Many betting systems and strategies often get a very bad name because of the way they are promoted. Take for instance the Martingale Betting Strategy, the problem with Martingale is that it often portrayed as a guarantee of riches, a ‘no lose’ betting system. Unfortunately this is simply not the case, and as with every other roulette system ever invented – there is no guarantee. Here’s how I got on testing the martingale betting strategy in an online casino, I was missing one vital component to making this system work – luck !
As you can see if you watch the video, you can easily lose lots using martingale. However if your luck is better than mine it can just as easily win you lots as well.
In fact that’s simply the important factor all these system require – luck, if you could guarantee that somehow you’d be on to a winner. One of the most famous cases of winning with the martingale system is by a gentlemen called Charles Wells in 1891.
Now Charles Wells was rather a colorful character , a bit of a rogue, a gambler and to be honest a confidence trickster. In 1891 he managed to persuade lots of people to invest in a non-existent invention of his called the musical skipping rope. After fleecing his investors he dashed off to Monte Carlo with his ill gotten £4000 in his back pocket.
Monte Carlo - Martingale
Charles Wells started an 11 hour gambling session in the main Monte Carlo casino using the high risk martingale strategy and won over a million French Francs. At one point during his session he actually won 23 times out of 30 spins of the wheel.
But it didn’t finish there, in November of that year he returned to Monte Carlo for another huge gambling session and again won over a million Francs. At one point he bet on the number 5 – 5 time in a row and won each time – work the odds out of that happening. Again for most of his gambling he based his system on the Martingale betting strategy.
Charles Wells is usually credited with being the inspiration behind the song, “The man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo” although nobody is quite certain. Breaking the bank is not actually as hard as it sounds though as it refers to winning all the chips on a single roulette table – not clearing out the entire casino (something that nobody has ever done).
There were many people who were convinced Charles Wells had some great system or strategy, he himself true to form pretended his wins where down to his engineering expertise. The truth is that he had played mostly using the high risk Martingale betting strategy and had actually just been spectacularly lucky !
That is the truth behind most of these roulette systems and strategies, if you have that vital ingredient luck then you will win with Martingale or whichever betting system you use, but you’d also win by throwing chips blindly on to the table as well with that sort of luck. The problem with the systems is that people think if they just keep on using them they are guaranteed to win in the end which is especially dangerous with something like Martingale.
Unfortunately it didn’t end up that well for Mr Wells, as his long line of fraud and confidence tricks finally caught up with him – he ended up serving prison sentences in both the UK and France. He died penniless in Paris in 1926 at the age of 85. Over 120 years later you’ll still see people excitedly ‘discovering martingale’ and setting off to make their fortune in a casino with their new secret system!
Great to hear a real life story about the martingale system. Thanks for the post, a good read.