Casino Game Roulette

Just a few spins of a wheel have given some people a glamour reputation and a place in roulette history, so lets speak about this Famous bets.

Real life situations.
In 1873, the Englishman Joseph Jaggers made a huge name for himself. It began when Jaggers understood that the roulette wheels in the casinos were not truly balanced. These non-balanced wheels then did not give truly random numbers; in fact, these wheels would hit certain numbers more often. Upon realizing this Jaggers hired a few people to watch the roulette wheels in the Casino Beaux-Arts in Monte Carlo. He was right. One of the six wheels in this casino hit nine numbers more often than any other number. With this information in hand he sat down to play roulette at the specific wheel. Jaggers began placing bets on these nine numbers and within four days he won over $300,000. After watching Jaggers, the casino decided that there was something puzzling going on at the table, so they decided to move the entire table to a different location in the casino. The next day when Jaggers came back to play, he began to lose. He soon realized that the table he was playing at was not the same, so he quickly found the table where he has previously played and began playing again, this time winning $450,000. Again, the casino was perplexed and this time decided to modify the wheel. When Jaggers came back he ended up losing $125,000; however, over the course of the entire event he still had well over $325,000.

In March of 2004 the craziest bet ever made news across the country. Ashley Revell, a 32-year-old man from London, wagered everything at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas. Revell sold all his possessions, his home, his car, and even the clothes off his back. He went into the Plaza Hotel casino in a rented tuxedo. He stood in front of one of the roulette wheels with his total worth of $135,300. Revell chose to place everything on red. His friends and family along with other casino patrons gathered around the table as the wheel spun and the ball slowly came to a stop. The ball land in the “Red 7” slot, and Revell doubled his money to $270,600. Ashley Revell celebrated the luck with friends and family. Many people wanted to see Revell try it again but instead he walked away with a smile and even tipped the dealer $600.

Famous bets in Films.
In the 1942 film Casablanca, Rick's Cafe Americain has a trick roulette wheel. The croupier can cause it to land on 22 at will. Rick (Humphrey Bogart) urges a Bulgarian refugee with whose case he becomes sympathetic to put his last three chips on 22 and motions to the croupier to let him win. After the man's number dramatically comes up, Rick tells him to let it all ride on 22 and lets him win again. Although the details are not mentioned in the film (the croupier only notes that they are "a couple of thousand" down), it appears that Rick has given the man 3885 ((3*36*36)-3) francs.

In the music video for "Palace & Main" by Kent, guitarist Harri Manty goes to Las Vegas and bets the entire video budget on black. He wins, and the profits were donated to charity.

In the third part of the 1998 film Run, Lola, Run, Lola uses all her money to buy a 100-mark chip. (She is actually just short of 100 marks, but gets the sympathy of a casino employee who gives her the chip for what money she has.) She bets her single chip on 20 and wins. She lets her winnings ride on 20 and wins again, making her total winnings 129,600 marks (29,600 more than her smuggler boyfriend owed his boss, Ronnie).

In the South Park episode "Red Man's Greed", the town, facing destruction at the hands of Native Americans, bets $10,000 to raise money to rescue the town. They win, but let it ride, and lose all of it.

Albert Einstein is reputed to have stated, "You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it." And yet, the numerous even money bets in roulette have inspired many players over the years to attempt to beat the game by using one or more variations of a Martingale betting strategy, wherein the gamer doubles the bet after every loss, so that the first win would recover all previous losses, plus win a profit equal to the original bet. As the referenced article on Martingales points out, this betting strategy is fundamentally flawed in practice and the inevitable long-term consequence is a large financial loss. Despite the claims in some books (for instance "Beat The House", by Frederick Lembeck), there is no way such a betting strategy can work over the long term.

