Roulette has so many possible bets, players always are exploring ways to combine them in the hopes they’ll hit on a way to beat the house.
Truth be told, there are no combinations to be discovered that haven’t been tried before. Modern roulette wheels with numbers 1 through 36 along with 0 and 00 were in use in France in the late 18th century. Players have been looking for just the right combination for more than 200 years.
Still, readers often send me their systems, as with this one from my email box.
“ What do you think of this roulette system? Two girlfriends and I always play together. One of us always bets $10 on the first column, one always bets $10 on the second column and one of us always bets $10 on the third column. We’re all rated as $10 players, so we get our comps, and we don’t really risk much because we have the numbers covered.”
If they play very much with that system, they’ll notice a pattern. Their combination never wins, and almost always loses money.
One numbers 1 through 36, one column will be a winner. Since winners are paid at 2-1, each win balances out the losses of the other two – your combined bets are $30, and after payoffs you still have $30. There is no way to win money.
However, a 0 or 00 wipes out all three bets. If the session includes one of the zeroes, the three of you are guaranteed $30 in losses, and it rises to $60 with two zeroes, $90 with three and so on.
The bottom line is that the combination of those three wagers is subject to the common double-zero roulette house edge of 5.26 percent. That’s a given when you play the game, but a system that can never have a winning session strikes me as self-defeating.
