A huge number of websites have recently sprung up with the sole purpose of catching the unsuspecting surfer looking for ways to make money online, by implying that a certain gambling technique is guaranteed to make you money on a regular basis, i.e. every time you play. The first thing to note is that no organisation (online or otherwise) is stupid enough to allow you to play any game where you are guaranteed to win. However, this is what we are asked to believe by these websites.

A scamming website usually starts out by telling you it is possible to make anything up to $500 or £500 a day (depending on the nationality of the scammer). On top of this, the websites usually ask for no money. Only that you download the four or five “recommended” online casino software from their site. This ensures they get the commission. So that’s the catch. Now for the scheme.

After downloading the software, you are asked to play European Roulette where you bet $1 or £1 on either red or black to begin with. You are lured into this by being asked to experiment with fake money before playing with real money as well as the promise of a bonus if you deposit some cash. 

The scheme involves playing Roulette and betting on either red or black. If you win you start again, if you lose you bet double the previous stake on the same colour and continue until you win; then you start the cycle again. Do you see how clever this is? Let’s illustrate with an example.

1. Bet $1 on red. Result black (you lose)
2. Bet $2 on red. Result black (you lose)
3. Bet $4 on red. Result black (you lose)
4. Bet $8 on red. Result black (you lose)
5. Bet $16 on red. Result back (you lose)
6. Bet $32 on red. Result red (you win $64). Net profit = $64 – $63 = $1

The above is the worst case scenario over 6 bets if you don’t win at bet 6. Here is the clever bit. People immediately fall for this because they imagine that it is highly improbable you will get 6 blacks in a row because each time the probability of getting the same result decreases by a factor of 2. NO IT DOESN’T. IT REMAINS THE SAME. Over a long period of playing, which is what we are told to do with real money at stake, we are supposed to make sizable wins every day. This is a fallacy because the probability is still only 50% every time the wheel spins. Actually the house has the edge because of zero which is neither black nor red. We won’t go into the rules of Roulette because that can be found anywhere. 

Anyway, the point to grasp here is that allowing yourself to be tricked into thinking there is any kind of a guarantee in winning in the way that is described is foolish. So in a way, it is to my mind, a scam because you are being misled and even more serious than that, you might be dabbling in the world of online gambling for the first time and will almost certainly be tempted to try other games and other schemes, all at the very great risk of losing your hard-earned cash.