The best sign-up bonuses at casinos are Casino Strategie those that are lucrative, easy to understand, and do not restrict the betting process. To this end, has put together a list of the best sign-up bonuses offered by the most popular casinos online. Blackjack is a member of a large family of traditional card games played recreationally all around the world. Most of these games have not been adapted for casino play. Furthermore, the casino game development industry is very active in producing blackjack variants, most of which are ultimately not adopted for widespread use in casinos.

1. Casino Holdem Strategy
2. Casino Strategie Blackjack
3. Play Casino Games For Cash
4. Chumba Casino Strategy
5. Strategie Casino On Line

Progressive strategies are created around the concept of increasing the size of your bet after witnessing the outcome of a round.One of the most famous and widely used roulette strategies – the Martingale system – is a great example of a progressive strategy. Aegean Car Motion - Aegean Casino SA Aegean Cats - Scottish Fold/Scottish Straight/ British Shorthair - Aegean Center Aegean Center For Culture & Education - Aegean Center for Fine Art.

What Is a Casino? What Is Gambling?This site is about casino gambling strategy. (You probably gathered that from the logo, the header tag, and the URL, but heck, these days–you never know.) When I write about something, I like to break it down into its components and really understand the pieces and parts. Once I understand them, I can understand how they’re put together. So this page about casino gambling strategy page starts by defining three words:

• Casino
• Gambling
• Strategy

Now that’s not the end of what I hope to accomplish on this page. After getting the definitions out of the way, I’m hoping to synthesize those three definitions into something useful–a strategy that you can use to get the most enjoyment out of your gambling hobby.

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What Is a Casino?

A casino is a building where gambling goes on. That’s a broad definition, but it’s an accurate one. It’s also a little bit out-of-date, because now that there is an Internet, a website could also be considered a casino, or even just a software program on a computer or an iPhone. In those cases, the website or software replace the building.

If you think about it for a minute, a lot of places that you didn’t think of as casinos are actually casinos. For example, you can’t turn a corner in the airport in Las Vegas without bumping into a slot machine. That means that the airport there is also a casino.

In a lot of states, video poker machines are commonly found in bars. That makes those bars casinos also.

A bingo hall is also a casino. Playing bingo is gambling, albeit a very socially acceptable form of gambling. Some churches offer bingo, and when they do, they’re not just a church–they’re also a casino.

Some places only offer poker. They’re called cardroom or poker rooms. Even if they don’t offer what you might consider “traditional” casino games like roulette, blackjack, or slot machines, poker cardrooms are still considered casinos.

Even a horsetrack or a dogtrack can be considered a casino.

Why go into this much detail about how many different places fall under the definition of casino? Because it clarifies why the content on this site covers so many diverse subjects.

Picking the Right Casino Games to Gamble On

Players can find many games to gamble on at an online casino, but some games are better than others. Some casino gambling games are easier to win than others, because the house edge is lower. Games like blackjack and video poker are games of skill where strategy counts, while other games are pure games of chance.

Picking the right casino game helps a player stretch their bankroll, increasing one’s excitement and enjoyment while betting. Below is the house edge of the most popular casino games. The lowest house edge equals the right bet to choose. Many rules affect blackjack odds, so I use Vegas Strip Blackjack where blackjack pays 3:2, doubling is allowed, the dealer stands on soft 17, and splitting to four hands is allowed.

• Single-Zero Roulette: 2.70%
• Double-Zero Roulette: 5.26%
• Single-Deck Blackjack: 0.50%
• 2-Deck Blackjack: 0.78%
• 6-Deck Blackjack: 0.91%
• 8-Deck Blackjack: 0.97%

• Craps: Come/Pass Line Bet: 1.41%
• Craps: Don’t Come/Don’t Pass Bet: 1.36%
• Craps: Any Seven Bet: 16.67%
• Baccarat: Banker Bet: 1.06%
• Baccarat: Player Bet: 1.24%
• Baccarat: Tie Bet: 14.36%

Best Online Gambling Sites

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How to Win Casino Games

Using time-tested betting strategies is the best way to win at casino games. For instance, basic strategy in blackjack provides the player with the optimal play in each scenario. In other games, no strategy exists besides finding the best bets in the game and using a winning betting system to manage your bankroll. Avoid the trendy betting systems like the Martingale, but instead use bankroll management to assure you limit losses when the game doesn’t go your way and lock in winnings when you’re on a winning streak.

