The roulette wheel may be fair and unbiased, but if you haven’t got a solid roulette money management plan you might quickly deplete your funds playing this game. This guide will teach you how to spread your roulette bankroll over a decent number of rounds and what else you can do to improve your gaming experience.
What Are Bankroll Management Strategies?
Before we delve into roulette bankroll management plans, let’s explain what a bankroll management system is. In simple terms, this is a betting system that’s designed to let you play casino games for longer while using published odds to include the probability of winning several times.
Your bankroll money can be divided in several ways and different systems apply to different games. A well-devised money management plan will guide you toward finding the right bankroll total and the value of each wager. However, irrespective of the suggested totals provided by any betting system, your gambling bankroll should never exceed what you can afford to lose.
Top Roulette Money Management Systems
You’ll find different casino bankroll management plans for each game. Money management systems are tailored for each game and take into account several factors, including odds of winning, betting options, and in the case of roulette, even the number of betting sessions.
Single-Session Management
We’ve begun with the simplest type of money management system that only takes into consideration a single betting session. The first step of this plan requires you to consider a reasonable winning objective. In the case of most casual players, such a goal would probably be between $10 and $30.
It’s very important to pick a reasonable value since this will affect the corresponding bankroll money that you’ll need. You should set aside five times this value to use whilst playing roulette. This means that if you hope to win $10 you’ll need a bankroll of $50.
We’ve summarized the single-session calculations in the following table.
Profit Goal
Roulette Bankroll
Maximum Wager per Round
$10
(profit x 5) $50
(max 5% of bankroll) $2.50
You should also make it clear to yourself that if you hit this target, you’ll stop playing immediately. It’s also important to leave the roulette table if your bankroll is depleted before you’ve reached your target. You should never try to chase your losses.
This roulette money management plan is not a betting system, so it doesn’t guide you toward which bets to place. You could stick to a single inside or outside bet or wager randomly. You could also make use of roulette strategies, including the ones mentioned later in this guide.
Handy Tip: If you’ve just started using a money management system, you should keep your winning objective small. It’s easy to be tempted by a prize of $500, but this would mean that your bankroll would need to be $2,500. Not many casual players can afford to lose that amount, especially in a single betting session.
Monthly Bankroll Management
This type of money management plan considers all your roulette table sessions over a month. Instead of thinking of your objective as in the previous plan, you should calculate the maximum size of your monthly bankroll. It’s very important that you only set aside funds that you are comfortable losing.
Once you’ve decided on a total value, you should determine how many betting sessions you’ll have over the whole month. Split your monthly roulette bankroll by the number of sessions to get your single-session total. It’s important that you stop playing once you’ve reached the limit so that you won’t spend money that’s reserved for future sessions.
You can get a better understanding of the monthly bankroll management system in the following table.
Monthly Bankroll
Monthly Betting Sessions
Maximum Bankroll per Session
$250
5
(monthly bankroll ÷ monthly betting sessions) $50
The monthly bankroll management system is very similar to the traditional envelope method. This method involves preparing different envelopes, one for each betting session, and filling them with the corresponding bankroll. The envelope method is useful if you’re planning to play in person, but less so if you intend to gamble online.
Deciding Your Roulette Base Betting Unit
The vast majority of roulette tables can accept minimum wagers of $1, though you might find some that can go as low as $0.10. There’s no reason why you should wager more than the minimum and conserve your roulette bankroll, unless you’ve got a plan or are following a strategy, such as the Fibonacci system.
However, if you wish to wager more than the minimum, you should follow the guidance provided by most roulette money management plans. These plans suggest that you should bet no more than between 2% and 5% of your session’s bankroll. This means that if your total bankroll is $100, you could wager up to $5 on each round, whether on a single or on multiple bets.
How to Win in Roulette with Small Money
You don’t need to have a large roulette bankroll to win some money. However, you must always be realistic about what you can expect to win. Even though the odds of this game are good, you shouldn’t hope to win more than about 35% of your starting bankroll. No matter which profit goal you have, you can consider stopping after any significant win. Doing this would ensure that you’re walking away with some money rather than risking breaking even or losing money with another bet.
