n most games like poker and blackjack, getting to an expert level takes some considerable time. This is basically the way of things for all games that have advantages for the skilled player. Backgammon is another such game where the skilled player has a huge advantage given an adequate sample size. But in casino games where the player cannot possibly gain an edge then it is a different story.

Someone could have been playing roulette for years but unless they are using cheating methods then they cannot possibly make the game pay. There are ways that involve visual prediction but they do involve an awful lot of practice and even then, success is not guaranteed. This is where roulette systems have their place in casino gambling because they can quantum leap forward a novice player to a level that is at least equal to someone who has been playing roulette for years and in many cases they will return more money.

This may sound staggering but it is absolutely true. The system player faces two main problems, the first is the house limits and the second is to do with risking large amounts of money to win relatively little amounts like with conventional systems like the Martingale.

However it certainly does not need to be this way as there are many roulette systems that a novice can learn that have very little chance of reaching the house limit or require a huge bankroll caused by a rapid escalation of bets. This is where betting systems like the Reverse Labouchere can really come into their own.

This system was made famous by Norman Leigh in his highly entertaining book Thirteen Against the Bank where he took twelve individuals to Nice and won over £60,000 which for the year (1966) was a very considerable sum of money. In fact the casinos were so spooked by what happened that they alerted the police and stopped the team from playing.

The system basically works like this, a series of numbers are written down like so…….1,2,3,3,2,1. The first bet is the first and last numbers in the line so if you are betting in dollars then the first bet becomes $2 (1+1). If the bet loses then the first and last numbers are deleted from the line. If the bet wins then the amount of the winning bet which in this case is 2 is then added to the list so the list of numbers now becomes 2,3,3,2 if it loses and 1,2,3,3,2,1,2 if it wins.

The player has the ability in this instance to set the amount that they want to lose so the maximum loss can be controlled. Here the maximum loss is the combined total of the initial line which is $12 or 1+2+3+3+2+1. If you didn’t want to lose as much as $12 then you shorten the line or lower the numbers.

On the other hand, the amount of winnings is unlimited and this was how Leigh and his team actually won all of the chips on several roulette tables which is known as “breaking the bank”.