In any casino game, most players will want to know how to beat the house edge and turn the odds in their favour. So today, I’ll be showing you the most popular roulette strategies which players are using in 2024.
How To Win At Roulette
Before we get started, there’s something important you need to know up front.
Unfortunately there is no way to beat the odds and guarantee that you will win at Roulette.
It is a game of luck, not skill. Therefore there is no moves that the player can make to influence the outcome, and no staking system will improve the odds of success.
That said, there are plenty of people who do use a strategy or staking system, and today I’ll show you 5 of the most popular roulette strategies that people use.
Each one is suitable for playing online, on mobile or in any bricks and mortar casino around the world.
I just don’t want anyone going into this thinking they’re going to beat the system. Think about it – if there was a roulette strategy that could beat the house edge, no casino would let you play it. We play casino games to have fun. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.
Hopefully you can use these strategies to enjoy the game and if your luck is in, you can come away with a win.
Roulette House Edge Explained
I’ve mentioned house edge a couple of times in this post – and if you’re wondering what it is, and how it affects your gameplay, I’m going to do my best to explain it here.
The house edge is how casinos make their money. It’s the margin of probability that means the casino can expect to make a certain profit from a game over time.
Let’s look at a simple example – a slot machine. With slots, the house edge is known as the return to player (RTP) percentage. If you have a slot that has a 95% RTP, that means – on average – that for every $100 wagered by the player, they will receive back $95. The casino can expect to make a profit of $5.
In Roulette, the casino gets its mathematical edge by putting the green zero on the wheel. The more zeros a wheel has, the more the odds are in the casino’s favour.
This is why no roulette strategy can win in the long term. It’s also why you should look to play European Roulette wherever possible, because the wheel only has one zero!
Of course, the house edge comes into play the longer you play a game for. It’s quite possible to have a winning session in the short-term – but if you were to play a slot for millions of spins, the RTP should line up almost perfectly to what it’s expected to be.
It gets a bit more complicated with Roulette, as there are many different bets available. Each bet carries a slightly different house edge percentage, and this usually varies between around 2.7% and 10%.
I’d recommend not getting too caught up on the house edge – particularly if you’re a casual player looking to have some fun. It’s worth bearing in mind though, especially if you’re playing variations like American Roulette where the house edge is significantly higher.
Roulette Strategy & Systems
You may well have come across the term “betting system’ before – I know I have. Before I begin this section of our post, I want to make something very clear.
Roulette Betting Systems Do NOT Work.
In the long run, the house always wins – it’s one of the world’s most famous phrases, and for good reason. Now, with that being said, betting systems can be beneficial in a short-term environment – but they don’t come without risk. I’m going to talk about a few of the most popular Roulette betting strategies and systems below.
The Martingale
The Martingale system revolves around you placing even-money bets at the Roulette table. This includes red/black, odds/evens and 1-18/19-36.
The strategy is fairly simple – and to begin with, you place a low-ish bet. If this bet wins, then you simply repeat that bet – this continues for as long as you keep winning. If the bet loses, however, then you double up your first bet. So, if you place a $5 bet and it lost, your next bet would be $10.
If that $10 bet won, you would revert back to $5. However, if the $10 bet loses, you would again double it up – placing a $20 bet. This ensures that you’re covering your previous losses, and that – when you win – you’ll actually be in a small amount of profit.
Now, on paper, the Martingale system sounds great. After all, you’re not going to go that long without hitting a win on an even-money bet, right?
Well, theoretically, yes – however, casinos have put safeguards in place to prevent you from abusing this. All Roulette tables (whether you’re playing in a land-based casino or an online casino) have what are called betting limits – that is, the maximum you can bet per round. Following the Martingale strategy, it’s highly likely you’d hit these betting limits quite quickly – leaving you unable to continue to the system.
What’s more, if you hit a losing run your stakes can get very big, very quickly. Even if there were no betting limits in place, would you really be comfortable betting over $1000 just to chase a loss of $10, even if you did have the money to do it?
Many people swear by Martingale as a roulette strategy, but in reality these reasons mean it can’t and doesn’t work long term.
The D’Alembert System
The D’Alembert System is another well-known betting system, and it’s designed especially as a roulette strategy. (The Martingale, for example, can also be used playing Blackjack.)
The D’Alembert system is pretty easy to follow; you start out by placing a bet of a size you’re comfortable with. If your bet loses, you increase your bet size by one unit. If it wins, you decrease your bet size by one unit.
Again, as with the Martingale it may sound tempting – but again, casinos have table limits, which all but rules this system out of the equation for long-term, serious use.
Reverse D’Alembert
As the name suggests, the Reverse D’Alembert is simply a reverse of the D’Alembert I just covered. Instead of increasing your bet after a loss, you decrease it. Upon hitting a win, you increase it.
One thing I should point out about the Reverse D’Alembert is that you do need quite a large amount of cash to begin with. This is to ensure you’re able to continue using the betting system.
Labouchere System
The final betting system we’re going to look at is the Labouchere system. Like the Martingale, it relies on using even-money bets at the Roulette table, and it uses what’s known as a betting line. Let me show you an example of what one of these betting lines looks like.
1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 5, 2
Starting out, you’d simply take the number on the left-hand-side of the line (1) and the number to the right-hand-side (2) and multiply them together. This would give you the number of betting units you need to place – so, in my example, 3.
If your bet wins, you simply cross both of these numbers out – and the next spin uses the next numbers in, so, in my example, the 2 and the 5. If your bet loses, then you keep the original numbers and also add the next two numbers in – so, in my example, you’d be using 1, 2, 5, 2. You add these together, and that’s the number of units you play with.
That’s quite a brief explanation of betting systems – and while they can be a bit of fun in the short term, don’t get too hung up on them. Remember, casinos are in business for a reason – and if there truly was a way to “beat” Roulette in the long-run, casinos would have stopped offering it a long time ago.
The James Bond Strategy
Here are the bets Bond places:
- A bet of $140 on the High Numbers covering 19-36
- $50 on a Line Bet covering numbers 13-18
- Finally, a $10 straight up number bet on 0
If you’re not sure what any of these mean or how to place them, just refer back to our guide on how to play roulette – you’ll find it all explained in detail there.
This strategy makes a profit as long as the ball doesn’t land between 1 and 12. If it does, Mr Bond loses his $200. But he wins $80 if 19-36 comes up, $100 if the ball lands between 13-18 and $160 if it hits the zero.
So obviously it’s high risk / high reward but then again that pretty much sums up the life of a secret agent. If you do happen to have a few hundred dollars burning a hole in your pocket then this is one you might like to try. Hopefully your luck will be in and you’ll see a nice return.
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Last Updated on December 23, 2020