Gambling systems, sometimes referred to as mathematical systems, most of us realise by now, really are simplified versions of those systems used by investors who work the world’s stock markets. But there’s a key difference between “most gamblers” and “good gamblers”, and that is the realisation that nothing really ever happens completely by chance – as long as there is motion, there will always be progression.

Which really is to say that the same way a market would respond either negatively or positively to an outside influence, so too will a pair of dice, the sequence of a pack of cards, or even a spinning wheel.

And while some casino games do tend to lend themselves much more favourably to the careful following of a strategy than others, there’s a strategy for every game on the floor. A strategy that actually works. Herewith then a brief overview of some of the more popular gambling systems or strategies.

Craps

Probably the most popular system favoured by Craps players, especially newcomers due to its dead-simple nature, is the Half Peak system.

The Half Peak system really isn’t all that different to a system most people have realised by now isn’t any good at all, namely the Alembert system. What makes the Half Peak a system worth giving a go, is a single deviation from the original Alembert: the “half” mechanism.

Such is the nature of the Alembert system: each time a player wins, the advice is to decrease the size of the bet by a single currency unit. And by the same logic, each time a player loses, the advice is increase the bet by a single currency unit. Simple perhaps – but also essentially flawed. Enter the solution, namely the Half Peak system.

Instead of carrying on doubling up regardless of the results, the Half Peak system works on the premise that just as soon as you’ve reached your last win to any streak, you divide that number in half. Then, the minute you’ve made your way far enough down the losing ladder to have reached the value of your half-a-peak, you start a new game. As in back to square one.

Roulette

It’s no secret that there are more Roulette systems going around than what there are chips in all the world’s casinos combined. Lucky for us, a fraction of them actually work. For example, the Six-Number Bet.

A dead simple strategy, the Six-Number Bet simply means betting six adjacent inside numbers for every single spin of the wheel. In the event that the ball lands on any of your six chosen numbers, you win at a ratio of 5 to 1 – which is a great deal more forgiving than the odds offered by most other Roulette systems.

Baccarat

We’ve decided to add Baccarat to our list for a slightly different reason, being that it isn’t really serviceable by any progressive betting system. This is because of a single snag: the typical size of the minimum house bet. For this reason, only the unusually wealthy can afford to follow a progressive system when playing Baccarat.