Roulette strategies have floated around for years. Way back in 1971, Englishman Patrick O’Neil-Dunne tested A multitude of Roulette strategies at a Roulette marathon consisting of 20,000 spins at Roulette table number 14 at the Macao Casino. Spanning a full month between April and May of that year, he tested every alleged Roulette system, including one that he himself had devised.
What transpired over the month was that no strategic system gave any return on his investment. He initially believed that a strategy composed of bets on one column (12 numbers) would in fact prove effective, but it too eventually failed. His Roulette strategy was to bet on a column that had not been hit for 6 or more spins in a row. He would then play that column using the Martingale betting system – first 1-2-4-8-16-34 through six spins. If he had not emerged victorious after six spins, he would drop the sequence and begin anew. The reasoning behind this is was mainly the cost of the Martingale progression system – it would simply become too expensive to continue playing without winning.
O’Neil was smart enough to recognize that all Roulette strategies will fail in the long run, and so he struck while the iron was hot and turned big profits from this system. During the course of his 20,000 spins, only one single time out of every hundred spins did an even money bet lose more than eight times in a row. O’Neil was actually drawn to betting on numbers that had not been hit for a long stretch of time. He believed that once such a number was hit, it would soon be hit again. He found success covering numbers that fit this criteria, especially ending numbers such as: 6-16-26-36. When these numbers had been quiet for 36 straight spins, he would cover them with chips.
After his 31 days of Roulette play, O’Neil (and his crew of Roulette players) wound up with a net profit of $191,148, which doesn’t even count what was sure to be a large amount of tip money given to the casino’s staff. He placed bets ranging in size from $1 all the way up to $500. In the book “Roulette for the Millions” (Chicago 1971), you can read all about how O’Neil planned the 31 days of Roulette gambling adventure, as well as the conclusions that he drew upon the completion of the marathon. It’s interesting to note that in spite of his massive winnings, O’Neil still admitted that his success was due in larger part to luck than mathematics.