Roulette and Other Games

Blackjack has received tremendous publicity because of card counting escapades, starting with Edward O. Thorp's revelations in the 1960s that blackjack could be beaten by card counting.

In other words, the greater popularity of craps and blackjack in this country has been more a matter of exposure and publicity than the rational thought processes of gamblers seeking to avoid a casino table game with slightly higher odds than its competitors.

The average craps and blackjack players, with their poor playing, give the house a much greater advantage than the average roulette player, to say nothing of the legions of slots players.
The question to be addressed in this website is whether roulette can be beaten by any means other than by pure luck. If it can, then there is no reason to avoid the game, as playing it is one of the more pleasant diversions I can conceive, and if it is possible to win as well, then the experience will not only be pleasant but at times exhilarating.
There are three basic approaches to playing the game. The first and most common way of playing is to use no system at all. This is the way the typical person plays, scattering chips all over the layout, playing favorite numbers based on his birth date, lucky numbers or just plain randomly. While it is possible to win playing this way, any winnings would have to be attributed to luck.
A second approach to is to apply a mechanical system to the game. There have been more systems devised for roulette than for any other casino table game as the roulette layout lends itself to almost endless combinations of wagering. Some of the roulette systems have exotic-sounding names such as Martingale, Labouchere, d'Alembert, and Ascot. Sizable winnings have been attributed to some of these mechanical approaches.