Don't Bother with Roulette Systems
December 16th, 2011
Roulette Systems are easily found online, they're all over the internet promising great wealth. There is no doubt though that the most successful casino system is actually owning one. The reason casinos are successful is mostly down to the advantage they have which is known as the house edge.
The casino have their own advantages built in, they don't need any system - players will eventually lose. Lets try and illustrate what the house edge exactly is by way of illustration. Let's imagine you wanted to cover every number on a European wheel, it would cost you 37 chips - one for each number plux the zero. When the spin was completed you would of course have selected the winning number, but would receive 36 chips in winnings. The advantages are pretty much identical in a physical casino or if you prefer online roulette.
It's an easy way to see the house advantage and what it actually is. When using a European roulette wheel, the probability is equal to the percentage of a single number coming up. The probability of any number being spun is 100% divided by the amount of numbers on the wheel which works out as 100/37 or 2.7%.
So that's it, 2.7 percent advantage, doesn't sound much but the mighty casinos of the world where built on this small advantage. On American roulette wheels which have two zeros the advantage is doubled but I hope nobody plays on these! Of course in reality the advantage is probably more than that, reckless gambling, ridiculous betting patterns and unfortunately gambling addiction all skew the advantage further towards the house. Those extra advantages are of course a little bit more random and are not guaranteed.
It is little facts like these which explain why so many roulette players study the numbers so very intently. Logically on a completely random roulette wheel this is a pointless exercise but if there is any slight bias in a wheel it can be extremely profitable. Imagine this, for whatever reason you discover over a specific period of time due to some unknown bias in a wheel or croupier, you can eliminate two numbers on the wheel being spun.
This would instantly give the player a huge advantage, effectively the same as the house would normally enjoy. A hugely profitable advantage that could be easily monetized with a modicum of luck and a sensible betting strategy. There are loads of these tales in the casino circuits but who knows how many are true. In reality whether these biases exist or not they are certainly difficult to spot. One thing for sure it's much more likely to bring a profit than wasting your money on The Martingale System for instance.
The casino have their own advantages built in, they don't need any system - players will eventually lose. Lets try and illustrate what the house edge exactly is by way of illustration. Let's imagine you wanted to cover every number on a European wheel, it would cost you 37 chips - one for each number plux the zero. When the spin was completed you would of course have selected the winning number, but would receive 36 chips in winnings. The advantages are pretty much identical in a physical casino or if you prefer online roulette.
It's an easy way to see the house advantage and what it actually is. When using a European roulette wheel, the probability is equal to the percentage of a single number coming up. The probability of any number being spun is 100% divided by the amount of numbers on the wheel which works out as 100/37 or 2.7%.
So that's it, 2.7 percent advantage, doesn't sound much but the mighty casinos of the world where built on this small advantage. On American roulette wheels which have two zeros the advantage is doubled but I hope nobody plays on these! Of course in reality the advantage is probably more than that, reckless gambling, ridiculous betting patterns and unfortunately gambling addiction all skew the advantage further towards the house. Those extra advantages are of course a little bit more random and are not guaranteed.
It is little facts like these which explain why so many roulette players study the numbers so very intently. Logically on a completely random roulette wheel this is a pointless exercise but if there is any slight bias in a wheel it can be extremely profitable. Imagine this, for whatever reason you discover over a specific period of time due to some unknown bias in a wheel or croupier, you can eliminate two numbers on the wheel being spun.
This would instantly give the player a huge advantage, effectively the same as the house would normally enjoy. A hugely profitable advantage that could be easily monetized with a modicum of luck and a sensible betting strategy. There are loads of these tales in the casino circuits but who knows how many are true. In reality whether these biases exist or not they are certainly difficult to spot. One thing for sure it's much more likely to bring a profit than wasting your money on The Martingale System for instance.