Martingale strategy for roulette: the ladder, the streak and the bill
Put it into practice
This is an affiliate link to a roulette site we partner with. You must be 18 or over.
Martingale is the first roulette system most people meet and the one with the most convincing short-term record. Bet on red; if you lose, double; keep doubling until you win; you are then one unit ahead and start again. It works beautifully until it does not, and the moment it does not is both predictable and expensive. This site puts numbers on all of it: the ladder, the streak, the bankroll, the table limit and the session.
The ladder from £5
| Loss number | Next stake | Total staked so far |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | £5 | — |
| 1 | £10 | £5 |
| 2 | £20 | £15 |
| 3 | £40 | £35 |
| 4 | £80 | £75 |
| 5 | £160 | £155 |
| 6 | £320 | £315 |
| 7 | £640 | £635 |
Each win recovers everything lost in the sequence plus £5. The question is only how far down the ladder you can go before the bankroll or the table says stop.
Where it stops
With a £500 bankroll, six losses have cost £315 and the seventh bet, £320, cannot be covered. The sequence is over at six steps, down £315. With a table maximum of £500 on red, the same thing happens at the seventh step. Either way the ladder has six rungs and the seventh loss is final.
Six losses in a row on an even-money bet: (19/37)^6 = 1.83%. About once every 55 sequences. Over a session of 100 spins the chance of hitting it somewhere is roughly 50%.
Play roulette for real money
We send you to one of the roulette sites we work with. Affiliate link. 18+.
What a session looks like
Simulate 100 spins at a £5 base with a £500 bankroll, many thousands of times. Around half the sessions end with the bankroll gone. The other half end up by £20 to £40, having won a string of £5 sequences. Average across all sessions: about minus £31. That is close to 2.70% of the money that went through the table, which is the only figure the house ever sees.
Why the edge is unchanged
Every bet in the ladder is a bet on red at 1:1 on a wheel where red wins 18 of 37 spins. Each one costs 2.70% of its stake on average. Making the stakes larger after losses makes the later bets cost more in absolute terms, not less in percentage terms. The ladder rearranges when the losses arrive and how big they are; the total over time is what it always was.
What this site covers
The calculator page lets you set a base, a bankroll and a table limit and see the ladder length and bust probability for your numbers. The table-limit page explains why the maximum exists and how it ends every progression. The when-it-breaks page shows real streak odds. The alternatives page looks at the gentler progressions and at the system that is actually safe, which is no progression at all. RouletteFinder's Martingale analysis runs the full set of simulations with distributions rather than averages, if you want to see the shape of ten thousand sessions.
Try it at a real table
Affiliate link: we may earn a commission. Play responsibly. 18+ only.
Good to know
Does the Martingale strategy work on roulette?
It wins most sessions by a small amount and loses the rest by a large one. Over time it returns minus 2.70% of everything staked, the same as flat betting, because no sequence of stakes changes the payout on red.
How much bankroll does Martingale need?
From a £5 base, £315 covers six losses and the seventh bet would be £320; a £500 bankroll stops at six steps. Seven losses in a row on an even-money bet happens about once in a hundred spins, and that streak costs the whole ladder.
Is Martingale allowed at online casinos?
Yes. Casinos do not need to ban it; table maximums and the house edge do the work. Some bonus terms prohibit it during wagering, so check if a bonus is active.