What Is Gambling?

Gambling is when you wager money on games of chance or skill. It’s not the chance element that makes the activity gambling; it’s the betting of the money on the outcome of something.

For example, if you bet $20 on a game of billiards, you’re gambling, even though it’s a game of skill.

Legal definitions about gambling on games of skill and gambling on games of chance can vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but gambling is gambling.

Gambling Tips to Win

Do your research, because there are online casino tips for winning that you can follow to boost your chances of winning and lower your risk of ruin. Casinos have a house edge in most games, which you should consider the price of entertainment. The great thing about gambling is you have a chance to win back the price of admission and then some. The casino winning tips below should give you a start on your research.

Use Rewards and Bonuses: Never turn down comps of any kind. Always accept bonus offers, player rewards, and other promotions. Nothing lowers the house edge more than free money, so never play without using sliding your slots card into the machine or without inputting a coupon code you have.

Choose a Win Goal: “Win goal” is a money management term. It means you set an amount at which you end your gaming session. If you’re win goal is $500 and you win $500, you immediately quit playing. If you’ve won $499, then it’s alright to keep playing. Setting a win goal helps you lock in winnings.

Set a Loss Limit: “Loss limit” is another bankroll management term and is the opposite of a win goal. It means you set a minimum amount at which you stop playing. Loss limits keep a gambler from going on tilt, while assuring responsible play. Your loss limit might mean you either end the session or take a few minutes break before using more of your bankroll.

Avoid Progressive Betting: You’ll read a lot about progressive betting systems like the Martingale, D’Alembert, and Fibonacci methods. Avoid any progressive betting system, which requires bigger wagers after losing hands/spins/rolls. Such bets win small amounts in the short run, but risk losing your whole bankroll if you get unlucky.

Folding in Poker Games: Mastering the art of folding is important in games like Texas Hold’em, Three-Card Poker, and Let It Ride. Poker players tend to be brave souls. It’s natural to make a call or raise the bet, but some of the best hands you’ll play are those in which you choose to fold. In online poker games, bluffing is marginal, so learning when you should call or not is key.

What Is a Strategy?

A strategy is a course of action you decide on in advance. For example, a gambling strategy might be to learn how to play blackjack using perfect strategy by memorizing a basic strategy chart, and then testing yourself with an online basic strategy tutor. The second step in that strategy might be to learn how to count cards by reading a book on the subject, picking a methodology, and practicing at your kitchen table until you can count down an entire deck in 60 seconds or less. The next step in that strategy might be to set aside a bankroll large enough to withstand the effects of standard deviation and avoid going broke. Your final step would be to embark on your new career (or avocation) as a card counter.

But that’s not the only valid gambling strategy. Your strategy might be to set aside $50 out of every paycheck to play the slots with. You make a single trip to a casino once a month with a bankroll of approximately $200. If you lose the $200, you quit for the session, and you return the following month to try it again. If you win $200 or more, you quit winners for the session, have some fun with your winnings, and return the next month with your new $200 bankroll that you’ve accumulated.

The first strategy (the blackjack strategy) is a positive expectation strategy, assuming you can develop the skills involved, and also assuming that you have the self-discipline to follow it. A positive expectation strategy is one which can expect to win money over a long enough period of time. In the short term, anything can happen, but in the long run, gamblers with a positive expectation strategy expect to win more than they lose.

The second strategy (the slot machine strategy) is a negative expectation strategy. Slot machines are a negative expectation game, and even reasonable money management tactics like the one outlined above won’t overcome the game’s built in mathematical disadvantage over the long run.

Is one strategy better than the other?

That depends on your goals as a gambler. If your goal is to earn a living gambling, then you’d want to stick with some kind of strategy and game where you can get a positive expectation. Blackjack, poker, video poker, and sports betting are all gambling games where you can get a positive expectation IF you acquire the necessary skillset.

On the other hand, if your goal is to entertain yourself and occasionally celebrate a big win, and you don’t mind spending the money for that entertainment, the slot machine strategy above would work fine for you. Almost all other gambling and casino games besides the ones I mentioned in the last paragraph are negative expectation games, so you cannot hope to get an edge when playing them. Games like roulette, slot machines, craps, and keno have a negative expectation, and anyone who plays them long enough will experience more losses than wins.

