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This system is used when betting on anything that has odds of close to 50/50 such as black or red, odds or evens, or 1st 18 or 2nd 18.  If you lose, the idea is that you double your next bet, until you win and recover your losses and even make a bit of a profit.  Sounds like a reasonable strategy at first glance, right?  Imagine for the first bet, you bet $5 on red, and you lose.  On the next spin, you double your wager and bet $10 on red.  If it comes in red, you win $10, putting you ahead $5 over the two spins.  Even if the spin is still black, you double your bet to $20 on the following spin, and if it is red this time you win $20, which still puts you $5 ahead.

Now, you may be only $5 ahead over the three spins, but don't forget that this is the scenario that occurs when you lose your first spin.  If it actually comes in red on the first spin, you win $5 and don't even have to risk doubling your bet.  This is why this type of strategy is so popular - even when you lose, you win!!

This has all been good news so far, but as with most roulette systems, the winning doesn't last forever.  Let's continue the above scenario and assume that the $20 bet doesn't win, which means you need to double the bet to $40 for the following spin.  If the next four spins are losing spins, it means you have then lost $40, then $80, then $160, then $320.  If you do some quick sums at this point you can see that you have lost $635 in total on this series of spins.  'No problem' I hear you say, 'my next bet is due to be $640, and if this one wins, then I will still be ahead $5 over the series'.  Unfortunately, the maximum bet for a 50:50 chance on a $5 table is only $500.  So the most you can bet on the next spin is $500, which means that if you win, you would have lost $135 over the series of spins, and if you lose, well, its just too heartbreaking to add up the losses.

If you have ever wondered why casinos have a relatively low maximum bets on small stakes tables, then this is why.  They are taking advantage of the above scenario, which is sometimes called the rule of maximum stake.  Sure, if they let you keep doubling your bet for as long as it took for your color or numbers to eventually come in (and assuming you have the resources to do this) then yes, this would be a winning strategy.

And just in case you were thinking that on a 50:50 bet, the odds of losing the seven spins in a row required to clean you out are pretty low, think again.  It will happen often enough to wipe out any gains you made waiting for it to happen - and then some!