Martingale Betting Strategy – Success at Roulette

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 !

How to play martingale

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!

Roulette Systems – Martingale Strategy

There is one betting system that is by far the most popular in roulette and that is the martingale strategy. In fact the system is nearly as old as the game of roulette itself, it’s certainly dates back to at least the 18th century and possibly before. It’s not very complicated although it has a host of variants which can be quite difficult to follow correctly, but at it’s heart the martingale is merely a progression system.

Does the Martingale Strategy Guarantee you Win?

You will find Martingale on many web sites, click around and you’ll see ads for ‘ secret betting systems’, surefire winning gambling strategies and similar mad claims. Funnily enough many of them require no money and are offering this free system as a service to gamblers – yeah right !

First of all whatever you read, whatever I write, there is one important point to remember.

There is no mathematical system in existence that can overcome the house edge.

And that includes the martingale strategy. The problem with the martingale is that it sounds so plausible. For example you place a $1 bet on red, if it loses then you place $2, then $4, $8 and so on doubling each time you lose. Therefore when you do actually win you are guaranteed a profit albeit a small one – sounds excellent doesn’t it? As long as you keep doubling you cannot lose.

If you want to see how you can actually lose, have a look at this video I made !
Playing the Martingale Strategy

Everything about Martingale strategy shouts a sure-fire winner but alas simple things like a house limit mean that in practice it isn’t. Of course this doesn’t mean that you can’t win on roulette with Martingale, but that’s the beauty of roulette – the house edge is not that big, so you can also win by getting blind drunk and throwing stupid bets around the table whilst pretending your James Bond.

It’s not a bad strategy though as long as you realise it doesn’t guarantee anything. In fact casinos are not that keen on system players of any sort as their disciplined betting patterns means that you regularly win small amounts. That big loss, or unlucky streak that balances up the winnings using the martingale strategy can take an awful lot of time to appear.

One croupier told me that what tends to happen is that someone using this strategy will often come in for week after week, slowly accumulating small profits. But when the time comes (and it will come) that they suffer their huge loss trying to stick to the martingale system – the flaw in the strategy will be revealed and they never play again.

The problem is that consecutive events are much more common that you would realise, to see 8 reds appear is actually not that unusual if you play regularly. One croupier told me that he had actually seen 21 consecutive reds once appear, that would be impossible to cover using martingale. In fact 8 consecutive spins will wipe most people out, or breach the house limits. Here martingale=heavy loss. So play wisely there is something to be said for most of these roulette strategies but they don’t change the odds. You can actually check out some sample scenarios here where we have developed a simulator of The Martingale System

Oh and a final note, those web pages you see explaining this system often penned by a professional gambler who urges you to keep the martingale system quiet, (before posting it on a web site). You may have wondered what he seeks to achieve, well it’s very simple – he will have signed up with a selection of rubbish casinos that pay huge commissions on any players he sends them – these online casinos will then be the ‘recommended ones’ where the secret martingale system will work best!

It can be fun to play online roulette , but play sensibly and don’t get deceived by these systems.

This Post is also available in German – Roulettesysteme – Martingale-Strategie