History Of The Martingale System

Many bettors rely on betting systems to help them win big or at the very least lose only a manageable amount of money. The Martingale System is one of the oldest betting systems ever and it is a very simple one that can be used by anyone – if you have the resources needed to make it work.

So what is the Martingale System?

The Martingale System is also called Doubling Up. If you are using the martingale system then you would simply double your previous bet every time you lose a bet until you eventually win. Although this might not make sense to some the system is actually one of the truly infallible systems out there. When you make a bet and lose and then double your bet, doubling your bet will give you a chance to cover your previous bet and also win one betting unit.

Here’s an example to make it clearer. Let’s make $5 our betting unit. If you place a $5 bet and win you’ll come home with $5 more in your pocket. If you lose you have to bet double the original money, which is $5, making the wager $10. In case you win this bet you win $20. Since you’ve spent $5 before plus you $10 bet you actually make a $5 profit, which is your original betting unit. So in order to win big your betting unit has to be big too since you will always win just the original amount you bet with this system. Doubling your bet will always work since you are bound to win at least once if you continue to do this enough number of times.

So what’s the catch? Although statistics say that it is impossible for you not to win eventually you can still lose money using the Martingale system for two simple reasons.

1. If you don’t have enough resources. As mentioned above the system can be used by anyone and is actually infallible for anyone who has a huge enough bankroll. Take for instance the $5 betting unit example we used above. It is actually quite rare that you’ll win on your second bet. In case you do win on your 20th bet you’ll at least need to have had doubled the money 20 times over making your 20th bet worth $2,621,440.

That’s investing a lot of money just to win $5!

Since 99% of the people on earth don’t have that much money to spend, chances are that you also would have to quit before you win – and lose a substantial amount of money in the process. Remember that you not only lose the $2,621,440 if you lose on the 20th bet too but all the previous bets you made as well.

2. Casinos usually having maximum betting limits. Unless you find a place with absolutely no betting limits you’ll find that it is quite impossible to use this system and expect to win every time. Casinos know the danger of the Martingale system and protect themselves with betting limits since probability-wise you’ll reach the limit before even winning a wager.

Hence, though the Martingale System is infallible theoretically, it is actually a bogus system when applied to real life situations. In other words, you should avoid it at all costs!