Roulette odds and roulette probability are not necessarily the same thing. Roulette being a game of chance always gives any bet the same odds for any given spin. Take a French roulette table with a single zero. The odds of any given number occurring is 1 in 37, roughly 2.7%.

Any roulette master will tell you the same thing that because a number has won say four times there is still a 1 in 37 chance that it will come in a fifth time. However what is often left out of the equation is the probability of a roulette number winning five times in a row. The maths is quite simple. 37^5.

For a roulette number to win five times in a row the probability is 369,343,957. Indeed the record for the highest number of times that the same number has come up in a row was apparently set in 1959 in Puerto Rico when the number 10 came up six times in a row. The odds of this happening are a staggering 3,010,936,384 to 1 on a roulette wheel with a double zero!

If we were to put this even further perspective the probability that all the roulette numbers came in a 0 to 36 perfect order is so big it can only be quoted exponentially as 1.055513495577778e+58.

So back to roulette odds and probability. If I were a gambler, which I am, I would definitely bet on against a number that has just won five times in a row irrespective if the actual roulette odds are just 37 to 1. If I lost then it really would be my unlucky day.

This same theory can be used about betting on a roulette bet that has lost x amount of times. Take an even money roulette bet say 1 to 18. The odds of this bet losing on any given spin is 19/37 or roughly 51.35%. The probability that this bet could lose ten times in a row is approximately 784 to 1. For the bet to lose twenty times in a row the probability rises to over a 600,000 to 1 against. Again at those odds I would definitely wager a few grand!

For testing these theories of losing streaks and winning streaks and seeing the probability of betting against them take a look at this roulette statistics web site.
Roulette Statistics and Prediction

Roulette Statistics and Prediction

By Mathew Forster
Mathew forster is a technical support adviser for Lakers Sofwtare cmb
Roulette Statistics.com