Another strategy is the Fibonacci system. The Fibonacci system is based on a natural number progression sequence that was discovered by Leonardo Piano, better known by his nickname “Fibonacci”. The system works by starting with the number 1, and adding the previous two numbers together to give the next number. Because this starts with 1, a 0 is assumed to be before this first number. The series looks like this:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, etc

The way the Fibonacci System works is that a player will start with a bet of one unit. The player will keep betting that one unit until they loose. When this happens, they move one step up the Fibonacci ladder. After a win, the player backs up one level. If the player wins two bets in a row, they consider the system to be completed and start again from the start. The problem that a lot of players have with the Fibonacci system does not come from safety, as this has proven to be one of the safest betting systems around. The problem comes because most of your winning bets will happen when you are betting one unit only. For big punters, this can make the game boring when you only win small amounts, even though this system does tend to be profitable. Some players counter this by starting the system a few places up, on the forth or fifth levels, and move up or down depending on how they win and loose.

To use the Fibonacci System properly you must memorize the numbers in the progression system and then practice at home on something like tossing a coin to make sure you can get the betting correct automatically before trying this out for real, as the number progression is the trickiest part of the system.

The advantage of this system is that it stays relatively stable even in short runs, because losing streaks are easily compensated with one win. It is way better than the dreaded Martingale positive progression system. Fibonacci system is also less threatened by the table limits because it tends to stay in saner bounds than Martingale in short runs.

The Ormond System:
Negative progression, a variation of the Martingale System.
Assumes you will win before you reach the house limit and can bankroll the losing run. Bet an initial amount (N). For each win, on the next bet N again. For each lose bet N*x+N where x is the number of losing bets. Thus if you finally win, you will recover all bet money, plus N for every loss. The progression would look like this on a $5 table. 5, 15, 35, 75, 155, 315, etc. As with all negative progressions, and this one even more so, it requires more capital and is employed to force a winning outcome following a losing streak.

Anti-martingale System:
Positive progression.
Remarks: pre-decide a win, say 7 units Bet on red. if win leave the two on red (or switch to black if you feel like it). If win again leave the four on another even chance. If win the third in a row skim the seven and restart with one. Every time you lose restart with one.

Negative progression betting systems:
You increase the bet when you lose. Require more capital and usually employed to force a winning outcome following a losing streak. (Nerve-wracking, very painful when you lose. Avoid these systems if you can.)

Here are some of the most recently used betting strategies and tactics:

Betting only on red.
This strategy is based on patience, remember it's most important thing ih this game, PATIENCE! One conceivable strategy would be to bet on the ball landing in a red space for a certain number of spins, for example, 38. There are 18 red spaces on a roulette table with 38 total spaces. Dividing 18 by 38 yields a probability of landing on red of 47.37%. This probability can be used in a binomial distribution and made into an approximate standard normal distribution. Doing so indicates that, if one were to spin the wheel 38 times, there is a 99% probability that the ball would land on red at least 10 times. There is an 83% probability that in 38 spins, the ball will land on red at least 15 times. Out of 38 spins, there's a 50% chance that 18 will be red. However, the break-even point is 19 spins, since the bet on red is 1:1, and the probability of 19 red spins in 38 is only 37%. This indicates the difficulty of winning by only betting on red. The results occur because, as indicated by the 18 divided by 38 equals 47.37% figure, the ball will land on red less than half the time. This percentage applied in the binomial and standard normal distributions creates the vast divide in probability from 18 red spins to 19 red spins out of 38 spins. It is very unlikely for anyone to spin much more than 18 red spins out of 38 spins.

Betting multiple times.
This type of bet is a combination of the red bet and the martingale system. The difference is that this bet also includes the odd. This strategy starts off with a bet of 1 on each the red and the odd (or you can do the black and even). Each bet is treated separately. When one bet loses, it is doubled. When one bet wins, it gets set back to 1. The reason that this technique keeps the player in the game so long is that there is almost a 25% chance of winning both the red and the odd and there is almost a 50% chance of breaking even (win one bet and lose the other). Of course, in order for this method to last, the player would need an unlimited source of money, and a casino with another one to boot. In reality, this method backfires when the player can't bet any longer and loses. The loss that this causes is possibly hundreds of times bigger than a loss made when starting. Also, in the long run, because the house still has an edge, the player will lose money just like with all other "unbeatable" casino games.