Best Gambling Strategies

Those are single tips for the most popular games, but readers might want more details. In the section below, we go over the best strategies for each popular game, including video slots and Texas Hold’em. Keep in mind that casino strategies which work in brick-and-mortar gaming establishments do not always apply to online and mobile casinos. Handy tips exist for each game, so each best strategy tip will help you walk out of the casino with a bigger bankroll than otherwise.

Best Slots Strategy

As a general rule, slot machines have no strategy element. Winning or losing is purely a matter of chance. Skill-based slots are legal in Las Vegas and Atlantic City now — and should become mainstream in a few years. Also, some progressive jackpots go so high that playing becomes a positive expectation game, though winning on a progressive slot machine is still a matter of pure chance. Avoid the zigzag method and other proposed slots systems, because slot machines have no betting system proven to win.

Best Blackjack Strategy

Basic blackjack strategy optimizes your decisions in order to get the best possible house edge, counting cards is how you gain an advantage over the casino. Card counters are not welcome at casinos, though it’s a legal way to beat the casino. A variety of card counting methods exist. Some are easy to learn and others are complicated. Keeping a count while you act nonchalant in order to fool the dealer and the pit boss is the hard part. Live dealer blackjack offers the best chance to count cards and not be noticed.

Best Three Card Poker Strategy

Experts on casino strategy have different theories on which 3-Card Poker hands to play. Some think you should only hold a hand with a king-or-better. Others suggest a Q-10 is the minimum cut-off point. Both are wrong. Computer simulations show that the optimal strategy is to play any hand which is Q-6-4 or better. If you want something simpler to remember, then the best Three-Card Poker strategy is to play any hand which is Queen-Six or better.

Best Let It Ride Strategy

The biggest mistake players make in Let It Ride is “letting it ride” too often. Unsuited 9-10-J is not a playable hand in Let It Ride, for instance. When you hold 3 cards at the beginning of a hand, you should only let the bet ride when you hold: a paying hand (of course), any three to a Royal Flush, three suited cards besides 2-3-4 or A-2-C, or any three to a Straight Flush when (at least) one card is 10 or higher. Unless you hold one of these hands, you need to fold.

Best Roulette Strategy

The best online roulette strategy is to find casinos which offer “la partage” or “en prison” rules alongside either European Roulette or French Roulette. This combination of rules lowers the house edge to 1.35%. High rollers should focus on French Roulette, the game which uses alternate bets which French names. The full/maximum or full/complete bet offers the best way to max out the betting limits for a high stakes gambler, because it is 12-bets-in-1 on the same roulette number.

Best Craps Strategy

When learning craps, study the “odds” bets, which have a house edge of 0%. The best craps bets are the basic ones: Come, Don’t Come, Passline, and Don’t Pass. Dice shooters need to know one addition bet, which is an add-on to the basic bets after the point is established. Taking the odds is a way to make a much larger wager on the original bet, thus watering down the house edge in a way. Casinos limit the odds players can take, which is a good sign it’s a good thing for you.

Best Texas Hold’em Strategy

Whole books have been written on the best Texas Hold’em strategy, but most of that doesn’t apply to online poker. Bluffing and reading bluffs is next-to-impossible in a virtual Texas Holdem game online, but third-party software exists that lets a player quickly study their opponent’s hand history. This provides insight into that player’s tendencies, helping you determine whether the player is loose/tight and aggressive/passive. With that data at hand, you can make winning decisions in online Texas Hold’em.

What’s the Difference Between a Gambling Strategy, Gambling Tactics, and Gambling Systems?

I outlined a gambling strategy above, but just to reiterate, a strategy is an approach to an activity.

A tactic is similar to a strategy, but it applies to individual decisions and individual situations. Deciding to become a card counter who uses the Hi-Lo counting method is a gambling strategy decision. Deciding whether or not to double down on an ace during a blackjack game is a tactical decision.

Many games of chance offer no opportunities to make tactical decisions. For example, in baccarat, you have no real effect on the outcome of each hand, no matter what decision you make. In roulette, you can decide what option to bet on, but all of the bets at the table have the same house edge, so the only tactical decision you’re making is whether you want to lose your money quickly or slowly.

