Beating the House!!!

For someone who was forbidden to play memory using cards, I have come a long way in discovering and understanding the nuances of poker and blackjack. I should admit however that roulette is the first "casino" game (probably the simplest too!) that caught my attention when a friend of mine narrated his experience at a casino (fortunately, he found providence).

I hadn't seen a roulette wheel until then. So he explained it from scratch. I understood that it is a game of betting and each bet has a fixed probability of winning. And more the risk, more they pay. My rather naive mind began to wonder why people didn't play roulette full-time to make money, but quickly realized how big an advantage the house enjoys in roulette.

Inspite of that I must have spent a couple of evenings researching "how to beat the house" from various online sources. Many mathematical system from greats like fibonacci fail to conquer roulette. These systems are based on certain assumptions that are forbidden in modern casinos, ergo invalid. I tried to create my own method of betting that would be effective, but soon figured out that all systems spiralled to the inevitable truth - the house is always 2 steps ahead of everyone (0 & 00).

Incidentally I came across an amazing book titled "the eudaemonic pie" which is a true story of how a few engineers and scientists (in their quest to make millions) device a method to predict the number on which the ball would land in the spinning roulette wheel, all in real time using microcomputers programmed into their shoes.!! The predicting equation similar to what NASA used to find out where a spaceship orbitting the moon would land. Pretty cool eh??!! (and all this more than 2 decades ago???)

Einstien said "the only way to beat the house at the roulette table is to steal money when the dealer is not watching". According to me, the only way not to lose to the house is by not playing it.

-Vijayasarathy-