Why is it a dumb idea for me to go to a casino and play roulette ONLY until I double my money or break even?

586 views

So I don’t gamble, and don’t ever indend to make it a habit.

But a friend told me to play roulette, and I would have a ~47% chance of doubling my money and , as long as I had enough money to keep doubling my stake, would have a ~95% break even if I kept going until I won and never played again.

So say I had $200k in the bank and always put my money on red

Spin 1 : $5K

Spin 2: $10K

Spin 3: $20K

Spin 4: $40k

Spin 5: $80K

Spin 6: $160k

In this scenario, I’d have a ~47% chance of winning $5k, and just a 2% chance of losing $160k?

EDIT: Although just working this out, I think I would probably put the 160k into a 4% savings account if I had it, or start off way smaller amounts e.g. $500 to reduce my chane of losing money significantly lol.

In: 8

46 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Table limits.

Let’s say the table has a maximum bet of $50k (it’s usually much less than that, but let’s go with that to match your example). This means that if you don’t win in the first four spins, you won’t get a chance on the fifth spin to get your money back. The odds of losing four spin a row are not out of the question, so you can easily drop $75k just like that.

You are viewing 1 out of 46 answers, click here to view all answers.