In some games, like craps, different bets offer different odds. You can make a tactical decision to only place the bets which offer you the best odds.

A gambling system is a totally different animal though. A gambling system is almost always a scam sold by a con man. Gambling systems usually involve trying to manipulate the odds of a casino game by changing the sizes of your bets based on previous results. I’ll have a lot more to write about that particular subject in a future article, but for now, please trust me. Gambling systems don’t work. PLEASE don’t waste your money on them.

Learn the Best Betting Systems for Each Game

All casinos games have their own rules and strategies. The best way to win is to learn the casino betting systems for each game. This is true for every new casino game you play. The examples below illustrate the wide variety of casino winning tips which exist.

Casino Tips for Winning

1. Blackjack Basic Strategy: Consult a basic strategy chart when play blackjack. Free printable blackjack strategy charts exist online. Remember to use a basic strategy card specific to the rules you’re using.
2. Sucker Bets in Craps: Notice in the table above the wide disparity in craps bets. The basic Come Bet, Don’t Come Bet, Pass Line Bet, and Don’t Pass Bet have a comparable house edge to baccarat and some video poker machines. Many sucker bets exist in craps, including the worst of the bunch: the “Any 7” bet.
3. Single-Zero Roulette: If given the option, always choose single-zero roulette, better known as European Roulette and French Roulette. It’s easy to spot this form of the game: you’ll see only one 0-pocket on the wheel. In American Roulette, you’ll see a 0-pocket and a 00-pocket.
4. Banker Bet in Baccarat: The banker bet has better odds than the player bet in baccarat, even though you pay a 5% fee to the casino. Never make the tie bet in baccarat, which is a sucker bet if there ever was one.
5. SNG Double Up Strategy: In online Texas Hold’em, play in Sit’n Go double-up tournament to build your bankroll. The point isn’t to finish in 1st place, but to survive the bubble. If you have the short stack, play loose and aggressive, because most card players want to avoid the bubble. Avoid the big stack, but pick on the medium stacks in this casino double-up strategy.

What Now?

The rest of this site is dedicated to explaining how various casino games and betting games work. We’ll eventually offer analyses of all the casino games (and other gambling games) we can think of, along with some suggestions about what strategic and tactical approaches you might want to take toward those games, depending on your goals.

I don’t judge or look down on people for how they gamble. If you just want to plunk coins into a slot machine and hope for a win, that’s your business. More power to you. If you want to maximize how much money you can win playing poker or blackjack, that’s your business too, and I have enough experience in each subject to provide you with the tips and advice you need to get started in that endeavor.

Introduction

Not only do betting systems fail to beat casino games with a house advantage, they can’t even dent it. Roulette balls and dice simply have no memory. Every spin in roulette and every toss in craps is independent of all past events. In the short run, you can fool yourself into thinking a betting system works, by risking a lot to win a little. However, in the long run no betting system can withstand the test of time. The longer you play, the ratio of money lost to money bet will get closer to the expectation for that game.

In the many years that run this site, I have received thousands of e-mails from believers in betting systems. Their faith surpasses religious levels. However, in all things, the more ridiculous a belief is the more tenaciously it tends to be held. Gamblers have been looking for a betting system that works for hundreds of years, and yet the casinos are still standing.

Gambler's Fallacy

The biggest gambling myth is that an event that has not happened recently becomes overdue and more likely to occur. This is known as the “gambler’s fallacy.” Thousands of gamblers have devised betting systems that attempt to exploit the gambler’s fallacy by betting the opposite way of recent outcomes. For example, waiting for three reds in roulette and then betting on black. Hucksters sell “guaranteed” get-rich-quick betting systems that are ultimately based on the gambler’s fallacy. None of them work. If you don’t believe me here is what some other sources say on the topic:

A common gamblers’ fallacy called “the doctrine of the maturity of the chances” (or “Monte Carlo fallacy”) falsely assumes that each play in a game of chance is not independent of the others and that a series of outcomes of one sort should be balanced in the short run by other possibilities. A number of “systems” have been invented by gamblers based largely on this fallacy; casino operators are happy to encourage the use of such systems and to exploit any gambler’s neglect of the strict rules of probability and independent plays. — Encyclopedia Britannica (look under “gambling”)

No betting system can convert a subfair game into a profitable enterprise... — Probability and Measure (second edition, page 94) by Patrick Billingsley

The number of ‘guaranteed’ betting systems, the proliferation of myths and fallacies concerning such systems, and the countless people believing, propagating, venerating, protecting, and swearing by such systems are legion. Betting systems constitute one of the oldest delusions of gambling history. Betting systems votaries are spiritually akin to the proponents of perpetual motion machines, butting their heads against the second law of thermodynamics. — The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic (page 53) by Richard A. Epstein

Vegas Click also has a good expose of the gambler’s fallacy.

