The Martingale System has been around a long time, in fact it dates back to the 18th century, and some people claim it can beat the house and deliver a guaranteed and risk-free profit. It can be used to bet at real money casinos online, or at “real world” casinos and whilst it’s mainly associated with roulette, it can be used to bet on any casino game and even on sports. Here we explain what it is and why, unfortunately, it won’t work.
What is the Martingale System?
The Martingale System is a negative progression staking plan. That means that after a negative result (a losing bet) your stake progresses – gets bigger. Martingale doubles the stake after a losing bet. Because it is used principally for wagers that pay even money, such as the colors in roulette, the theory is that by doing that, whenever you win you will end up one unit in profit, no matter how many losses preceded the win.
Why the Martingale System is Flawed
The Martingale System is flawed theoretically because it does nothing to alter the house edge the casino holds over the player. This is around 2.7% in a single zero roulette and roughly double that if the wheel includes 00. So, no matter what you stake and how often you spin, over an infinite period of time the house will still make, on average, the same profit (at your expense).
In more practical and easy to understand terms, Martingale won’t work because it is based on the premise that you can always double your bet. In the real world at some stage ALL PLAYERS will hit a losing streak that means one of three things happen. Most likely, they will run out of money. If that doesn’t happen, they will reach the casino’s maximum stake and if that doesn’t happen they will simply run out of time.
Martingale will, for most people, lead to several small wins and these are what can lead people to believe it is a clever “trick”. However, probability makes it a certainty that at some stage, what seems like an impossible sequence of spins, will suddenly seem very possible – because it will happen. Be it five reds in a row, 10 blacks in a row or even more, a devastating run of losses will wipe out all profits – and then some.