The Martingale System: What Is It and How Does It Work?

When it comes to playing a game of roulette, most people view it as a game of randomness and luck where they cannot do anything to ensure victory. And that is true. There is never certainty in gambling. However, while you cannot ensure your victory, you can slightly increase your odds, which should work to your advantage in the long term. Nothing can help you make winnings in every single round, but there is a way to tip the scales in your favor, however slightly, and that is done through strategies.

When it comes to roulette, there is one strategy that is quite popular among gamblers, known as the Martingale strategy, or the Martingale system, and today — we wanted to explore it and show you exactly how it works.

What is the Martingale strategy?

The first thing to note about this strategy is that it is one of the most widely used systems in roulette. It is based on a fairly simple concept, and all you need to do is increase your bet after every loss. Since you are bound to get a few wins as well somewhere along the road, the idea is that this win will bring back all the money that you lost and possibly even give you a small profit on top of that. At that point, you revert back to the amount you used when you first started and repeat the process.

That way, if you have a winning streak, you end up winning small amounts of money, and if you end up losing, you keep increasing the amount each time until you eventually nullify your losses. Basically, the idea is to bet big to win small.

How to use the Martingale system?

So, how do you actually use this system when playing roulette? According to experts, the most effective way to use the strategy is to focus on even-money outside bets. The thing about wagers such as red, black, even, odd, or 1-18/19-36 is that their odds are 1:1. As such, they are the safest bets that you can make when playing roulette. Of course, there is still one involved, as there is no way to gamble without risk.

With that said, it is quite possible that you will try to apply the Martingale and then see a losing streak. As your continue to double your bet with each new loss, there is a chance that the losses will continue, and so will doubling each consecutive bet, until you completely deplete your bankroll. If this happens, and you don’t get the win before losing all of your money, you will be left with a permanent loss. Even if you do manage to win, there is a high likelihood that you will bet major amounts and only win very small amount in return.

The reason for this is that the mentioned bets have the maximum odds of winning, but they come with the lowest payout. Meanwhile, the riskiest bets are the ones that pay the most.

When it comes to even-money bets, the bet progression from your point of view will look like this: 1 – 2 – 4 – 8 – 16 – 32 – 64 – 128 – 256 – 512 – 1024, and so on.

How to handle betting?

When you first approach the roulette table, you might feel confident and lucky, sure that your first bet will bring back a major payout. Doing so, however, is not advised. Instead, quite the opposite — you should always start with a small amount, even the table minimum, ideally. From there on, you stick to that same bet until you lose.

Once you experience losses for the first time, you double the size of your bet. So, if you first bet $2 and you lost — bet $4 for the next spin. That way, if you win, you will get back your bet ($4) and get another $4. From this other $4, you will make up for the loss of $2 in the previous round and win $2 on top of that.

If you lose again with $4, bet $8 on your next spin to achieve the same result in case of a win. If you lose again, you bet $16 next, and so on. The logic stays the same, and sooner or later, you will experience a win that will bring back all the lost money. When that happens, you go back to betting $2, and repeat the entire process from there. In theory, you can go on like this forever, assuming that you do not hit a losing streak that will completely deplete your bankroll before you hit a win that will recover everything you lost up to that point.

Martingale vs. the house edge

As you can see, with a large enough amount in your pocket, you technically can’t lose. In theory, at least. The concept seems flawless at first glance, but stay at it for long enough, and the house will always win in the end. This is how casinos and casino games work, and the reason for this is the green 0 pocket on the wheel. This single pocket is what tips the scales toward the house, and because of it, the odds will always be against you, ever so slightly, but enough to make a difference.

Even the safest outside bets do not even bring a straight 50:50 chance, as your chance of winning is only 48.6%, to be exact. This 1.4% chance that prevents you from reaching 50:50 is the green pocket, which sits in its own category. In other words, the odds are not in your favor, and they never will be, regardless of which strategy you use or which roulette you play. The best you can do is ensure that you don’t play American roulette, which has two green pockets (0 and 00), as that decreases your odds even more.

The dangers of the Martingale system

The Martingale system is popular, but it is also very risky. As such, it is rarely used by true experts, as they do not want to risk running out of money after only a few rounds, which is more than possible if bad luck sticks.

However, there is another risk that you might not be aware of, which is particularly evident when you play roulette online, and that is the upper betting limit at the roulette table. In theory, if you had enough money, you could keep betting larger and larger amounts if you get stuck with a losing streak, until you eventually win, that is true. However, once you reach the upper limit of the bet, the table will not allow you to bet higher than that. At that moment, everything that you lost up to that point is lost to you permanently, and that is one of the biggest dangers of the Martingale system.

Meanwhile, even if you won, you will only win the very first amount that you decided to bet. So, you might find yourself in a situation where you have to bet $2048 in order to win the original $2, while everything else that you got was simply recovering the lost funds.

What are the odds of a brutal losing streak?

A lot of players approach roulette aware of their diminished odds, even when taking bets that are considered relatively safe, such as even bets. They are sure that they will win fairly often, and quickly, but if you do some simple math, you will find that the odds are against you once again.

If we focus on European roulette, which only has one green pocket, and we say that you bet on a color, the chance that you will not hit that color 10 spins in a row is only 1 to 784. However, while this seems encouraging, keep in mind that the odds will change as you progress with the game, and that increasing the bets decreases your chance of hitting the color that you need before you run out of money.

If you start betting with $1, and the odds of hitting a 10-round losing streak are 1 to 784, that means that you can win $784 before a 10-round losing streak happens. When it does happen, you will have to double your bets until you go up to $1024. Since you will (statistically) only win with your 11th spin, that means that you will risk $1023 and earn $1. In other words, no, the system does not work well in the long-term.

Is the Martingale system a good choice for winning at roulette?

The Martingale strategy is a good strategy for short-term bets, but only if you seek to secure an eventual win. It is not a great strategy for long-term betting, and it certainly won’t bring major payouts. The best you can hope to accomplish is to recover all losses and win the minimum amount that you started betting with.

It is a risky strategy that can easily lead you to depleting your bankroll before recovering your losses, leaving you with said losses and with no chance of getting your money back. Even worse, if you play online, you might even hit the table’s betting limit before you empty your bankroll, which will, again, leave you with losses and no way to recover them. Use it only for short-term bets, and know when to cut your losses and cut the game short, and remember — the odds are never in your favor with roulette, no matter what you bet and which strategy you use.