What's luck got to do with it? The math of gambling (opens in new tab)

Your odds of hitting on Red or Black is not 50/50. It is 47.37%. The ball can land on green. If you don't get your money back, it's a loss.

http://wizardofodds.com/roulette

Most games at Casinos are stacked against you. They have very smart math and stats geeks who've figured all this out. Try counting by yourself with a 6 deck shoe. Or even a single deck is hard because they reshuffle after 2-3 hands.

One interesting thing from the article. Picking unpopular combinations of numbers can offer less competition in large jackpots. i.e. adjacent numbers 23-24-25, etc... because people mistakenly believe that's less likey to happen than totally random numbers.

What happens if someone tries to run two Martingale systems (of opposite colors) at the same time?

Oh gawd, not the Martingale again. (do not do this. The modern expression is "The market can stay irrational for longer than you can stay liquid") At least arbitrage across bookies is reasonably safe. And I like the "marriage problem" concept.

Most casino table games have a betting cap, so you can't run martingale on them anyway.

This is a duplicate of: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=755833