Red & Black

Now, let`s have a look at the most popular casino game through mathematician`s eyes- roulette. There is no other game that has so many myths and legends around it. What is more, there are those wonderful systems which were supposed to make a fortune for their authors.

Let`s just say we decide to play roulette using the easiest and the most popular way to do it. We bet black or red. The probability that the ball stops on black is 18/37- it is very close to 0.5. We bet one counter (to make it easier, let`s assume it is $1 worth) on a given colour. If we are lucky, we gain one counter- if not- we miss a go. The game is not fair (just like i.e. tossing a coin) the winnings` expected value is less than zero- 0.0135. It means that if we play long enough, we will lose 1.35% of the stake money to the casino.

The casino is ensured with "home advantage" by introducing a zero square (the probability of dropping out is 1.37) which is for the casino`s advantage.

If we bet dozens or columns, it would be even worse. The expected value of our game would be-0.027- which means that we would be losing about 2.7 of our money on average to the casino.