Labouchere System.
The Labouchere System is progression betting strategy like the Martingale but does not require the gambler to risk his stake as quickly with dramatic double ups. The Labouchere System involves using a series of numbers in a line to determine the bet amount, following a win or a loss. Typically, the player adds the numbers at the front and end of the line to determine the size of the next bet. When he wins, he crosses out the outside numbers and continues working on the smaller line. If he loses, then he adds his previous bet to the end of the line and continues to work on the longer line. This is a much more flexible progression betting system and there is much room for the player to design his initial line to his own playing preference.

Using the dozen bet.
There are two versions to this system, single dozen bets and double dozen bets. In the single dozen bet version, the player uses a progressively incrementing stake list starting from the casino table minimum, to the table maximum. The aim here is to use a single dozen bet to win before the stake list ends. Many techniques are employed such as: betting on the same dozen to appear after two consecutive appearances, betting on the dozen that has appeared most in the last 15, 9, or 5 spins, betting on the dozen that, after a long absence of 7 or more spins, appears for the first time. The double dozen bet version uses two dozen bets and half the stake list size of the single dozen bet version.

1st and 3rd column strategy.
One bet of 2 pieces on the 1st column and one bet of 2 pieces on the 3rd column covers most of the red numbers on the table. One bet of 2 pieces on the black will provide insurance for occurrence of black. This betting system covers nearly all numbers except for the 4 red numbers in the middle column and the zero (and double zero in American Roulette). If the result is a red number in either the 1st or 3rd column, the player only breaks even. If the result is red in the middle column the player loses 6 pieces. If the result is black and in the middle column, the player loses 2 pieces. If the result is a black in the 1st or 3rd column, the player only wins 4 pieces.

Mechanical Strategies.
There are a number of roulette strategies which take a more mechanical approach to breaking the casino. The most famous is the biased wheel attack. In the biased wheel attack, the player clocks the wheel to find statistical deviations indicating some flaw to the wheel. Given that the wheel is man made it is quite impossible for the roulette wheel to be perfect. The biased wheel attack, seeks to find imperfect wheels and exploit the fact that some wheels will return numbers more often than 1 in 35, which means there is potential to have an edge over the casino. Clocking the wheel involves taking spin results in great numbers to identify any opportunities.

Biased wheels: section betting. In 1982, several casinos in England began to lose large sums of money at their roulette tables to teams of gamblers from the USA> Upon investigation by the police, it was discovered they were using a legal system of biased wheel-section betting. As a result of this, the English roulette wheel manufacturer John Huxley designed a roulette wheel to counter-act the problem. The new wheel was called "low profile" because the pockets had been drastically reduced in depth, and various other design modifications caused the ball to descend in a gradual approach to the pocket area. In 1986, when a professional gambling team headed by Billy Walters won $3.8 million using the system on an old wheel at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, every casino in the world took notice, and within one year had switched to the new "low profile" wheel. Recent additional modifications to the roulette wheel by Cammegh of England has made it almost impossible to use a mechanical winning system.

Roulette is a casino and gambling game named after the French word meaning "small wheel". In the game, a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular surface running around the circumference of the wheel. The ball eventually falls on to the wheel and into one of 37 (in European roulette) or 38 (in American roulette) colored and numbered pockets on the wheel. Players place bets on the winning number and the color of the pocket, whether the number is odd or even.

Wheel layout.
The pockets are numbered from 1 to 36, alternating between red and black. There is a green pocket numbered 0. In American roulette, there is a second green pocket marked 00. Pockets are not in numerical order around the wheel. Some consecutive numbers are the same color. Number sequence clockwise: Single zero wheel: 0-32-15-19-4-21-2-25-17-34-6-27-13-36-11-30-8-23-10-5-24-16-33-1-20-14-31-9-22-18-29-7-28-12-35-3-26 Double zero wheel: 0-28-9-26-30-11-7-20-32-17-5-22-34-15-3-24-36-13-1-00-27-10-25-29-12-8-19-31-18-6-21-33-16-4-23-35-14-2.

