Almost everyone who plays Roulette has the same notion of how to win the game. They concentrate on correctly predicting where the ball will land and betting to optimize the payout for winning when it does. But as the House edge dictates, winning is less likely that losing on every spin. To cope with this, players come up with systems to progressively wager more until they recover their losses.

The idea of Reverse Roulette Betting turns this concept of how to play completely on its head. It begins by accepting that Roulette is a game of negative expectation. Instead of focusing on how to win back what has already been lost, it looks at the likelihood of losing on the next spin and how combinations of bets can lower that probability.

Fewer Losses, More Profit

To the Reverse Roulette player, decreasing the odds of losing is the same as increasing the odds of winning. The goal is to separate the House from its advantage on each spin of the wheel by using combinations of bets.

For example, the odds of winning a wager on the first dozen are 12:37 or 32.43%. The odds of losing are 25:37 or 67.57%. The same is true of a bet placed on the first column; it can be expected to lose 67.57% percent of the time. However, the odds of losing when the two bets are placed in combination are much different. Such a wager covers 20 of the 37 numbers and four of them will overlap. Sixteen of the covered numbers will result in a “push” if they come up—neither a win nor a loss. Now the odds of losing are based only on the remaining uncovered numbers, i.e., 17:37 or 45.95%.

In effect, the two wagers combined have the effect of decreasing the possibility of losing. But unfortunately, they also decrease the probability of a win, since now only four numbers can produce a profit instead of twelve and 4:47 is just 10.81%. This is where the Reverse Roulette bettor asks, “What would happen if the same twenty numbers were played straight up?”

When betting one unit on each of the twenty numbers, the odds of winning shoot up to 20:37 or 54.05%. The odds of losing remain the same. In effect, this is a trade-off, giving up the possibility of a double win on four numbers for the chance to win something an additional sixteen numbers.

A Reverse Crystal Ball

Of course, twenty units may seem like a lot to wager on a single turn of the wheel, so the Reverse Roulette bettor may cover the same twenty numbers as ten split bets. It is also possible to cover twenty numbers as five sets of corners with just five units at risk. And some players may choose to bet seven “streets” (rows of three numbers), increasing the odds of winning to 21:37 or 56.76%.

Also, instead of trying to position the chips where the ball is likely to land, the Reverse Roulette bettor may take an opposite approach, trying to figure out where the ball will not come to rest, and then betting everywhere else. With 20 numbers to cover, this can be as simple as predicting the ball will not come up on zero, a number in the third column, or any black number in the second dozen. That eliminates 17 numbers, leaving 20 on which to wager.

The key to successful Reverse Roulette Betting is to think outside the box. The game is as much about avoiding losses as it is about gaining profits. It is also about accurately predicting what will not happen as well as what will.