Reverse Martingale roulette system

What the reverse Martingale system is

The reverse Martingale (also called the anti-Martingale) flips the logic of the classic Martingale system. Instead of doubling after a loss to chase it back, you double after a win and go back to your starting stake the moment you lose. The idea is to press during a lucky run and keep losses small when the wheel turns against you.

It's almost always played on the even-money bets: red or black, odd or even, and 1–18 or 19–36. Each of these pays 1 to 1 and wins on 18 of the 37 pockets of a single-zero wheel. The green zero is what tilts every bet towards the house, and no change in stake size touches it.

Wikipedia's article on the Martingale family of systems (opens in a new tab) describes the anti-Martingale as raising bets after wins and cutting them after losses, and says plainly that it also fails to produce a profit. That's the starting point for everything below: the reverse Martingale changes the shape of your results, not their average.

No betting system beats the house edge. A staking plan decides how much you stake on each spin; the wheel decides whether you win, and it has no memory of the previous spin.

How to play the reverse Martingale, step by step

The method itself takes seconds to learn. The only real decision is how many wins in a row you'll aim for before you take the pot and start again.

1. Set a session budget you're happy to lose, and choose a base stake that's a small fraction of it, for example £5 from a £100 budget.
2. Choose an even-money bet on a single-zero table, ideally one with La Partage.
3. Place your base stake. If it loses, place the base stake again.
4. If it wins, leave the stake and the winnings on the next spin, so the bet doubles.
5. Decide your target streak in advance (two, three or four wins). When you reach it, take the pot and go back to the base stake.
6. Stop when your budget or time limit is reached, win or lose.

A worked reverse Martingale example in pounds

Say you play red on European roulette with a £5 base stake and a target of three wins. A full cycle looks like this when the streak comes off:

If any of those spins loses, the whole pot goes and the cycle has cost you £5, your original stake. Lose on spin three, for instance, and the £20 you had on the table includes £15 of winnings from spins one and two, so your net loss is the £5 you put in.

That looks attractive: you only ever risk £5 to make £35. The catch is how often the £35 arrives. On a single-zero wheel the chance of three reds in a row is (18/37)³, which is about 11.51%, or roughly 1 cycle in 8.7. The other 88.49% of cycles each cost £5.

Reverse Martingale odds: how likely each streak is

The longer the streak you aim for, the bigger the prize and the rarer it becomes. Every figure below comes from multiplying the chance of one win by itself: 18/37 on a European wheel and 18/38 on an American one.

Notice how the prize roughly doubles with each extra win while the chance roughly halves, and then a little more than halves. That small extra drop is the zero at work. On a fair coin the two would balance exactly; on roulette, every extra step tilts slightly further towards the house.

You can check any of these with the roulette odds calculator, or read how single-wheel probabilities are worked out on our roulette odds page.

Why the reverse Martingale can't beat the house edge

Take the three-win cycle again. You win £35 in 11.51% of cycles and lose £5 in the other 88.49%. The expected result per cycle is (0.1151 × £35) − (0.8849 × £5), which comes to about −£0.395, a loss of roughly 40p each time you start a fresh cycle.

Now add up what you actually stake per cycle on average. You always bet £5 on spin one, you reach spin two 48.65% of the time with £10, and spin three 23.67% of the time with £20. That's £5 + £4.86 + £4.73, or about £14.60 staked per cycle. Divide the 39.5p loss by £14.60 and you get 2.70%, exactly the single-zero house edge.

The same thing happens whatever target you choose, and on an American wheel the ratio lands on 5.26% instead. Wizard of Odds puts it bluntly in its analysis of betting systems (opens in a new tab): systems don't just fail to beat games with a house advantage, they can't even dent it. Over enough spins, the ratio of money lost to money bet always heads towards the house edge.

In plain terms, your expected loss is your total stake multiplied by the edge. If a reverse Martingale session puts £300 through the wheel, the average cost is about £8.10 on single zero, however the streaks fall. Our guide to expected value shows the same sum for other games.

The "house money" myth behind the anti-Martingale

The reverse Martingale is often sold with the line "you're only risking the casino's money". It's a comforting thought, and it's wrong. Once a winning bet is paid, that £10 or £20 is yours. Leaving it on the table for another spin is a fresh £20 bet with exactly the same 2.70% edge as any other £20 bet.

Thinking of winnings as separate, less real money is a well-known trap. It makes bigger stakes feel cheap, and it hides how much you're really putting through the wheel. A useful habit is to count every stake as your own, which also makes it easier to track net loss against your budget.

