Roulette Myths Debunked

The roulette wheel holds a certain glamour that makes it an ever attractive choice, whether it’s in land-based casinos or online. Common depictions of roulette in film and on TV combine with irrational superstition and logical fallacies to create a number of myths, and inexperience players (and even some who should know better) still fall into these traps when deciding on the best strategy to take to the table.

Roulette is a game of pure chance and odds, and you need to have a firm grasp of both of these concepts as they apply to the roulette wheel if you want to play successfully. In dispelling the common misconceptions surrounding roulette, we’ve identified five of the most common myths about playing roulette that need firmly debunked.

In no particular order, here are those myths you should disregard, in favour of a more level-headed, winning approach.

Past Performance Dictates Future Probability

Roulette operators do nothing to dissuade you from thinking this is the case. The logic flows that if a specific number, colour or sequence of numbers have appeared in previous spins, they are unlikely to appear on the next spin. Players can get sucked into thinking that if the last five numbers were red, the chances of the next being black have increased.

This can lead to fuzzy thinking, and rash decision-making that isn’t justified when you look at the odds. Every time the roulette wheel is spun, each number or colour has an identical chance of coming up again – regardless of when it was last seen, or the rhythm of the last few spins. Don’t attach undue weight to patterns – they are meaningless in a truly random game like roulette.

It’s Possible To Perfectly Hedge The Board

Some players try to get clever once they’ve worked through the various different types of bets on offer. They feel they can hedge positions effectively by taking several different bets per spin. In reality, it’s impossible to reduce the house edge in roulette with this type of strategy, and while this sort of approach can work on particular spins, it’s not an advisable strategy for the long-term.

The house edge is still built in to every spin, so this type of approach is more like playing multiple spins at once – it doesn’t improve your odds of winning long-term. In fact, depending on the type of hedging strategy you’ve got in place, it can actually lose you more in a quicker timespan, unless you get a healthy dose of luck.

Martingale Is A Good Strategy

This is the classic gambler’s fallacy. You lose a bet at 1 unit, so your next bet has to be of a larger size to compensate your losses for the first. By the time you reach your fourth or fifth consecutive losing bet, you’re in a difficult situation. Chasing losses is never a good idea, and probability isn’t linear.

So if you’re choosing one number from the 37, it doesn’t mean you’ll see it appear after 37 spins. It might take 150 spins for your chosen number to appear, by which time this type of strategy will have left you bankrupt. There is no linear logic to choosing numbers, and no guarantee you’ll hit a winner with a bigger bet. Don’t use Martingale strategies – while you can get lucky, it’s a high risk move that will eventually cause you more serious losses.

You Have To Stick To One Type Of Bet

A lot of players make the mistaken belief that if they’re winning with one type of bet, or if they have a favourite, they should stick to it. The reality is there are a number of different betting options available to you in roulette, and none is necessarily better than the others. It’s ok to experiment, or to double up on certain bets other than single numbers or dozens.

In fact, it’s in your best interests to use all of the available bets at your disposal, rather than rigidly sticking to one in particular, to get the best ROI on your roulette time. Again, it’s easy to find patterns that don’t really exist, and this is the trap many players fall into when they choose the same ‘winning formula’ to play over the long term.

It’s Impossible To Win Big on Roulette

This is, of course, nonsense. While there are the usual factors to contend with like the house edge and probabilities, it’s still entirely possible to win big money on roulette. Whenever you’re playing a single number, you have a 1 in 37 chance of landing a 36x multiple – £3600 for a £100 bet on European Roulette

While you won’t win millions on a single spin unless you’re an extremely high roller who gets lucky, it’s still more than possible to win big money at the roulette table. Just make sure you avoid these common myths and fallacies along the way, if you want to be in with a chance of walking away in the black.