What is the Martingale Strategy?

The Martingale system was discovered in the 18th century and became one of the most used strategies to win at roulette. But you can also use it in Blackjack and Baccarat. It's easy to learn and to use and on the short term it can give you many casino winnings but on the long term also big risks.

How does the Martingale system works?

Basically it's a very simple system. Every time you lose your bet you double your previous bet. The basic principle of this strategy is that there will be a time that you win your bet and then you will win back all the money you lost in the previous bets.

When you had a winning hand then you start again with your original bet.

To gain full advantage of this system you can only use this with even money bets so not with betting on a number. So these bets are red/black, high/low, even/odd. Look out for the 0 on the roulette table which causes not all bets have an equal chance of winning. The odds for this is 48,6%.

Disadvantage and danger of the Martingale system

After reading the advantages and making you believe that you can win with the Martingale System we also have to warn you for the risks. Because you double your bet everytime you lose it's very dangerous to end up in losing streak. Even with a low bet of 2,50 you can end up in a big loss. Let's have a look at the losing streak below.

- €2,50 lost (total loss is €2,50)
- €5,00 lost (total loss is €7,50)
- €10,00 lost (total loss is €17,50)
- €20,00 lost (total loss is €37,50)
- €40,00 lost (total loss is €77,50)
- €80,00 lost (total loss is €157,50)
- €160,00 lost (total loss is €317,50)
- €320,00 lost (total loss is €637,50)
- €640,00 lost (total loss is €1.277,50)

In the above streak there are 9 bets which are all lost. It doesn't happen a lot but it's possible.

On an average you should win and loose the same times when you bet on even money. On average the roulette ball will land the same number of times on black or red. But what happens if you have a few lost rounds and you need to double your bet each time. In this case you can reach the limit of your bankroll or reach the limit of the table you are playing on.

You want to double every time but you need to be able to do this with your bankroll. Do you have enough money to bet the double amounts each time which are increasing drastly after a while. If your money is finished or you set a certain budget then you need to stop.

Many casinos have max table bets. Maybe you want to double after a few loosing streaks but the table doesn't allow you to to double your previous bet. In that case it's not possible anymore to compensate your losses.

Is the Martingale system legal to use?

On quora.com we found many answers on this question. Martingale system is totally legal but there are some casinos who added in their terms and conditions that they don't allow it. But most casinos understand that on the long term they always take money off from the players.

Conclusion

The Martingale system is a well know system used by many casino players but it also brings a lot of risks. In many cases you can win a lot of money but you can also have too many loosing streaks and then you can't go back anymore if you want the Martingale system to succeed.

It's nice to try it in fun mode at an online casino and see how it works out for you.