The roulette table attracts the largest number of players attempting to apply a betting system. The most prominent progressive betting system is the Martingale system, in which you double your bet after each loss. Another popular one is the Reverse Martingale, in which you cut your bet in half after each win. (Check out Chapter 3 for more about different wagering systems.)
I don’t recommend using any progressive betting system, because a streak of four or five bad spins can cripple your bankroll in less than ten minutes.
Despite all the systems advertised for sale, no magic bullet can help you beat a roulette wheel. Books on roulette systems are scams to separate you from your money. Why does someone want to share her amazing supersecret strat¬egy with you? If you’d written such a system, wouldn’t you prefer to just make a quick fortune, buy a small island, and retire? So beware of roulette pros. They make money by selling books, not by divulging a consistently winning roulette system.
Choosing which casino to play can be daunting. How can you locate the honest sites and weed out the bad guys? Instead of hacking your way through the jungle, follow the paths paved by other pioneers.
Several watchdog Web sites offer rankings, recommendations, warnings, and tips to maximize your online casino gambling experience. Check out their message boards in particular. Reading about others’ experiences — good and bad — with various sites can be incredibly helpful.
Fortunately, the vast majority of Internet casinos are safe to play, so it’s more important to know which places to avoid. (The watchdog sites cover those sites in their blacklisted section.) In fact, I have played at a number of cyber casinos and have been cheated only a few times. In almost every case, I could have avoided that aggravation if I had first visited a watchdog site before depositing any cold cash.
Just as financial planners advise you to diversify your investments, I suggest that you spread your gambling dollars among different casinos to help reduce risk. Even after you’ve done your homework and homed in on the best sites, divvy your money up among ten or so safe sites, instead of plunk¬ing $5,000 on one location.
You can usually request to cash out either all or part of the money in your account at any time. The best online casinos process your request immediately and cheerfully send the funds within a day. However, some shady sites may take weeks to pay while putting you off with a litany of excuses. As a result, I recommend only playing reputable casinos endorsed by the watchdog groups
In most cases, your money will be sent back to you via the same method you deposited. For example, if you funded your account through NETELLER, then the Internet casino uses that same vehicle to return money to you when you cash out. One exception is credit cards. For example, if your initial deposit of $200 was made with a credit card and you doubled your money, the online casino processes your $400 as such: The casino can only pay back $200 to your credit card; the casino has to pay you any winnings via another method, such as check, wire, and so on.
Transferring money to and from the casino is usually free, although some casinos back on a service charge (especially if you do multiple transactions a month). You may also have to pay bank wire and delivery fees.
