Roulette Strategy Guide: Tips to Play Better and Longer

Most gamblers have a routine every time they step into a casino.

You walk past the garish slots, ignore the dreary blackjack tables, and don’t even think about setting foot in the dank poker room.

You make a beeline for the roulette tables, where the men are confident, the women are beautiful, and the math is fuzzy. I’ve been playing the game for 27 years, and it has yet to lose its thrill for me.

I’ve also seen it all at the table, including some of the most hackneyed betting strategies under the sun. Today I’ll discuss two saner ones, the Martingale and Paroli, breaking them down in plain English and with as few numbers as possible.

Will I show you how to beat the games? No, if I knew how, I’d keep that secret to myself (and I would probably be on my private super yacht somewhere, as opposed to writing about gambling for a living). But I will teach you when to use these strategies, when to play it straight, and how to always look like you know what you’re doing.

Like all other forms of gambling, roulette is a game of chance. So, you should never consider it a way to make money. In this guide, I’ll teach you strategies that will add a whole new dimension of excitement to the roulette game. But remember, it’s all about fun, excitement, and entertainment. So always gamble responsibly.

🧐 Know the Game

You’re already familiar with the roulette wheel: red and black alternating, a little ball bouncing, 37 or 38 numbers, and a certain number of green zero pockets (more on that in a second).

If you’re the type of player who just plops money down on the table and hopes to get lucky, then you’re missing out on some incredible fun and possibly value.

Let’s take a tour of the wheel first. There are actually two different roulette wheel layouts, European and American. The only difference is that a European wheel only has a single green zero.

This may not seem like much, but it has a massive effect on your odds. It literally cuts the house edge in half, from 5.26 percent for American to 2.7 percent for European.

That’s why I play European roulette whenever it’s offered. Some casinos don’t offer it all, which I find off-putting. It’s the gambling equivalent of ordering a Coke and being asked if Pepsi’s ok.

Moving on to the board, we have two basic bets: inside or outside. “Inside” refers to the strip of numbers in the middle of the board, while the outside bets run around the edges of the board.

To keep things simple, inside bets are high-risk, high-reward. You won’t win often, but they have the best payouts in the game. Outside bets have much better odds (betting red/black is very nearly a breakeven proposition), but you won’t win as much on them.

✅ Check the Rules

I get it, you go to the casino to gamble, not read fine print. But trust me when I tell you that spending thirty seconds reading the rules before you get started can save you a ton of cash in the long run.

Besides scoping out the layout, you need to know the table limits. This may seem like something that’s only of interest to high rollers, but if you’re employing a popular strategy like the Martingale, it could be something that absolutely breaks you.

The Martingale strategy basically operates on the idea that you keep doubling your bets after losses until you lock in a win. However, if you go on a cold streak and find that the table maximum eventually prevents you from doubling your bet, you’re absolutely sunk.

There are two other rules to look out for, and most players don’t know about them. Casinos definitely don’t advertise them, either, because they favor the player.

They’re en prison (French for “in prison”) and la partage (French for…um…"the partage"). 

En prison means that if you’re making even-money bets and the ball lands on a zero, your money is "imprisoned" for one more spin; win that spin, and you can break your cash out of jail.

La partage, on the other hand, means that you get half of your money back in the same situation.

One final thing to consider is whether to play live dealer roulette or one of the video options that uses an RNG. This is ultimately a matter of personal preference; I like live dealer roulette, because it feels like an authentic casino experience, but hardcore gamblers might prefer the speed with which video roulette operates.

I definitely play video roulette on those occasions when I have too much money in my account and am desperate to burn through some cash as quickly as possible.

💰 The Martingale Strategy

I’ve been employing the Martingale system at the roulette table from the moment I first heard about it. I also did very poorly in math while I was in school. There might be a correlation there.

The way it works is, you have a set amount you want to win, so you bet that amount on an even-money bet (red/black or odd/even). If you lose, you double every subsequent bet until you win, at which point you reset. 

It’s a great system that works until it doesn’t, and always brings to mind the famous quote by Jack Yelton: "There is a very easy way to return from a casino with a small fortune; go there with a large one."

🔴 What I Do When I Play Martingale

Let’s say I’m trying to win $100. I’ll go to the table and bet $100 on an even-money bet.

• If I win, great. Bet another $100 (or go home)
• If I lose, bet $200.
• If I lose that bet, make a $400 bet.
• If I lose that one, bet $800.
• Still unlucky? Let’s make it $1600.
• And so on.

If I won that $1600 bet, I’d get $3200, but it would have cost me $3100 to get there, just to get back to the original $100 profit I wanted.

Now imagine that I came to the casino with the hopes of winning $100, but now I’ve got $25,600 on the table. Talk about going from feeling like a genius to a sucker in just a few spins of the wheel.

🟰 Bad Math

It’s amazing how quickly you can go from betting pocket change to the mortgage when you’re using the Martingale system. 

Even if you’re just chasing a $5 win, you’re just six losses away from betting $160 on a single spin. And think about it, you’ll be risking $160 just to win five measly bucks.

