Five myths about roulette, or how to win at the casino

Roulette is one of the easiest gambling games in which the record of an experienced gambler can easily beat any beginner. This is its advantage and disadvantage. On the one hand, the novice player only needs a few minutes to master the basic rules. On the other hand, the simplicity of the game generates a lot of recommendations in the style of “how to win at roulette. We’ve selected the top 5 most useless myths and decided to tell you why they don’t work.

Myth 1. The basic Martingale strategy increases the probability of winning

The essence of the myth

A player bets on one field – black or red – until he wins. The numbers can be chosen arbitrarily. Rate after each loss to increase in 2 times.

• Fans of the strategy assure that the chance of winning at roulette increases up to almost 50%, and the player in case of success returns the money spent and even gets additional profit.

Why it doesn’t work

Roulette, like slot machines, is based not on linear probability, but on the probability of random events. Falling red in the previous bet does not guarantee that black will fall in the next one or every other bet. A player may need up to 150 spins to win, which makes the Martingale strategy ineffective and too costly.

Myth 2: You need to bet on cold or hot numbers

The essence of the myth.

Players conventionally divide numbers into cold and hot. 

• By cold numbers include values that never fell out during the game. 
• By hot – a number or color that fell more often than others.

Some players are betting on cold with the hope that since they have not fallen out, then soon be sure to bring the prize. Others always choose the hot ones. They believe that roulette is able to “remember” the lucky numbers, so during the next spins will fall out exactly those.

Why it doesn’t work

This myth, like the Martingale strategy, does not take into account the principle of roulette. Any combinations in the game fall out randomly and do not depend on “memory” or other factors. The so-called hot or cold numbers after betting on them may not fall out once, and the player will simply lose money.

Myth 3: You should cover half of the table with bets

The essence of the myth

A player counts the number of cells in the roulette wheel and divides the resulting number into two. It is not necessary to take into account zeros, if you get an odd number.

Then the player makes bets until 50% of the table is covered. For example, if the roulette has 38 cells, he should bet on 19 numbers. It is recommended not to jump from number to number, and move in a circular path, that is, from 1 to 19 or from 19 to 38. Color in this strategy does not play a special role.

Compliance with all the rules increases the chance of winning up to 50%. And the money resulting from a successful bet covers the costs and even leaves the player in the black.

Why It Doesn’t Work

• The 50/50 strategy doesn’t work, like all the other myths, because of the probability of random events. 
• A player can go through the whole cycle and lose money because he will never guess a number, because all combinations in roulette fall out completely randomly. 
• The strategy is profitable only when the odds are x35 and a beginner manages to guess the number during the first 15 spins.

Myth 4: Unbalanced Roulette

The essence of the myth

The progenitor of the myth was Joseph Jagger, an engineer and one of the most enterprising gamblers of the 20th century. He suggested that the mechanisms made for roulette are different from each other. If a player manages to find a part with a defect, he will be able to guess which numbers fall out during the spins more often than others. To do this, it is enough to observe the process and remember the hot numbers.

Jagger’s method, over time, gave rise to another myth – that of dealers who can influence the outcome.

• If the roulette wheel has no defects, you need to look closely at the casino worker.
• If in certain situations, the dealer repeats some actions or makes strange movements, most likely, he falsifies the results.
• The player is left to unravel the scheme and make the right bet.

Why it doesn’t work

In 21st century casinos, all roulettes are carefully calibrated, so neither fictional flaws nor human error affects the result. And in online roulette, where the role of the dealer is a button “Spin”, this myth and loses relevance by default.