The Martingale

Every week I receive two or three emails asking me about the betting system by which a player doubles his/her bet after a loss. This system is generally played with an even money game such as the red/black bet in roulette or the pass/don’t pass bet in craps and is known as the Martingale. The idea is that by doubling your bet after a loss, you would always win enough to cover all past losses plus one unit. For example, if a player starts at $1 and loses four bets in a row, winning on the fifth, he will have lost $1+$2+$4+$8 = $15 on the four losing bets and won $16 on the fifth bet. The losses were covered and he had a profit of $1. The problem is that it is easier than you think to lose several bets in a row and run out of betting money after you’ve doubled it all away.

In order to prove this point, I created a program that simulated two systems, the Martingale and flat betting, and applied each by betting on the pass line in craps (which has a 49.29% probability of winning). The Martingale bettor would always start with a $1 bet and start the session with $255 which is enough to cover 8 losses in a row. The flat bettor would bet $1 every time. The Martingale player would play for 100 bets, or until he couldn’t cover the amount of a bet. In that case, he would stop playing and leave with the money he had left. In the event his 100th bet was a loss, he would keep betting until he either won a bet or couldn’t cover the next bet. The person flat betting would play 100 bets every time. I repeated this experiment for 1,000,000 sessions for both systems and tabulated the results. The graph below shows the results:

As you can see, the flat bettor has a bell curve with a peak at a loss of $1, and never strays very far from that peak. Usually the Martingale bettor would show a profit represented by the bell curve on the far right, peaking at $51; however, on the far left we see those times when he couldn’t cover a bet and walked away with a substantial loss. That happened for 19.65% of the sessions. Many believers in the Martingale mistakenly believe that the many wins will more than cover the few losses.

In this experiment, the average session loss for the flat bettor was $1.12, but was $4.20 for the Martingale bettor. In both cases, the ratio of money lost to money won was very close to 7/495, which is the house edge on the pass line bet in craps. This is not coincidental. No matter what system is used in the long run, this ratio will always approach the house edge. To prove this point consider the Martingale player on the pass line in craps who only desires to win $1, starts with a bet of $1, and has a bankroll of $2,047 to cover as many as 10 consecutive losses. The table below shows all possible outcomes with each probability, expected bet, and return.

Expand

Number of losses	Final outcome	Highest bet	Total bet	Net outcome	Probability	Expected bet	Expected return
0	Win	1	1	1	0.49292929	0.49292929	0.49292929
1	Win	2	3	1	0.24995001	0.74985002	0.24995001
2	Win	4	7	1	0.12674233	0.88719628	0.12674233
3	Win	8	15	1	0.06426732	0.96400981	0.06426732
4	Win	16	31	1	0.03258808	1.01023035	0.03258808
5	Win	32	63	1	0.01652446	1.04104089	0.01652446
6	Win	64	127	1	0.00837907	1.06414175	0.00837907
7	Win	128	255	1	0.00424878	1.08343900	0.00424878
8	Win	256	511	1	0.00215443	1.10091479	0.00215443
9	Win	512	1023	1	0.00109245	1.11757574	0.00109245
10	Win	1024	2047	1	0.00055395	1.13393379	0.00055395
10	Loss	1024	2047	-2047	0.00056984	1.16646467	-1.16646467
Total					1.00000000	11.81172639	-0.16703451

The expected bet is the product of the total bet and the probability. Likewise, the expected return is the product of the total return and the probability. The last row shows this Martingale bettor to have had an average total bet of 11.81172639 and an average loss of 0.16703451. Dividing the average loss by the average bet yields .01414141. We now divide 7 by 495 (the house edge on the pass line) and we again get 0.01414141! This shows that the Martingale is neither better nor worse than flat betting when measured by the ratio of expected loss to expected bet. All betting systems are equal to flat betting when compared this way, as they should be. In other words, all betting systems are equally worthless.