The other myth is that streaks can be spotted early. A run of three reds tells you nothing about spin four, because each spin is an independent event. Believing a streak is "due" to continue, or to end, is the gambler's fallacy.

Reverse Martingale vs Martingale: same edge, different risk

The two systems sit at opposite ends of the risk scale, which is why people often choose between them. Neither changes the long-run cost; they change what a typical session feels like.

The Martingale wins little and often, then loses a lot occasionally. Wizard of Odds' Martingale analysis gives the chance of losing eight even-money bets in a row on single zero as about 0.48%, and at a £5 base that eighth bet alone would be £640. The reverse version loses little and often and wins a lot occasionally. For a fuller side-by-side on doubling, see Martingale vs flat betting.

Best roulette tables for a reverse Martingale

Since the system can't improve the odds, the only lever you have is the game you choose. Three rules matter:

• Single zero over double zero. European roulette has a 2.70% edge; American roulette has 5.26% on almost every bet, nearly double the cost.
• La Partage where you can get it. On French roulette with the La Partage rule, an even-money bet that loses to zero returns half the stake, which cuts the edge on those bets to about 1.35%, according to the Wizard of Odds roulette basics (opens in a new tab).
• Check the table limits. A five-win target at a £5 base needs an £80 bet on the fifth spin, so the table maximum and your budget need room for it.

Inside bets can be used for an anti-Martingale too, but the streaks are far rarer. Letting a straight-up bet ride twice needs two hits at 1 in 37 each, a chance of about 1 in 1,369.

Using the reverse Martingale online and on live roulette in the UK

The maths is identical on RNG and live roulette: a single-zero game has the same 2.70% edge whether the result comes from a certified random number generator or a physical wheel. What differs is pace. Live rounds are slower, so a session of the same length puts less money through the wheel and costs less on average.

UK rules shape how you can run any staking plan online. Since 17 January 2025, autoplay is banned for all online casino games, live casino included, so each bet in a progression has to be placed by hand (a re-bet button doesn't count as autoplay). Non-slot games must also allow at least 5 seconds per game cycle, and casinos must show your net spend and time played in real time. The £5 and £2 slot stake limits don't apply to roulette, so your own budget and the table limit are the only caps.

Since 31 October 2025, casinos must prompt you to set a financial limit before your first deposit. If you play progressions, set that limit low and treat it as firm. Credit cards can't be used to gamble in Great Britain, and if you feel the urge to raise stakes to recover losses, chasing losses explains why that pattern is risky. Free, confidential help is available from GamCare (opens in a new tab) and the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133.

Common reverse Martingale mistakes

• No target streak. Letting everything ride "until it loses" means it always loses in the end, because a streak can't last for ever.
• Raising the base stake after a winning cycle. That quietly turns a small-risk plan into a big-risk one.
• Playing American wheels. The double zero almost doubles the cost of every bet.
• Believing streaks can be predicted. Past spins have no effect on the next one.
• Treating it as a way to make money. Roulette is paid entertainment; over time the edge means losses are likely.

If you want to compare this plan with the others people try, our roulette betting systems overview sets them side by side, and the roulette hub covers every bet and variant.

Where to play roulette with a reverse Martingale

The offers below are casino welcome deals, not roulette offers, and none of them makes a staking system work better. Roulette and other table games are often excluded from bonus wagering or count for less, so check each casino's terms and table game lobby before you rely on a bonus. 18+ and terms apply.

Casumo gives new customers who opt in a 50% bonus up to £100 on a first deposit of £20 or more; the bonus must be wagered 10x within 7 days, with a maximum £5 bet while it's active, and game, play and payment restrictions apply. 10bet offers new UK customers a 100% match up to £25 if they pick the casino bonus at sign-up and deposit within 7 days; wager it 10x on slots within 3 days, maximum bonus winnings £1,000, with Skrill and Neteller deposits excluded. Coral's offer is bet £10 on slots, get 100 free spins (10p each, selected games, 48 hours to accept, valid 7 days, no wagering on winnings; some deposit types, including PayPal and prepaid cards, don't qualify).

For what each casino lists in its table games, see Casumo blackjack and roulette and Coral blackjack and roulette.

18+. Every casino game has a built-in house edge, so over time you should expect to lose what you stake. Set a budget before you play and stop when it’s gone: safer gambling tools and support. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.