting amounts, which of course there always will be.

Martingale betting is popular when playing roulette, especially when the players are betting on red or black, the closest to 50/50 they can get to, though it is actually 52.6316% in favour of the house! Betting at £5 per spin and doubling the bet each time you lost would mean you could potentially lose £320 if you lost six spins in a row, which would be very close to the table limits if not actually exceeding them. But I hear you saying that losing six spins in a row is highly unlikely and whilst you are correct to some degree, losing six consecutive spins is actually quite common if you play enough.

The chance of losing a single spin is the 52.6316% already mentioned so losing six consecutive spins is 2.1256%. Spin the roulette wheel 73 times and you will have a 50.3% chance of losing six consecutive spins, a massive difference. Increase the number of spins to 150 and your chances increase to 77.2% whilst a session of 250 spins will see you have six consecutive losing spins a staggering 91.1% of the time!

Betting systems simply do not work, all they do is create an illusion that they do but in fact most of them actually increase your exposure to variance. Do not get all wrapped up in trying to beat the casino, enjoy your gambling and if you win great, if not you can always try again tomorrow, as long as you have not gone broke from following some weird and wonderful betting system!