... back to roulette simulator
The roulette simulator lets you run various even-money roulette betting system. The simulator is discussed in more detail under the following headings:
This is not a graphical single-spin roulette wheel with complex graphics. Rather, this application lets you simulate a large number of spins using various pre-defined even-money roulette betting systems. Its purpose is to let you understand the effectiveness of selected even-money roulette betting systems. Without risking money, you can see how much money you could expect to lose or gain if you used a particular betting system for an extended period.
If you understand what an even-money roulette bet is already, move onto the next topic.
A roulette wheel has the numbers 1 through 36 plus 0 (as well as 00 in North America). So it has 37 spots in Europe and 38 in North America.
There are six even money bets on a roulette wheel:
With an "even money" bet, you wager on one of the six categories above. If you win (e.g. the ball lands on "20" when you bet high), then you get you keep your original bet and the bank pays you the same again. If you lose (e.g. ball landed on "11" when you bet high), then the bank keeps your bet.
All "even money" bets lose if the ball lands on 0 or North American 00 (this the house advantage). In fact, in Europe (particularly France), you effectively only lose half your bet if the ball lands on zero (the so-called "in prison" rule).
Even money betting systems strive to overcome the house advantage by varying the bets in their own way. The simulator lets you determine whether these systems actually succeed in overcoming the house advantage.
... back to roulette simulator
The Roulette Simulator currently supports the following even-money betting systems:
This interesting betting system was the basis for the book "13 Against the Bank". In fact, it was on reading this book and finding that there were genuine press clippings to support the author's story of winning at Monaco that motivated me to develop this simulator. I wanted to know if the system described could actually "beat the bank".
The system is fairly straightforward and is described below:
Observations on this system:
This is the classically simple betting system. The steps are as follows:
Observations on this system:
The straight bet "system" (if you can call it that) is just the simple approach. With each spin of the wheel, bet $5 and let the chips fall where they may.
... back to roulette simulator
The Input fields are each described in the table below. The Start and Cancel buttons are described below that.
| Input Field | Description | Comment |
| Total Spins | The number
of spins that you want to simulate with the betting system. You can run several short simulations (hitting start each time) or fewer long simulations. |
The amount
of time a simulation takes to run depends on your computer and your browser (Internet
Explorer or IE runs Java twice as fast as Navigator). To get an idea of the long-term viability of a system, I would suggest that you run the simulation for at least one million spins (1 followed by 6 zeroes). Roulette is a game of chance and it's only over the long-run that you can even out lucky and unlucky streaks and get a true picture of the system's viability. |
| Update Freq | This is the frequency that you would like to see intermediate results (including the graphic). | If you
choose an update frequency of 10,000 spins, then results are shown after 10,000 spins,
20,000 spins, 30,000 spins, etc. The speed of the simulation is slowed down by the very frequent updates. If you decide to simulate a large number of spins, it is wise to increase the Update Frequency (e.g. updating every 5-10 million spins should still provide at least one update per minute, even on a slow computer). |
| Max Bet | This is the maximum bet allowed (every establishment has a limit). | For consistency, the systems being simulated all use a minimum (or starting) bet of $5. |
| Rules | Pick the rules that you want the roulette simulation run under: European or North American. | European
(particularly French) wheels typically have one 0 and use the "in-prison" rule
which effectively gives half your bet back when a zero is encountered. North American wheels use 0 and 00. When either zero is encountered, the bet is lost in North America. |
... back to roulette simulator
The results of the simulation are shown on the right side of the screen and updated on a regular basis (according to the Update Frequency that you specified). Each Result Field is described in the table below.
| Result Field | Description | Comment |
| Num Spins | The number of spins completed so far. | Intermediate results are shown according to the Update Frequency input field. |
| Elapsed Seconds | The number of seconds that have elapsed since the simulation started. | If you want to run a long simulation, the following approach is recommended. First, run a shorter simulation and get an estimate of your computer's speed (number of spins per second). Then, multiply by the appropriate factor to get an estimate of the time to complete a longer simulation. |
| Win (lose) Amount | The amount that you have won or lost so far. Losing amounts are shown in parentheses and are in red (see exception). | ($25) means $25 lost (Note: shows in black only when using HTML
interface with Netscape browser) $10 means $10 won |
| Total Wagered | The total amount wagered so far. | The betting system used determines how much is wagered each time. This value simply indicates the total "put on the table" so far. |
| Num Spins Won | The number of spins that you won. | You might expect that the number of win spins would be 50% over the long run (given that these are even money bets) but this is not true. Remember that zeroes are counted as losses, although the simulator does return one half of your bet when using European rules (in prison rule). |
| Num Spins Lost | The number of spins that you won. | Because of
zeroes, expect about: 51.35% losing spins in Europe |
| Num Rounds Won | The number of rounds won. A round is defined as the time when you "start over" (where earlier wins/losses do not impact the next bet). The length of a round and typical ratio of winning rounds to losing rounds is very dependant on the individual betting system used. | Betting
systems are generally oriented to: - chasing losses: so they get many small winning rounds and a few large losing rounds OR - building on gains: so they have many small losing rounds and a few large winning rounds |
| Nom Rounds Lost | The number of rounds that you lost. | This flip side of rounds won. |
| Win (lose) Rate | This is the ratio of the what you won (or lost) to the total amount that you wagered. Losing ratios are placed in parentheses and are red (see exception). | If you won
$5 while wagering $100 over a series of spins, then your win ratio would be 5% since you
won 5% of what you wagered. If you lost $100 while wagering $1000, your loss ratio would be minus 10% or (10.00%). (Note: shows in black only when using HTML interface with Netscape browser) |
| vs. house adv. | This
measures how close your win/loss rate is compared to the "expected loss rate",
based on the house advantage (the house advantage is derived from the house
"winning" when zero shows up). Definition: if "WL" is your
win-loss ratio and "HA" is the house advantage, then the computation for this
field is: Result = (WL - HA)/HA A small number (e.g. less than 20% indicates) indicates that your loss rate is close to what is expected, given the house advantage. |
If you
believe that the house will prevail, regardless of the betting system, then you can expect
to "tend" close to the house advantage (therefore this over/under
house-advantage ratio to be small). In Europe, the house advantage is 1/74 or 1.35%. Reason: you expect to lose half your bet (in prison rule) when 0 shows up 1/37 of the time. Losing half of 1/37 is 1/74 or 1.35% In North America, the house advantage is 2/38 or 5/26%. Reason: you expect to lose bet when 0 or 00 show up which happens 2/38 or 5.26% of the time. |
... back to roulette simulator
The graphics are displayed in the Java AWT Interface only (not the HTML interface).
The graphic line on the bottom indicates the current win/loss ratio. It is a graphical representation of the current Win (loss) Rate Result. If the current win/loss rate is –2.5%, then the arrow will point halfway between the 0% of -5% on the plot line. The graphic is updated along with the updated textual results according to the update frequency selected in simulation inputs.
For a sufficient number of spins (e.g. 5,000 to 10,000), you would generally expect the win/loss rate to be within the –10% to plus 5% shown on the line. However, for smaller numbers of spins, the result might be higher or lower than the line shows. When this happens you will see either: