Roulette: The ultimate advanced strategy

The game of roulette is among the most popular options for casino bettors worldwide, and even people who have never placed a single bet are familiar with the famed wheel on which the game is played. One thing that everyone knows, for example, is that roulette is a game of random chance. Between you placing your bet, and the ball coming to a stop in one of the wheel’s (37 or more) sections, nothing you do or say can affect the outcome of the game.

Is it therefore misguided to imagine that you can take a strategic approach to a game where the outcome is rooted in blind luck? Well, not exactly. As we will see in the two examples below, there is such a thing as roulette strategy. No, we’re not going to tell you how to make the ball stop in the section you’ve bet on – unfortunately, that’s never going to happen. What our tips will show you is how to increase your chances of a win, and maximise your profits when you do win.

However, there is one caveat before we discuss these strategies: What we are covering here is advanced roulette strategy. If you want to put these tips into practice, we’d advise you to begin with free, just-for-fun versions of online roulette so you can find your feet before playing for real. When you’ve built a practical understanding of the strategy, you can then move on to playing with actual money.

Strategy #1: The “Lucky Seven” System

The “Lucky Seven” system requires a significant bankroll, so keep this in mind if you’re intending to give it a try. The bankroll is required due to a quirk of the way the system works; the more times you lose – because winning can never be guaranteed if you want to make a profit – the more money it is going to take to see a return. How much of a bankroll? Well, it varies, but for reference, a bankroll of £420 will be enough to cover twelve consecutive losses.

The Lucky Seven system involves picking seven numbers and betting on each of them. You will stick to these numbers for the duration of the system, and they can be any seven numbers on the wheel. For clarity, you should be aware that the strategy was devised for use on “European” roulette tables with a single green “0”, and depends on the table having odds of 35:1 on each single number.

On your initial play, you will place £1 on each of the seven numbers you have selected. This makes your initial bet £7. If you win on your first spin, you will get a return of £35 for a £7 bet, putting you £28 in profit. If you lose, you then place another £1 on the same numbers. You’ve now staked £14, meaning your profit if you win this time will be £21.

You maintain this system until the fifth spin, at which point you increase the bet to £3 per number. The reason for increasing the bet is because, after five spins of the wheel, even if your bet wins, you still will not be in profit. The system goes on, raising bets at specified intervals until you walk away with a profit or fully deplete your bankroll.

For the sake of clarity, let’s set it out spin by spin.

Spin 1: You bet £1 per number, you have staked £7. If you win, your profit is £28.

Spin 2: You make the same bet, your total stake is £14, and if you win your profit is £21.

Spin 3: You have staked £21, your winning profit would be £14.

Spin 4: You have staked £28, your profit would be £7. Now you increase your stake.

Spin 5: You bet £3 per number (£21). Winnings of £105 – your stake of £49 = £56 profit

Spin 6: Same bet. You have now staked £70, and your profit would be £35. If you haven’t won anything, increase your bet to £5 per number.

Spin 7: At £5 per number, your stake for this spin is £35 and you have now staked £105 in total. With a win here, you’ll get £175, a profit of £70.

Spin 8: Same bet, you have now staked £140 and your winning profit would be £35. If you still haven’t had a win, increase your bet to £7 per number.

Spin 9: Your stake for this spin is £49, and your overall total stake is £189. If you win, the payout is £255. Your profit is £66.

Spin 10: Same bet, you have now staked £238. Your winning profit would be £17. If you still haven’t won, up the bet again, this time to £13 per number.

Spin 11: With a £91 stake here, your total is now £329. If you win, the winnings will be £455 and your profit £126.

Spin 12: After staking a total of £420, a win here will deliver you a £35 profit.

This system can continue, with you adjusting the bets as required, for as long as you have bankroll. In truth, if you bet on the same seven numbers each time, you should usually expect to see a return before it ever gets to twelve spins – but this is roulette, a game of chance, so there’s never any guarantees.

As soon as you win anything, go back to Spin 1 and (if you wish) select seven new numbers. The beauty of this system – when it works – is that it delivers back all your previous losses plus a profit. Therefore, there’s no need to increase your bet when you win. The drawback, as you can see, is that the amount you stake can get to a pretty substantial sum before you actually land that win, which is limiting for those with a smaller bankroll.

Strategy #2: The Labouchere System

Named after the bettor who created it, the Labouchere system is based on picking a sequence of consecutive numbers. For simplicity, we’ll say you pick 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, though do note that any sequential numbers will suffice.

So, with your numbers picked, you now need to put the Labouchere System into practice. To do so,  you take the first and last numbers of your sequence, add them together, and place that amount on an even-money bet. That could be “Red or Black”, or “Odd or Even”, for example. In our example, we would add 1 and 5 together, and bet £6 on Black. If the bet wins, we would then remove the two numbers from our sequence, leaving us with 2, 3 and 4. If it loses, we add the amount we bet to the end of the list, leaving us with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. We would, therefore, bet £7 on an even-money outcome on the next spin.

The system continues until you have worked your way back to the middle digit(s) of your list, and placed a winning bet with that stake. In our example, if we win the first bet, we’d have won £6. We would then bet 2+4 (£6) on the next outcome, and if that wins, be left with 3. If that bet won, we would then have won £15 (1+2+3+4+5) in total.

If the initial bet lost, we would have lost £6, and needed to bet £7 (1+6) on the next spin. If that won, we’d then need to bet £7 again (2+5), and then another £7 to “clear” 3 and 4. That would represent wins of £21 and a loss of £6, again for a total win of £15. Even-money bets should come up pretty often, so you shouldn’t find your list (and therefore your stake) growing too much, but it is still wise to settle on an amount you can afford to lose before you play – and if you reach that amount, walk away. However, hopefully, the system will show a return before such a step becomes necessary.

In conclusion

As the above strategies show, while you cannot ever guarantee a win at the roulette table, you can do a lot to maximise what you win when they come. Nevertheless, it’s important to keep in mind the two golden rules to follow with roulette or any form of betting: Never bet more than you can comfortably lose, and quit while you’re ahead. As long as you keep those in mind you can have a fun and productive, time playing roulette using one of the above systems.

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