Roulette is an exciting game to play. It can be pretty fast-paced as well. The American version of the game has the numbers 1 – 36 on the wheel along with 0 and 00, while the European version has just one 0 spot. The probability of a number coming up in the American version of roulette is 1/38, which is 2.63%
The 0 and 00 spots serve to pad the houses edge against players. Bets such as red/black, odd/even and 1-18/19-36 pay even money, but they only have a 47.3% probability of hitting. The twelve’s bets (first twelve, second twelve and third twelve) has a 31.5% probability of hitting and pays two to one.
Beware of Progression Systems
Many roulette systems involve progression chains. This means you bet one unit on your first bet and if you lose, you double up. A common progression chain is: 1-2-4-8-16-32-64-128
As you can see, by your eight loss, you are betting 128 units to win ONE unit. This is not good. Just because a particular bet has not hit recently does not mean it will soon. Sure, the numbers tend to work out (IE red coming in about 47% of the time), but it can take a large series of spins before the math works itself out.
A better plan is to bet evenly and perhaps increase or decrease your bet slightly as you play.
Looking for Missing Occurrence
Popular roulette systems involve betting on bet types that have not shown up in a while. By doing this, and not using progression methods, you can increase your probability of winning. Following are some examples.
Red shows up four times in a row: Bet black the next spin, because you have a a 96% probability of winning your bet.
First twelve has not come up in seven spins: Bet it. You have a 95.2% probability of winning your bet.
X number has not come up in 38 spins: Start betting the number. On the 39th spin, there is a 65% probability that it will hit and that number goes up with each spin.
Note:
As I said, just because a bet has not come out recently, does not mean it will. Chasing a bet is not betting on a proposition that’s “due.” Chasing is when a player increases their bet, continually, on a proposition because that player believes the proposition is coming soon.