The math doesn’t check out. That’s especially true if you bet bigger amounts. If you’re chasing a $100 win, you could be wagering $3200 within six unlucky spins.

And I know what you’re saying. “How likely is it that I’d lose six spins in a row, honestly?” Well, if you’re playing European roulette, the odds of hitting that kind of losing streak in 200 plays are about 84 percent.

I guess there’s a reason why the house can afford to build a fancy casino while I’m having to tip the cocktail waitress with a handful of nickels and an old button I found in my pocket.

😢 Martingale Misery

Technically, the Martingale system will work, provided you have an infinite bankroll and the casino never caps your bets. 

Back in the real world, though, it’s a recipe for stacking many small wins en route to a crippling loss. I’ve learned this one the hard way.

That first time I played using the Martingale system, I felt like I was in god mode. Kept grabbing win after small win; sure, it sometimes took a few bets to get there, but I was in no rush.

Then the losing streak happened. I watched the ball land on black eight times in a row. It wiped out my modest profits and everything else I brought with me that day.

And for some reason, people don’t want to lend you $2500 when they hear you’re going to use it to try to win $20. 

If you insist on using the Martingale system, you need to set a stop-loss, or a number you won’t exceed. It may mean walking away from the table a loser, but trust me when I tell you a modest loss stings a lot less than a devastating one.

☑️ Ego Check

The other danger involved with the Martingale system is one I alluded to above: you feel like you’re smarter than everyone else, especially after you keep stacking those small wins.

This feeds your ego and makes you think you can’t lose. Worse, it makes it harder to accept that you did lose, and that feeling is what keeps you reaching into your pockets, or sprinting to the ATM, all so you can chase a sucker’s bet.

It’s one thing to accept that you can’t beat the game. It’s quite another to accept that maybe, just maybe, you’re not as smart as you thought you were.

However, if you’re a new player or someone who’s able to keep their ego in check (so, not me), the Martingale system has its appeal. It has a rigid, easy-to-follow structure, so you always know exactly what to do at any point.

I’ve found that, for many people, losing money isn’t their biggest fear. Looking stupid at the table is. Martingale can save you from that, but only if you have a stop-loss in place.

💰 The Paroli Strategy

While I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Mr. Martingale for some time, a few years ago, I entered into a much healthier partnership with someone who knows how to treat me right.

His name is Mr. Paroli.

I heard about it from a baccarat-playing friend of mine. “You’ve got it all backwards,” he told me. “You should be doubling your wins, not your losses.”

And you know what? He has a point.

The Paroli system is often called the reverse Martingale, because you double your bet every time you win but stay flat on losses. 

Nerds will tell you that this system isn’t any more mathematically sound than the Martingale system (and they’re right), but here’s the thing: it feels completely different.

You’ll never be staring down the barrel of a massive, make-or-break bet using Paroli, and if you do have a ton of cash on the table, it will be paid for with profit rather than coming out of your bankroll. 

If Martingale is the man who looks good but keeps you financially trapped, Paroli is the sugar daddy who’s more than happy to fund your adventures at the table.

🟢 How I Run My Paroli Sessions

Here’s how one of my Paroli sessions typically looks:

• I bet $100 on either red/black or even odd. 
• If I win, I make it $200 for the next spin. Lose, I just tossed another $100 chip out there.
• If I win that one, it’s $400. Remember, I’m not digging into my pocket here — I’m just letting my winnings ride.
• I have a “stop-win” after 5 winning spins. Meaning, if I were to win the $1600 bet in this session, I’d pocket the winnings and start back at $100.

Having a stopping point is just as important in Paroli as it is in Martingale, except here it’s to protect your profits instead of to manage your losses.

😀 Why I Actually Like the Paroli Strategy

Stopping in Paroli feels much better, though, since in the above case I’d be walking away with a cool $3100 off my initial $100 stake ($100 + $200 + $400 + $800 + $1600 = $3100).

Oh, and remember how I talked about ego at the table? It’s much easier to walk away telling yourself that you’re the smartest guy in the casino when you’ve just quadrupled your money than it is to walk away with a hole in your pocket where your bankroll used to be.

It’s still best if you use Paroli in short bursts rather than as your bedrock strategy. I’ll get into the nuts and bolts in a little bit, but the main thing to remember is that extended winning/losing streaks are still relatively rare.

The emotional stakes are much different, however. Imagine there was a button you could press that would give you a 1-in-155 chance of making $3,000 and a 1-in-155 chance of blowing through the entire contents of your checking account.

Would you press it? Yeah, me neither.

🤑 Greed Is Good?

One thing both the Paroli and Martingale systems have in common is the feeling of crushing regret you feel when you wait too long to walk away. 

Humans are funny creatures, and our brains don’t always make a lot of sense. There’s a psychological principle called “the house money effect.” Basically, it means that people don’t tend to view money they win as “theirs,” and as a result, they’re more likely to take risks with it.

Am I talking about all the times I pressed my luck after running $5 into $80 and lost it all? Yes, yes, I am.

But here’s another thing about our stupid brains: at a certain point, something called “the endowment effect” begins to take hold, and we start to feel some ownership over the money on the table.

