Roulette: Why Scientists Have Always Had Obsession About It

In many ways, roulette is seen as the ultimate casino game. Or put another way, the ultimate game of chance. People can claim to be “good” at poker and blackjack, something that leads to the arguments that these are games of skill, not chance.

But you will never hear someone claim to be a talented roulette player. The randomness of the outcome is part of the allure. You don’t need to think about it: Just place your bets and leave the outcome in the lap of the gods.

And yet, that’s only half the story. Nearly all versions of European and American roulette have a mathematical flaw. This is most often shown up in the Martingale Strategy. This requires the doubling of bets on an even money outcome (betting on Red/Black, Odd/Even) until the winning result is achieved. The math is completely sound in this respect. It works like this:

Bet 1 = $10. It loses.

Bet 2 = $20. It loses.

Bet 3 = $40. It loses.

Bet 4 = $80. It wins.

The total outlay is $150 ($80 + $40 + $20 + $10), whereas the winnings from the last bet total $160, meaning the total profit is $10. This works regardless of how high your bet goes. But before you go rushing off to play roulette, remember there are drawbacks to the Martingale strategy. First of all, roulette tables usually have betting limits, so you cannot simply keep doubling up forever if you keep losing (even if you had the money). Secondly, the total profit is only ever going to be equal to the first bet amount: So, if you started on a $1 bet, that’s the most you could ever make from using Martingale. As such, it’s not recommended.

But what if we took things a little further than this: What if we looked to convincingly beat the roulette table? Well, that’s what scientists have been trying to do for years, with mixed results. Indeed, one of the greatest mathematicians in history, Alan Turing, was said to have a mild obsession with defeating the roulette wheel. If you don’t know Turing, he’s the guy who broke the Enigma Code during the Second World War, which forms the basis of the movie, The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Chaos Theory provides the keys to success

Anyway, Turing’s obsession focused on using equations to try to predict the game’s outcome. Was he successful? No, but he sure did try. And that sense of believing that there is a way to predict a seemingly random outcome has been picked up by other scientists. Probably the most successful were those who looked at the problem from another angle. Random is another way to describe chaos, so why not apply Chaos Theory?

In 2012, a group of researchers used Chaos Theory to predict the region of the wheel where the ball would end up in. The story, which was picked up by Forbes magazine, showed that they were correct 59% of the time. That might not sound like much, but in roulette, it is a formidable weapon to make profit. Other successful roulette strategies saw scientists use Newton’s Laws of Motion to get an idea of where the ball would land roughly. Again, if you know roulette, you’ll know that having a rough proximity of where the ball will land could be hugely beneficial.

In the end, though, it’s worth pointing out that these are scientists applying theories that are beyond most of us to understand. If we go to the casino or log in online to play roulette, we aren’t going to be able to beat the house. If you are not a scientist capable of mathematical theories or astounding inventions, probably best to leave it in the lap of the gods. Moreover, perhaps the best way to enjoy the game is to experience the fun of the random outcome.

More info about Roulette

Roulette is a gambling game that is played on a large wheel with numbered slots. Players place bets on which number they think the ball will land on when the wheel is spun. They can also place bets on a group of numbers or on whether the number will be odd or even. If the ball lands on the number they bet on, they win money. It’s a game of chance, so there is no way to predict where the ball will land.

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