The Perfect Betting System!
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Did that get your attention? Sorry, but sadly the betting system that gives you an edge over the house is not invented yet, and it never will be. That doesn’t stop people from claiming otherwise, though, especially on the web, where you’ll occasionally run into websites trying to sell you get-rich-quick schemes in the form of previously unheard-of betting systems. In short: if you stumble upon a website trying to sell you a “secret” betting system that promises huge winnings in no time – avoid it like the plague.
One “Perfect” System
As an example, some gamblers may have heard of the Martingale system, the betting system in which you double your previous bet after each loss. It’s used in coin-flip games like roulette: if you bet $1 on red/black in roulette and lose, you bet $2 the next time and so on, figuring you have to win eventually, and when you do – you are back on your starting amount plus $1. This sounds like the perfect system. The problem is that after a rather short losing streak the bets will be huge. After a string of twelve losses (a quite possible scenario) starting at $1, you will be risking $4096 to win $1.
$1-$2-$4-$8-$16-$32-$64-$128-$256-$512-$1024-$2048-$4096, etc.
Even with an almost infinite bankroll, you also have to consider the maximum bet at the table. No matter how you look at it, the result is disastrous – you risk huge amounts of money to win a tiny one. If the starting bet is larger than $1, which it usually is, the risk increases exponentially.
System vs. Strategy
Some people make a nice profit selling systems like this one to unsuspecting recreational gamblers, but don’t waste your money. None of these systems work, more likely they do more harm than good.
Casino gambling is all about having fun, and sure, it’s exciting to have a chance to score a huge jackpot, no matter how small that chance actually is. Some times you will beat the odds, more often you won’t. Of course, there are good fundamental strategies available that can be applied to many casino games. For instance, if you play blackjack using a perfect strategy you will certainly win more often than the average player, but the house will still have a small edge.