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How to Win at Roulette

Online Roulette Guide

We look at some of the strategies you can use on the roulette table.
Which one is best? That depends….

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how to win at roulette

Everyone wants to know how to win in roulette. It’s the six-million-dollar question, as far as casino players are concerned, right?

But if you think about it, if we had a 100% fool-proof winning roulette strategy, would we be sharing it with you here?

Or would we be flying around the world cleaning out the world’s casinos? I think the latter!

We didn’t build this site to tell you some far-fetched story about cracking the roulette code (there are plenty of other sites that do that). We’d rather just give you the facts.

There are scientific papers on the subject (like roulette and chaos theory for instance which claims to have achieved an 18% advantage over the house), but nine times out of ten you’ll need some pretty hefty technology and deep pockets to test these theories out.

Our best advice for you is to stick to single zero wheels (the odds are better), quit while you are ahead and minimise any losses. If you can find a casino that offers the La Partage Rule where you get half of your bet back on even money wagers when the ball lands in zero, play there.

All players go through runs of good luck and bad luck. That’s life.

The best roulette strategy is to extend your running streaks and minimise your losing ones like a day trader on the stock market, or a forex trader.

It sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, in practice, it is very difficult and it’s all about discipline. It’s human nature to continue to bet once you have hit your profit target (“I’m on a Roll!), and to chase your losses if you are having a bad day at the races (“My luck is bound to change soon!”)

The Best Roulette Strategy – Set Limits

The important thing is to set yourself strict stop loss limits (stop if you hit a certain level of loss) and, on the other side of the coin, set yourself a profit target. Ideally, your stop loss is a smaller number than your profit target (if they are the same magnitude, you’ll need to win more sessions than you lose).

Some strategies like the Makarov System have the stop loss bedded in already. That doesn´t make them any more likely to win, but it forces you to be methodical when setting your limits, which is never a bad thing.

Then, break your play up into smaller sessions. Remember, you can’t get rid of the house edge in roulette. The longer you are at the table, the more chance the casino has of clawing money off you, winnings and all. (Unless you have found a biased roulette wheel, and you have some amazing method of identifying hot sectors on the wheel).

The Gambler’s Fallacy

Despite numerous warnings and even when presented with mathematics and statistics, players can still become convinced that a betting system like the Quadrant Strategy will give them an edge over the casino. Especially when it comes to playing roulette, one of the oldest and most popular casino games around.

That’s the Gambler’s Fallacy of course- the belief that past results somehow influence future events.

We take a look at just some of the most widely used roulette strategies used by players around the world on Roulette17.com. There is a mountain of systems out there used by professionals and amateurs alike. They are all convinced that their strategy is the key to “how to win in roulette”.

Each one will have its benefits (systems are good at making you play more methodically and they force you to set a stop loss and take profit target in most cases), but remember that no roulette strategy is a sure-fire bet.

No matter how appealing they look and how convincing they seem, not one of them will give you any statistical edge over the house. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

Play roulette for free on this site and test these systems out for yourself, if you don’t believe us.

first person lightning roulette
First Person Lightning Roulette from Evolution

The Martingale

The Martingale Strategy is one of the most famous systems and has been around as long as the game itself. This is a progressive betting system in which you double your bet each time you lose. That sounds crazy, right? Well, the idea is that by doubling up following a loss you will land a win and recover your losses.

The system requires you to have a big enough budget to cover your losses and over time it can be dangerous if you hit a long run of losses. You may also hit the table limit before you can recoup your losses. You may end up betting a large amount of money for a small profit. It is risky.

Variations

There are a few Martingale variations including the Reverse or Anti-Martingale, in which you increase your bet following a win and decrease it following a loss.

The Grand Martingale is exactly how it sounds; it’s like the standard Martingale but you place a slightly larger wager than normal each time you lose (double your bet plus one). The Triple Martingale is even more aggressive, careful with this one! You triple your bet after a loss. This is only suitable for short progressions.

A more complicated strategy that you may want to take a look at is the Labouchère system (AKA the Cancellation). This isn’t as straightforward as our previous examples. It is normally played with even-money bets and involves some practice and a pad and pencil to hand to make notes.

Is there such a thing as the best roulette strategy in the world? They’ve all got weaknesses and strong points- your best bet is to test them out.

The Hit and Run Roulette Technique

If you prefer to keep things simple, you might just want to mix your bets up a bit, say with dozens, columns and the Snake Bet. This will involve you laying out a bet on twelve different straight numbers (no splitting) in a snake-like pattern along the board: the red numbers 1, 5, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 23, 27, 30, 32, and 34.

Just be aware that, like our other examples, you may score a few good wins but eventually you will soon realize that the house edge remains the same.

So go for the “Hit and Run”. Get in. Try and make a profit in a short amount of time. Get out.