In roulette, the house will always have an advantage over the player. The house advantage or edge is the percentage relative to the bet that the player will lose on average. In America the house’s edge is 5.3% as the player has 1/38 chance of hitting a number. In European roulette, the house only has a 2.7% edge as the player has 1/37 chance of hitting a number.
There are quite a few roulette strategies that have emerged over the years. One of these are the Martingale Betting Strategy. This strategy implies that you double your bet every time you lose. When you eventually win, you will make everything you lost back, as well as make a profit equal to the original bet. This strategy can end up losing a player lots of cash!
Another roulette strategy to try out is to bet on one number for 35 spins of the wheel. If a player hits his / her number within the 35 spins, they will make all their money back. This isn’t a strategy to try if you want to make money, but rather to play for longer periods and stretch your bankroll. The probability of hitting your number within 35 spins however is still only (1-(37/3835))*100% = 60.68% on an American table (38 pockets).
There’s always the strategy of trying to bet on one color, like red for 38 spins. On a American roulette wheel there is 38 pockets of which 18 are red. Divide 18/38 and you get a probability of 47.37% of landing on red 18 times in 38 spins. A player would have to hit red 19 times in 38 spins just to break even, which gives you a 37% chance of breaking even… Not much of a roulette strategy.
In the past, at land based casinos, some people have successfully calculated the wear of a wheel by using computers and determining where the ball is most likely to land. Another computer device was created that calculated where the ball was likely to land by analyzing footage of the ball on the fly. None of these methods interfered with the path of the ball and could therefore not be seen as breaking any laws.