The Martingale System in Roulette

Author: Neha Agrawal

Over many centuries, many mathematicians have tried to devise a winning formula for playing Roulette. Some of the great minds of the world have found the game a fascinating challenge. Many famous systems have been devised and are still popular, but the reality of Roulette is that while these systems may make the game more interesting to play, in many cases, they simply are too expensive to succeed.

Some of the systems, such as the Martingale Roulette system, are a progression system. That is, they require you to increase your bet with each spin until you show a profit.

With the Martingale system, you start out betting one chip. If that loses, then you bet two chips. If you win, you’ll win two chips plus get back the two you bet. But if you lose, you have to make an even bigger bet for the next Roulette spin. It has to be big enough so that if you win, your profit will cover the costs of all your previous bets. You keep making these bets for as long as it takes until you finally win and make a profit.

This sounds simple and foolproof because eventually (you assume!) you will win a Roulette bet and end up ahead with all your losses erased. But the problem is, there’s no guarantee how long it will take before it pays off and there is a real chance that you could run out of money before you actually get a win.

Another problem with the Martingale system is that most every casino, online or land-based, has limits to the size of the Roulette bets that you can make. So if you go on too long, the casino may not allow you to make as big a bet as required.

Perhaps the most foolish part of this system is that you could end up betting thousands of chips just to make the small profit on the one original bet you made. It’s hard to believe that you couldn’t find a better way to bet your money in this game.

The Martingale Roulette progression system could also be used in other casino games, at least other table games such as Blackjack or Baccarat. But you’ll encounter the same problems whatever game you use it in. The Martingale system requires virtually unlimited funds, not to mention a cooperative casino (which probably doesn’t exist) as well as a great deal of patience. And for all of your troubles, your profits aren’t that great, either. The high risks and low rewards of the Martingale system just can’t be the best way to play Roulette.