Dice is probably the oldest form of gambling. Dice could be made from animal bones decorated with symbols and, yes, that's why we call dice "bones" to this day, even though today's dice are made from Cellulose Acetate.
Roulette was a favorite game of the British and French nobles until about 100 years ago when they woke up - those who still had beds to wake up in - and said, "We keep playing this game for large stakes, we'll go broke!" Sadly, many a nobleman became a peasant because of roulette as all of them tried to come up with ways to beat this seemingly unbeatable game.
As most casino gamblers know, there are two types of roulette wheels in today's casinos: the American Wheel which has red and black pockets numbered 1 through 36 and two other green pockets numbered 0 and 00. Then there is the European Wheel or French Wheel with red and black pockets also numbered 1 through 36 and one green pocket labeled 0. Thus, there are 38 pockets in the American Wheel and 37 pockets in the European or French Wheel. In a strictly random game, the French wheel (which was, strangely, developed in America) is better than the American Wheel (which was, stranger still, developed in France).
Since a direct hit on a number pays $35 to $1, you are only losing $1 per win on the French Wheel (the real odds are 36 to one but it pays 35) while you lose $2 per win on the American Wheel (the real odds are 37 to 1 but it pays 35). The house edge on the American Wheel is 5.26 percent, which means you will lose $5.36 for every $100 you bet in the long run. On the French Wheel, the house edge is 2.7 percent or $2.70 per $100 wagered.
Roulette is the game that helped to create most of the classic betting systems you read about in books and articles on casino gambling. Unfortunately all these betting systems, however clever they seem, ultimately fail to beat the game as no betting system can overcome a negative edge.
The first - and most frequently discovered betting system by novices - is called the Martingale. While the origin of this system of betting is not clearly known, what is known is that the Martingale has a certain compelling logic to it; quite simply, you double up after every bet you lose. This is to be used against the even-money bets of red/black, odd/even, and big/little. If you bet $10, lose that bet, your next bet is $20; if you lose that, you bet $40 and so on.
The inherent logic of the system is that you must win one bet. If you do win one bet, you get all the money you wagered back, plus a win on the first amount wagered. Most Martingale players win most of their sequences but when they finally do lose, as I did way back at the start of my gambling career in the mid 1980s, the loss is devastating because you are betting a lot of money and losing a lot of money: $10, $20, $40, $80, $160, $320, $640 and you usually can't make the next bet of the series because you have hit the house limit. Your loss is a staggering $1270 in your pursuit of a $10 win.
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