As you play and learn more about Roulette, you will likely come across various strategies that promise to shift the odds in your favor or to make you a winner. Always remember that Roulette is a game of chance. While the familiar strategies and systems that follow are among the most popular and often-mentioned, they will not change the simple fact that only luck will bring you big winnings. (See also The House Edge and the Payouts, The Tips, and Winning.)

Here are some of the most popular Roulette systems, each of which offers its own strategy for winning.

• Martingale: Often applied to other casino games, this system calls for you to start with a small bet. After a loss, you double your bet; after a win, you return to your minimum. This supposedly guarantees that, after a win, you’ll be ahead. But it doesn’t take into account the fact that tables have maximum bets, and that a streak of losses could quickly lead you to risk a very high bet on a single play.
• D’Alene: Similar to Martingale, except the increase after each loss is a single unit instead of doubling. It leads to the same risk, only stretched out over a greater period of time.
• Parlay: In this strategy, you leave your winnings on the same bet to play again, thus counting on a lucky streak in the hope that they’ll grow dramatically. In gambling parlance, this is also known as “letting it ride.”
• Pivot: Observe a particular roulette wheel, noting the first winning number to repeat in the time you watch. Place the same single bet on that number, the “pivot,” until you win, for up to 36 consecutive spins.