Betting.
Players can place a variety of 'inside' bets (selecting the number of the pocket the ball will land in, or range of pockets based on their position), and 'outside' bets (including bets on various positional groupings of pockets, pocket colors, or whether it is odd or even). The payout odds for each type of bet is based on its probability. The table usually imposes minimum and maximum bets, and these rules usually apply separately for all of a player's 'inside' and 'outside' bets for each spin. Players can continue to place bets until the dealer announces "No more bets."

History.
The first form of roulette was devised in 18th century France. The roulette wheel is believed to be a fusion of the English wheel games Roly-Poly, Ace of Hearts, and E.O., and the Italian board games of Hoca and Biribi, and then the name roulette from an already existing French board game of that title. The game has been played in its current form since as early as 1796 in Paris. The earliest description of the roulette game in its current form is found in a French novel "La Roulette, ou le Jour" by Jaques Lablee, which describes a roulette wheel in the Palais Royal in Paris in 1796. The book was published in 1801. An even earlier reference to a game of this name was published in regulations for New France(Canada) in 1758, which banned the games of "dice, hoca, faro, and roulette."

In 1842, fellow Frenchmen François and Louis Blanc added the "0" to the roulette wheel in order to achieve a house advantage. In the early 1800s, roulette was brought into the U.S. where, to further increase house odds, a second zero, "00", was introduced.

In some forms of early American roulette wheels - as shown in the 1886 Hoyle gambling books, there were numbers 1 through 28, plus a single zero, a double zero, and an American Eagle. According to Hoyle "the single 0, the double 0, and eagle are never bars; but when the ball falls into either of them, the banker sweeps every thing upon the table, except what may happen to be bet on either one of them, when he pays twenty-seven for one, which is the amount paid for all sums bet upon any single figure."

In the 1800s, roulette spread all over both Europe and the U.S., becoming one of the most famous and most popular casino games. Some call roulette the "King of Casino Games", probably because it was associated with the glamour of the casinos in Monte Carlo. (François Blanc actually established the first casinos there.) A legend tells François Blanc supposedly bargained with the devil to obtain the secrets of roulette. The legend is based on the fact that the sum of all the numbers on the roulette wheel (from 1 to 36) is 666, which is the "Number of the Beast."

Roulette Dictionary.
Inside bet - bets made on specific numbers or combination of numbers within number layout.
Outside bet - one of the 2 to 1 bets or 1 to 1 bets that appear on the outside of the layout.

Types of bets.
Inside bets. Straight: a single number. The chip is placed entirely on the middle of a number square.
Split: a bet on two adjoining numbers, either on the vertical or horizontal (as in 14-17 or 8-9). The chip is placed on the line between these numbers. Street: a bet on three numbers on a single horizontal line. The chip is placed on the edge of line of a number at the end of the line (either the left or the right, depending on the layout).
Corner (or square): a bet on four numbers in a square layout (as in 11-12-14-15). The chip is placed at the horizontal and vertical intersection of the lines between the numbers.
Sixline (or 'sixaine'): a bet on two adjoining streets, with the chip placed at the corresponding intersection, as if in between where two street bets would be placed.

Outside bets. Even Money Bets: a bet on 18 numbers. This is placed in the box representing the attribute (black/red/low/high/even/odd) that you wish to bet on.
Group Bets: a bet on the first, second, or third group of twelve numbers.
Column: a bet on all 12 numbers on any of the three vertical lines (such as 1-4-7-10 on down to 34). The chip is placed on the space below the final number in this string.

There are a number of series in roulette that have special names attached to them. These are placed by betting a set amount per series (or multiples of that amount). They are based on the way in which certain numbers lie next to each other on the roulette wheel. Not all casinos offer these bets, and some may offer additional bets or variations on these.