Here is another experiment I conducted earlier which proves the same thing as the experiment above. This one is played against roulette testing three different systems. Player 1 flat bet a $1 each time. He was not using a betting system. Player 2 started a series of trials with a bet of $1 and increased his wager by $1 after every winning bet. A lost bet would constitute the end of a series and the next bet would be $1. Player 3 also started a series of bets with a bet of $1 but used a doubling strategy in that after a losing bet of $x he would bet $2x (the Martingale). A winning bet would constitute the end of a series and the next bet would be $1. To make it realistic I put a maximum bet on player 3 of $200. Below are the results of that experiment:

Player 1

Casino Holdem Strategy

• Total amount wagered = $1,000,000,000
• Average wager = $1.00
• Total loss = $52,667,912
• Expected loss = $52,631,579
• Ratio of loss to money wagered = 0.052668

Player 2

• Total amount wagered = $1,899,943,349
• Average wager = $1.90
• Total loss = $100,056,549
• Expected loss = $99,997,018
• Ratio of loss to money wagered = 0.052663

Casino Strategie Blackjack

Player 3

• Total amount wagered = $5,744,751,450
• Average wager = $5.74
• Total loss = $302,679,372
• Expected loss = $302,355,340
• Ratio of loss to money wagered = 0.052688

As you can see the ratio of money lost to money wagered is always close to the normal house advantage of 1/19 ≈ 0.052632. In conclusion, varying of bet size depending on recent past wins or losses makes no difference in the long run outcome and is no different than always betting the same.

A Third Experiment

“An Old Timer’s Guide to Beating the Craps Table” was a betting system that makes big promises about turning the craps tables into your own personal cash register. I offered to test his system for free. Here are the results.

Play Casino Games For Cash

The Cancellation Betting System

Despite all my warnings about betting systems, readers continually ask me to suggest one. To satisfy those who enjoy playing systems I have done a full explanation and analysis of the cancellation betting system.

Don't Waste Your Money

The Internet is full of people selling betting systems with promises of beating the casino at games of luck. Those who sell these systems are the present day equivalent of the 19th century snake oil salesmen. Under no circumstances should you waste one penny on any gambling system. Every time one has been put to a computer simulation it failed and showed the same ratio of losses to money bet as flat betting. If you ask a system salesman about this you likely will get a reply such as, “In real life nobody plays millions of trials in the casino.” You’re likely to also hear that his/her system works in real life, but not when used against a computer simulation. It is interesting that professionals use computers to model real-life problems in just about every field of study, yet when it comes to betting systems computer analysis becomes “worthless and unreliable,” as the salesman of one system put it. In any event, such an excuse misses the point; the computer runs billions of trials simply to prove that a system is unsound. If it won’t work on a computer, it won’t work in the casino.

Gambling systems have been around for as long as gambling has. No system has ever been proven to work. From an inside source, I know that system salesmen go from selling one kind of system to another. It is a dirty business by which they steal ideas from each other, and are always attempting to rehash old systems as something new.

System salesmen usually promise ridiculous advantages. For example, even with just a 1% advantage on an even money bet, it would not be difficult to parlay $100 into $1,000,000 by betting in proportion to bankroll. I was asked to prove this claim so I wrote a computer simulation based on the toss of a biased coin, with a 50.5% chance of winning. At all times the player bet 1% of his bankroll, rounded down to the nearest dollar. However, if a winning bet would put the player over $1,000,000 then he only bet as much as he needed to get to exactly $1,000,000. In addition, I ran simulations with a 2% advantage and for a starting bankroll of $1,000. Following are the results of all four tests.

