A Martingale betting system is easy enough to illustrate. For example, in roulette a player bets $3. He wins, so he bets $3 again. If he loses this bet, he will bet $6. The next loss will induce him to raise the bet to double the previous bet so he will now bet $12. If he loses again, he will bet $24 on the next spin, and so on and so forth.

Limitations of the System

Unfortunately, the reality is that no one has an infinite amount of money. Today’s betting limits, imposed by the casinos themselves, reduce the effects of variance on them in the short term and thus introduce an impassable barrier in the form of a bet ceiling. Thus, if one wants to profit from a Martingale betting strategy, he or she’d be better off using it only for small-stake games. To maximize his or her chances, a player should select a game or table with a low minimum betting limit. He or she should be prepared to stake a minimum amount of $200, and know when to quit.

Another thing that affects a Martingale progression is that there are very few cases in which the bet probability is exactly 50-50. For example, in baccarat, there is a possibility of a tie between the banker and the player, which makes the probability of winning and losing slightly unequal. In roulette, the zero on the wheel serves to tip the odds slightly in the house’s favor. This is another reason a martingale should be played only for short durations.

There is also an anti-Martingale betting strategy, a mirror image of the Martingale. In it, a player doubles the bet after every win and goes back to the beginning of the progression after every loss.

The Martingale betting strategy has its origins in France. It is around 300 years old but has been described mathematically only since the mid-20th century. It is famous enough to have been featured in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. The term “Martingale” comes from the old French word “martengal” which literally refers to an inhabitant of Martigues.

Martigues is a commune northwest of the present-day city of Marseilles, an ancient town built on what once was the site of a Roman camp. Perhaps the inhabitants of the region were eccentric or strange enough to have become associated with the term, but the term itself is used to refer to equipment for controlling a horse carriage. The term’s most popular meaning, however, has to do with mathematical probability theory and betting.

Martingale probability refers to the mathematical expectation that the next succeeding value is based on the current value and the one preceding it. In short, it is a progression in which the next value is based on the current value and the one preceding this current value.

Martingale in Games of Chance

Martingale betting strategy takes this notion and attempts to apply this practically. It can be applied to any game of chance, such as roulette, baccarat, casino war, etc – any bet that comes with a 50/50 probability or close to it (such as roulette’s red/black). The reasoning behind the Martingale strategy is that no streak lasts forever. It dictates that a player double the amount he or she bets after every loss. This is supposed to help him or her to recover all prior losses and give a small profit, equal to the original stake. Stretched to infinity, and with a gambler possessing theoretically infinite wealth, it was seen as a sure thing, a win-win situation.