Do Gambling Systems Work?

Firstly, no matter what strategy you use at the casino, the casino has an advantage. Luckily, gambling systems are specific to games with the lowest house edges. Blackjack with basic strategy is a great choice (use a strategy chart), as is the black or red/odd or even outside bets of the Roulette table. Still, these choices have around a 1% house edge, meaning you could expect to walk away with $99 for every $100 you bet (mathematically speaking). That’s why they’re ideal for betting systems.

But the player having a slight disadvantage is what makes gambling systems so risky. It’s very easy to lose a large portion of your bankroll or hit the table maximum ceiling because it doesn’t take too many losses in a row for it all to come crashing down.

For example, the most common gambling system is the Martingale. Every time you lose, you double your bet so that when you win, you regain all your previous losses. The Reverse Martingale is the same, except your double your bet when you win so that you’re only playing with won money. However, at many Blackjack and Roulette tables, the table maximum is $2,000. Even if you start out betting $1 using the Martingale System, you would only need to lose eleven times in a row to reach the table maximum. While eleven times in a row is pretty unlikely, it’s certainly not impossible, just ask someone who’s lost ten times in a row and the next hand is about to make or break the whole progression. That’s a nerve-racking moment. And the same goes for the Reverse Martingale, where you could have all those beautiful winnings and lose it all with a bad hand.

With that being said, there are more conservative progressive betting gambling systems that don’t build and build that quickly. Check out our complete list to see which fits your style better. The Martingale is definitely hard and fast, but when you look at the options that have you increasing your bet by single units rather than doubling or ones where you stop after a specific number of wins, you won’t risk losing all that money all at once.

I think the best conclusion to the question, “Do gambling systems work?” is: sometimes. If you’re having a good streak, you’ll win better with a progressive betting system than you would with a fixed betting system (betting the same amount every hand or roll.) But if you’re on a losing streak, you’ll lose a lot more with a gambling system than you would with fixed betting, and it’s easier to stop with the fixed betting since the point of many progressive systems is to recuperate losses.

The only way gambling, in general, is successful is if you stop when you reach your time limit, hit your win goal, or bet your budget. It’s about relaxing and having fun, not getting rich. Progressive betting systems promise something that they often can’t deliver.