$100 Bankroll, 1% Advantage

• Bets won = 7,182,811,698 (50.4999%)
• Bets lost = 7,040,599,544 (49.5001%)
• Player achieved $1,000,000 first = 79,438 (83.019%)
• Player went bust first = 16,249 (16.981%)
• Average number of bets to reach $1,000,000 = 174,972 (364.5 days at 8 hours per day, 60 bets per hour)

$100 Bankroll, 2% Advantage

• Bets won = 7,027,117,205 (51.0000%)
• Bets lost = 6,751,539,769 (49.0000%)
• Player achieved $1,000,000 first = 215,702 (98.099%)
• Player went bust first = 4,180 (1.901%)
• Average number of bets to reach $1,000,000 = 63,775 (132.9 days at 8 hours per day, 60 bets per hour)

$1,000 Bankroll, 1% Advantage

• Bets won = 5,213,026,190 (50.4999%)
• Bets lost = 5,109,817,544 (49.5001%)
• Player achieved $1,000,000 first = 74,818 (99.0285%)
• Player went bust first = 734 (0.9715%)
• Average number of bets to reach $1,000,000 = 137,208 (285.8 days at 8 hours per day, 60 bets per hour)

$1,000 Bankroll, 2% Advantage

• Bets won = 6,332,837,070 (50.9996%)
• Bets lost = 6,084,596,671 (49.0004%)
• Player achieved $1,000,000 first = 267,445 (99.9996%)
• Player went bust first = 1 (0.0004%)
• Average number of bets to reach $1,000,000 = 46,428 (96.7 days at 8 hours per day, 60 bets per hour)

These simulations prove that with just a small advantage of as little as 1% and a bankroll of as little as $100 you can grind your way to a million dollars through the gambling equivalent of compound interest. Yet you never hear of this actually happening. Could it be that these gambling systems don’t work after all?!

Here are some examples of system salesmen who try to take advantage of the mathematically challenged. There are hundreds of sites like these on the Internet, and this list is just a sampling. Frequently these sites vanish in the middle of the night, or suddenly direct traffic to a porn site. Please do let me know if any of these links don’t work or take you to other than the intended place.

Also, be warned that there are many others out there selling get rich quick gambling schemes that claim they are not betting systems. These sites usually throw out lots of fancy physics words like “chaos” and “fractals,” but display no evidence they know what these words mean. In the past, I have listed some such sites above but got angry letters claiming I shouldn’t criticize what I don’t understand. Personally, I feel that every method claiming an easy way to beat the casinos is a scam, and I don’t need to understand whatever the secret is. However, to be totally fair, I’ll only list betting systems above since those have been mathematically debunked by computer simulations. If anyone did find a truly easy way to beat the casinos, why aren’t they getting rich doing it?

The Wizard of Odds Challenge

For about six years, from 1999 to 2005, I offered $20,000 to anyone with a betting system that could show a profit over a one billion hand computer simulation. Here you can find the rules of the challenge. However, in all this time I only had one serious taker and hundreds of people wasting my time, pretending to be interested but never following through. So in January 2005, I took down the offer.

My webmaster, Michael Bluejay, now offers essentially the same challenge on his own site, VegasClick.com. If you accept his challenge, and win, I will be happy to state as such on the front page of this site, for proving the experts wrong.

A Fourth Experiment

Chumba Casino Strategy

On October 19, 2004, Daniel Rainsong accepted my challenge. Mr. Rainsong was so confident he would win he doubled the stakes to my $40,000 against his $4,000. Although the rules of the challenge are based on craps or roulette I allowed this challenge to be based on blackjack rules with a house edge of only 0.26%. Can a betting system beat a game with a house edge this small and a 1,028 bet spread? Visit my Rainsong Challenge page for all the details.

Please, Don't Write

I no longer respond to e-mails that suggest a player can beat a negative expectation game over the long run with a betting system. Such e-mail is deleted on sight. I have said all I have to say on the topic here and in my Gambling FAQ.

If you really want to discuss the topic, then I invite you not to do so at my forum at Wizard of Vegas, but instead one where you will be among like-minded people, like the forum atJohn Patrick's site (Update: This site has, not surprisingly, gone the way of the dodo bird).

Internal Links

Strategie Casino On Line

• Oscar's Grind betting system.
• Labouchere betting system.
• Fibonacci betting system.
• Martingale betting system.
• D'Alembert betting system.
• Keefer roulette system.

External Links

• Betting Systems and the House Edge, an article by Ph.D. mathematician Eliot Jacobson debunking betting systems.
• Betting Systems, an article by Michael Bluejay of VegasClick.
• German translation of this article.
• Debunking the “No Risk Don’t Come” betting system.

Written by: Michael Shackleford