We’re also hardwired to be loss-averse, which means we feel more pain from losing things than we do pleasure from getting things.

The point of my little psychology master class is this: losing money you built up over a winning streak often feels just as bad as losing all the money you brought to the casino, if not worse.

I can’t stress this enough: have a stopping point and stick to it. 

Otherwise, you’ll just be another sad sack in the bar telling everyone your sob story about how you almost made it.

🆚 Martingale or Paroli?

One of the beautiful things about using any betting system is that it takes the guesswork out of playing the game — but how do you know which system to use in which situation?

Don’t worry, I got you:

% Simulations

One of the major problems with both of these betting strategies is that most of the literature on them is anecdotal in nature. Hearing things like “I’ve never lost more than 5 spins in a row” or “My Paroli system is a guaranteed winner” may be encouraging, but it’s not, y’know, data.

That’s why I decided to run the numbers myself. I wanted to find out what the actual odds of an extended losing streak are, as well as how they can affect your bankroll.

Here’s what I found:

A couple of things about this data:

• I defined “a session” as any block of spins equal to the amount of losses in question. So, if you spin the wheel 8 times in a row 190 times, you’d expect to have all of those spins be losses one time on average.
• You can see how ridiculous some of these bets can get. If you lose 10 spins in a row, the next spin will see you betting over ten grand in the hopes of winning five bucks.
• It’s also worth noting that most tables will have bet caps that won’t let you get to more than 10x your stake. I don’t know of any $5 roulette table that would let you bet $20k a spin, for example.

While the math is straightforward, I decided to simulate for my own benefit. I simulated 1,000 spins, using the Wesley Snipes strategy of always betting on black. 

I also stipulated that I would have a $1,000 bankroll and bet $5 at a time.

It worked great…for a while. I was basically breaking even (minus some fairly big swings) until about 850 spins in. Then it happened: 7 reds in a row.

This didn’t technically bankrupt me, and luckily, the next spin landed on black. But I wouldn’t have been able to make an 8th bet if that one had lost.

It drove home one of the most powerful lessons of all: the wheel doesn’t care about your strategy. 

The wheel abides.

💲 The Game Plan

I might have been a bit pessimistic about how I’ve dealt with the various roulette strategies so far, but there’s a reason.

Most people who push these strategies tout them as “can’t-lose” propositions. That’s not the case. If you play the house (and you don’t cheat), you will lose. Always.

That’s why they’re the house.

I didn’t want any of you to walk away with the sense that these strategies could turn you into a long-term winner. However, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have their place, and it certainly doesn’t mean that I never use them.

With that in mind, here’s what I actually do when I play roulette:

• I typically bet a single unit every time. That unit is usually 1/100 of my total bankroll for the session. I do this because I enjoy playing the game, and this will maximize my time at the table. I’m not really trying to get rich here.
• My loss limits depend on the situation. As a broader strategy, I bring a set amount of money to the casino, and when that’s gone, I’m done. I then play until either the money’s gone, I have to leave due to time constraints, or because I get tired.
• All that being said, some tables “feel” different from others. If I think the table is hot, I might switch to Paroli for a little bit. If the table’s running cold, I keep the Martingale strategy in my back pocket in case I need it.

Ultimately, it’s a matter of what feels best for you. Just be sure you’re in control, not your system.

🔥 Mixing Strategies

While my actual roulette strategy often depends on my mood at the time, I often use either the Martingale or Paroli strategies depending on my luck.

For example, if I lose more than three spins in a row, I’ll often do a quick Martingale run to get back to even. It’s a relatively low-risk play in the short term, and I have a stop loss to ensure I nip any catastrophic runs in the bud.

Similarly, if I’m on a hot streak, I’ll often switch to Paroli in order to capitalize on it. It’s a great way to maximize your earnings if you’re running good, but only if you know when to quit. With either strategy, I stop after 5 losing/winning spins and reset back to my normal bet amount.

Some other strategies you might want to experiment with:

• Playing the Paroli strategy after every win, then switching to Martingale after three straight losses. This helps limit your exposure while also letting you ride hot streaks.
• Play a soft Paroli in which you reset after three wins. If you lose the first bet, switch to Martingale to recover it. The idea here is to build momentum with a series of small wins while erasing any losses.
• You can also try what I call the “two-step method,” where you double your bet after every win, then reset. You can balance this by playing the Martingale system once after each loss. This keeps the risk to a minimum while also keeping you engaged in the action.

No matter what strategy I use, though, I always make sure to brag to the table that I have an unbeatable system. Trust me, people love to hear all about it.

💡 Final Thoughts

Roulette is a great game. It’s easy to learn, it’s challenging, and it can be incredibly exciting both online and in a casino. 

However, as great as it is, it’s not a viable career. No matter how you play, you’ll end up losing in the long run. It’s only a matter of how fast you hand your money over to the casino.

So by all means, play your Martingales, your Parolis, your twirling Gambinis, and your Monte Carlo’s Revenge (I might have made those last two up). They’re a lot of fun and they keep the game fresh, but they’re not guarantees you’ll win.

At the end of the day, all that matters is whether or not you had fun. Try to keep that in mind.