Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Roulette is my game of choice.
I was in Atlantic City this week and I went to the relatively new Borgatta casino with my homeboy Chris Hall and his wife, Becky. I played roulette for an hour and I broke even. For all intents and purposes, I got an hour of enjoyment for free (except for the $2.95 I got charged to use the ATM).
I like roulette because you can play for a while and bet relatively small amounts so that you don't spend your money too fast. It's not all that hard to break even either.
I thought about it for a while and was motivated to crunch some numbers in order to explain why roulette is dope. Let's assume you bet $1 on one number on every spin of the wheel. Most tables have a $10 minimum bet, which means you'll bet $1 on 10 different numbers each spin. If you do that, then your chances of winning are 10 in 38 (26.32%) and you'll need to win 2 out of every 7 spins (28.57%) in order to break even. Those are pretty good odds since the difference between the two is only 2.26%.
The interesting part, however, is coming up. If you bet $15 every spin, then your chances increase to 15 in 38 (39.47%), but you have to win 3 of 7 spins (42.86%) to break even. The difference between those odds has increased to 3.38%. Bet $20 per spin and your odds are 20 in 38 (52.63%) while you must win 4 of 7 spins (57.14%) to break even. The difference there is 4.51%.
So, by betting less money on each spin, you're actually increasing your total outcome by reducing the difference between your odds and the house odds. With each $5 increase in your bet, you're actually lessening your chance of winning by 1.13% in the long run. That's how the house makes money off of roulette, by letting you bet as much as you want. Their odds increase every dollar over the minimum that you bet.
The moral of the story is that you should play roulette because the odds are good and you should bet the bare minimum to have the best odds of breaking even. If you don't break even, then at least you'll have enjoyed the action over a longer period of time, rather than losing all at once.
I like roulette because you can play for a while and bet relatively small amounts so that you don't spend your money too fast. It's not all that hard to break even either.
I thought about it for a while and was motivated to crunch some numbers in order to explain why roulette is dope. Let's assume you bet $1 on one number on every spin of the wheel. Most tables have a $10 minimum bet, which means you'll bet $1 on 10 different numbers each spin. If you do that, then your chances of winning are 10 in 38 (26.32%) and you'll need to win 2 out of every 7 spins (28.57%) in order to break even. Those are pretty good odds since the difference between the two is only 2.26%.
The interesting part, however, is coming up. If you bet $15 every spin, then your chances increase to 15 in 38 (39.47%), but you have to win 3 of 7 spins (42.86%) to break even. The difference between those odds has increased to 3.38%. Bet $20 per spin and your odds are 20 in 38 (52.63%) while you must win 4 of 7 spins (57.14%) to break even. The difference there is 4.51%.
So, by betting less money on each spin, you're actually increasing your total outcome by reducing the difference between your odds and the house odds. With each $5 increase in your bet, you're actually lessening your chance of winning by 1.13% in the long run. That's how the house makes money off of roulette, by letting you bet as much as you want. Their odds increase every dollar over the minimum that you bet.
The moral of the story is that you should play roulette because the odds are good and you should bet the bare minimum to have the best odds of breaking even. If you don't break even, then at least you'll have enjoyed the action over a longer period of time, rather than losing all at once.
# posted by ChuckJerry : 7/14/2004 05:14:00 PM
