Martingale Betting System = Gambling Disaster

Many of us have heard of some 'surefire' strategies to win against the house in casinos. One of these is the Martingale betting system, in which one doubles one's bet after each loss. And for many, this system has spelled gambling disaster.

Let us take a closer look as to how this system works (or how it doesn't work, for that matter). The system requires one to double the bet after a loss, and after another loss one doubles the bet again. For even money bets, one would be sure to regain the amount of the original bet. That is, given if you have infinite resources.

A common example is if one bets on the red and black spot on the roulette. If for example you had an initial bet of $5 on black, and you lose. Under the martingale system, you need to put $10 on black. If you lose again you put $20. If you lose you bet $40, and so on. Eventually you will win, since there is a 50-50 chance that you will.

But how much do you actually win? If for example, you win in the $40 bet and double your money, you would have actually won only $5, and not double the $40! By doubling your bet each time you have lost, you have already put in $75. Thus by winning $40 in the $40 bet, you have gained only a profit of $5. A pretty meager amount compared to what you could get when you properly invest that $75 in some other way.

If for example, we continue to lose, it would only take 9 runs for the system to require us to bet $1280, and in the case that we do win, we only profit a mere $5!

Of course, the simplicity of this system would be enough to fool most beginning casino players. And it is, as it promised, a 'surefire' way to win against the casino. But again, one needs to confront reality here: the profit that one could possibly make using the martingale system is just too small if compared with all the risks involved in using it. And of course, nobody has infinite resources.

Another thing that players who intend to use the martingale system need to know: casinos always put a bet limit on each game. For 5-dollar games, most likely the bet limit is $500. This means that the martingale system would possibly fail before you get that meager reward.

There is only one 'surefire' way of winning against the casino: handling your money well. By properly investing your cash in the right games, you would be sure to have higher chances of winning. And also, learn to walk away while you are still on a roll. A disciplined approach to gambling beats the martingale system any day.