Roulette has long been considered the ultimate game of chance. A wheel spins. A ball rolls. Your job is to guess where it will stop. How could anyone possibly get better at that?
While improving individual outcomes (i.e. the direction of a single bet) is not possible, you can improve your overall performance. How much money you win.
People get better at roulette by understanding how the rules work and developing systems that help them walk away with more money.
While no roulette strategy can be considered a guarantee—the ball ultimately falls where it will—a well-thought-out approach to the game is generally better than no method at all.
Most casino games are designed to be simple enough to play without preamble. For slots, you need only to press a button. Even for blackjack, where there are rules and strategies that can genuinely influence the outcome of a hand, you only need to know that 21 is the magic number.
Roulette takes this accessibility to a greater extreme. You need only to pick a number or color, making it accessible to pretty much anyone with a preschool education.
The betting structure is a little more complicated than that. To do well you need to at least understand the difference between inside and outside bets.
Inside bets focus on individual numbers or small number sets. You can bet on any single pocket—including green—and receive a 35-to-one payout. The downside is that your odds of success are very low. You’re looking at a 2% chance.
Outside bets utilize a wider number set. Black or red. Even or odd. High or low. Here, your chances of winning are more like 47%. It would be a clear 50% chance if it weren’t for the green pockets, which cannot be included in an outside bet.
Naturally, outside bets are much more sensible and can be incorporated into a larger betting strategy. Inside bets are fun, but ultimately too unpredictable to be extrapolated into a broader system.
The Martingale System is a mathematically certain way of recovering your losses….Eventually. That “eventually” is why casinos don’t worry too much about it.
You start by making your typical wager. For easy math, let’s call that five dollars. You lose. Next bet you double down. Ten. You lose. Next bet, you double down again. Twenty. You win! Now, you have wagered $35 and can walk away from the table with $40 in your pocket.
The problem is that when you double down on losing bets the figures can balloon pretty quickly—particularly for people who like to play for more than $5.
Are you willing to spin for $1000? If that bet fails will you spin for $2000? You need nerves of steel to come out ahead with Martingale. If you don’t see the strategy all the way through you will lose a ton of money.
To use this method you also need to make sure that there is no danger of bumping up against the table limits. If you are prevented from doubling down, the system completely falls apart.
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Paroli is a betting system that will appeal more to the risk-averse. Here, you double down on winning bets—ideally three times in a row—before reverting back to your standard wager. So $5. You win. You collect $10. You bet $10. You win! Now you bet $20. You win! You revert back to $5 with $40 of house money in your pocket.
Paroli’s big appeal is that you’re only risking money you won at the table. Obviously, the downside is that it is statistically improbable that you will hit three times in a row. In that way, the Paroli system is less certain than Martingale, but also less risky.
Neither one of these methods are strictly necessary. In fact, the vast majority of roulette players do not use them. That said, having them in your back pocket can allow you to head to the table—virtual or physical—feeling a bit more confident.
You might decide to reach for them in the right set of circumstances. Maybe you try Paroli—only risking house money—and come out ahead. Later on in the night, you hit a losing streak. With found money padding your bankroll, you decide to give Martingale a try.
Those are personal choices. The most important thing is that you understand how the game works and play within your comfort level.
