Is the Martingale Strategy a Viable Betting Strategy
If you’ve spent any time in either live casinos or playing at Australian online casinos, you’ve probably heard various betting strategies mentioned. One of the most commonly used betting strategies is the Martingale strategy.
Whether you’re playing blackjack, craps, or roulette, you’ve probably heard people claim that the Martingale strategy can be used to win consistently. Today, we are going to take a look at this strategy and see if the Martingale strategy is a good one to use playing online casino games.
What is the Martingale Strategy?
The Martingale system that’s used for betting and even investing was developed back in the 18th century by French mathematician Paul Pierre Levy. At its core, the strategy guarantees that a player will eventually turn a profit in a gambling game or at investing.
The way it works for gambling is that every time you make a bet and lose, you double your bet. When you win, you get back your losses, your current bet, and a one-unit profit. Let’s use Roulette as an example of how to use this strategy.
Let’s assume you’re betting on Red or Black. This is a 50-50 proposition that pays even money. You bet $1 on Black and lose. You then bet $2 and then lose. At this point, you’re down $3. Next, you double your bet again to four. This time Black hits and you win $8. You have recovered the $3 you lose, get back your $4 bet, and are now ahead by $1.
This strategy can be used for almost any game where the result is a yes or no type of result. For example, if you play the field in Craps, you can use this strategy. The same holds true for blackjack games. You can even play this for games like 3 Card Poker.
The Problems With the Martingale Strategy
While the Martingale strategy is simple to use, it does come with a couple of distinct problems. The first is that for this strategy to be the most effective, you have to have a very large or even infinite bankroll. While it is true that you will “eventually” win a game, there are times where someone can run up a long streak of losses before hitting that win.
Depending on your stakes, this can get very expensive. Let’s look at blackjack with a $5 table limit. Let’s assume you use the Martingale strategy to play a single hand. In the span of just 11 hands, you can go from playing $5 per hand to $5,120. Do you have $5,000 in your bankroll?
Next, many online casino games will not allow you to play high enough to support this strategy after a certain point. For example, in our blackjack example, there are many tables that have a $500 limit. That allows you to play 7 hands in the sequence before you are bumping against the table limit. This kills the effectiveness of the strategy.
Finally, the reward versus the risk is not worth it. Look at our blackjack example. Let’s assume you are at a high limit table and run the streak of losses up to 11 and then finally hit. You just wagered $5,120 to get ahead $5. Think of how maddening that will be over time. This type of betting can lead to desperation and even gambling addiction for some players.
Martingale Strategy Not a Viable Long-Term Solution
You will always find some people that swear by the Martingale system and those that claim that you can win big money with it. Sure, there are some people that have made money. However, many more people lose everything trying this system.
The risk vs. reward ratio is too high to make this a viable strategy. Some high rollers may find it a viable way to play online casino games, but their variance will be massive. For the majority of online casino players with a limited bankroll, this strategy should be avoided.