Gambling, being one of the world’s oldest forms of entertainment and sport, has an intricate connection with every human being. At first sight, it seems like a simple game of chance, which, given a sufficient number of bets, could easily be won. Just like a typical rag to riches story. However, most people realise it fairly quickly that ‘easy’ is the last word that must come to your mind when you start gambling.
It is due to this anomaly and perception that the genesis of betting systems took place. People realised that, in spite of a 50% probability associated with most bets in the gambling world, you could continuously lose bets as well as financial solvency before that prodigal winning bet as per the mathematical probability. Due to their inherent simplicity and logic, betting styles of varied hues and styles are now quite popular among professionals and amateurs alike.
Betting Systems Galore
Numerous successful strategies have given birth to a similar number of betting systems which work to manipulate betting capital or player behaviour depending on the situation. In general, these betting systems can be of two types, negative progressive and positive progressive systems. Using the negative progressive system, players are advised to increase their betting amount after every loss and decrease the amount after every win. The positive progressive system works in the opposite manner – players are expected to decrease their betting amount after every loss and increase the amount after every win. The most popular ones are listed below:
- Martingale Betting Systems
It is considered one of the oldest systems used for betting and employs negative progression in its strategy. Baccarat, Craps and Roulette are the popular games where this system is applicable, and it guides players to keep their betting amount same after every win and increase to double the previous amount after every loss.
As an example, if your initial betting amount is £5 and you win that bet, then, you must wager £5 again. However, if you lose, the next wager must be £10, and if you lose again, the next must be £20. The central theme is that at the winning hand, you recover all your losses to earn a net of £5 at least. However, this may not be the case if you have a long streak of losses and the betting amount would rise astronomically. You may run out of your bankroll or the casino might reach its limit in those cases.
- Paroli Betting Systems
Paroli is a system developed more than 400 years ago and is a positive progression system. While it is very popular with gamblers even today, it is not a sure-fire way of success.
The methodology in case of Paroli works with the player betting the same amount after every loss and doubling the previous amount bet after every win. This way, it is ensured that the losses incurred will not be very large as it can be in negative progression systems. However, the winning potential also becomes small but consistent in nature.
Conclusion
Apart from these, there are numerous other betting systems like Labouchere, Fibonacci, D’Alembert and Contra D’Alembert systems, all of which have their own advantages and disadvantages. Thus, the choice of a system essentially boils down to the game and the gameplay chosen by the players.
