Betting Systems vs House Edge: Who Will Win?
Gambling is a billion-dollar entertainment industry, but to some players, entertainment is not enough. They want to win, to make a profit not once in a blue moon but consistently. Standing in their way is the house edge, designed to give the advantage to the casinos. So, these players invent systems of betting that will finally take down the casino — except…they actually won’t.
Are Betting Systems Complicated?
Not at all, no one is a scientist here. In fact, if you place the same bet for the whole time, you’re basically using a betting system called flat bet. Betting systems simply dictate how much one bets and how many bets he makes.
Betting Systems vs House Edge
Even though some betting systems can be effective in a short period, no system actually increases your chances to win, long or short term, much less guarantee a profit. Neither stemming from superstition nor mathematics can a system overcome the house edge — unfortunately, gambling has had a long history of making money for the casinos, not the gamblers.
The house edge simply gives the casino an advantage over players. Since this advantage is a percentage — even as low as 0.5% — no combination of increasing/decreasing the bet size will have an effect on it. Not consistently and not in the long run.
A Few Popular Betting Systems
There are too many to count, but these are some of the most common betting systems out there:
The Martingale
If you want to use the Martingale, you have to play an even-money game. Basically this system doubles your bet every time you lose until you win one round. The point is because the bet keeps increasing twofold, by the time you win, the prize is big enough to cover all the previous losses plus a small profit.
Is the Martingale mathematically foolproof? Absolutely. Then why doesn’t everybody use it? Because to use this system, you have to possess enough money to keep betting. If your first bet is $5 and you lose 10 times, your 11th bet has to be $5120. And when you finally win, guess what, you just made a $5 profit.
What usually happens when people use the Martingale is that they run out of money to put in one more bet, thus suffering from a huge loss quickly.
The Winning Streak System
Contradicting to the Martingale, the Winning Streak system increases the bet only after you win. The added amount can be 10%, 25%, 50%…whichever you like. There is no mathematical equation to this system — the point is that you’re just trying to take advantage of a winning streak.
When you lose, you go back to your initial bet, which helps to prevent players from blowing their bankroll. This is indeed a much safer betting system than the Martingale but when you experience a win-loss-win-loss pattern, you will lose much more money than you win.
The Quarter Bet
Gamblers using the Quarter Bet will always bet a quarter of the money they have, winning or losing. This system is of course not a key to a gambling profit, but it’s one way to appropriately control how much you bet.
When your budget is $500, you will place a bet of $125. When it drops to $100, you will instead bet $25. The Quarter Bet is a good option if you want to expand your playing time because it ensures that you never spend all of your money.
