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The Martingale System

Jul 16

adminGambling Effect Casinos, Gambling, strategies 3 Comments

In the game of craps it is no secret that the house ‘always wins’, or at least that the odds are always, statistically speaking, in the favor of the house.  This really should be no surprise, after all the casinos need to win on a regular basis or else they would quickly go out of business and nobody would be able to play craps anywhere.  The strategy we are about to discuss is generally thought of as a craps strategy but can honestly be used in most forms of gambling (black jack, roullette, etc…).  To discuss of The Martingale System is really to take a look into the past, because casinos have all recognized the threat posed by this simple system put in place control to prevent this dangerously effective strategy from being used within their walls.

The premise behind the Martingale System is quite simple.  If you lose one round, bet bigger the next time.  If you lose that, bet bigger again.  Eventually you will win, and that one win can be greater than the sum of all your losses.  The typical bet multiplier used is 2.  This means that each bet placed should be twice the size of the previous, losing bet.  This is the typical multiplier, but more importantly the minimum multiplier.  Anything less than this and you’ll probably find yourself playing catch up all day.  Now if you go higher than a multiplier of 2, say 3 or four, the size of each of your bets will dramatically increase (more so than normal) and you risk running out of cash before your lucky roll.

There are two factors that control how long you can sustain this strategy in a natural game.  The size of your first bet, and your bankroll.  The smaller your first bet, and the more money you are willing to put on the table, the longer you will be able to play without a win.  Now casinos don’t want a gang of millionaires to sit down at a table and win out every night of the year, so they needed a way to control this artificially.  To do so they generally coordinate the table minimums and maximums so that the table’s maximum bet is no more than five times the table’s minimum bet.  This effectively ruins The Martingale system.  For instance let’s say you are playing at a table with a $5 table minimum and a $25 table maximum.  You make your first bet of $5 and lose. Your second bet is $10 and you lose.  Third bet is $20 dollars, and if you lose here you can’t keep going.  $40 dollars will take you over the table maximum set at $25.  So you get three chances to win out in the long run and that is it.  Whether you are playing in Las Vegas or you decided to play craps online, after your first three bets you need to cut your losses or accept the fact that you need a new strategy.