Handy Tip: Money management plans are not betting systems, so they will not provide suggestions on what you should bet on. Very often, the two can work seamlessly together, providing you with structured recommendations on what to bet on and how much to wager.
Choosing a Roulette Variation with Better Odds
There are three main variations of roulette and each one has a series of variants based on its rules. Different roulette odds and payouts are available for each variation, but the overall most popular one is European Roulette. A sound roulette money management plan suggests playing this or French Roulette since these provide the best odds of winning, and therefore, the lowest risk.
| European | French | American | |
| Best Odds | 48.65% | 49.33% | 47.37% |
| Highest Payout | 35:1 | 35:1 | 35:! |
Viewing the table above, it’s clear that the French version of the game offers the highest odds, but finding French Roulette casinos can be a challenge. As a result, most players go for the next-best version, European Roulette.
In addition to choosing the right roulette table for your money management plan, you should also look at the minimum bet limit. Most tables would accept small bets, such as $1 or less. However, if you join a VIP or high rollers table, the minimum bet limit would be much higher.
Handy Tip: If you’re playing online, you’ll be able to try different variants for free in demo mode. This will give you the opportunity to experiment with different roulette bankroll strategies without risking any money.
How to Handle a Winning Streak or a Losing Streak
While winning or losing streaks are a matter of debate between roulette players and mathematicians, it’s a good idea to have a money management plan for them before you start playing. This will help you avoid the losses that are sometimes incurred by players who fall victim to the gambler’s fallacy.
Setting Up a Loss Limit
Many online roulette tables give you the option of setting loss limits to inform you once you’ve lost a certain amount or bankroll percentage. Due to the game’s fast pace, you could lose a substantial portion of your roulette bankroll in a short time. For this reason, one of the best roulette money management strategies suggests setting a loss limit for not more than 50% of your starting budget.
It’s up to you what to do if you reach this limit. You can either take a break or perhaps play other roulette casino games. You can even stop playing for the day and move your balance forward for the next session.
Setting Up a Win Limit
It might seem strange to limit the amount of money that you could win, but you should remember that the odds of roulette are against you. If you play for long enough the game’s odds will materialize, which means that the house will win more often. By setting a win limit, you’ll be able to walk away from the roulette table with a profit.
The best money management system for roulette suggests a limit of not more than 40%, but ideally, you should set it to between 20% and 30%. If you’ve reached this limit you should walk away from the table and keep your profit for another gaming session.
Tips for Using the Best Money Management System for Roulette
Following our helpful tips to get the best results when playing roulette with a money management plan.
- Don’t spend all your profit – If you’ve succeeded to win some money, don’t be quick to spend it. Keep at least half of this profit until the next month or, at the very least, your next gaming session. This will give your roulette bankroll a boost and will avoid the frustration of losing the entire profit in one go.
- Take advantage of casino bonuses – Many of the best roulette casinos provide you with a sign-up or existing player bonus that you can use at an eligible table. Using these bonuses, you can increase your roulette bankroll and afford to place more bets or higher-value wagers.
- Don’t play without a plan – Roulette is a fast-paced and thrilling game in which your emotions can quickly get the better of you. Going in with a good roulette money management plan will ensure that you don’t overspend or try to chase your losses. As a result, you’ll be much less likely to be stressed even if you lose your bankroll.
- Gamble responsibly – Having a bankroll management plan is one of the ways to practice responsible gambling, since with one, you won’t be spending more than you afford to lose. You should also limit your betting session times and frequency and enjoy other hobbies apart from gambling.
Roulette Strategies That Will Help You Win
There are numerous strategies that can help you win more games of roulette or other casino games, such as blackjack and baccarat. These strategies can be used in conjunction with a roulette money management plan to guide you toward placing exact wagers on specific types of bets. Most strategies can be split into negative and positive progression systems, and in the following section, we’ve taken a closer look at both types.
Negative Progression Systems
A negative progression betting strategy is one that recommends increasing your next wager if you’ve lost your previous bet. There are several popular examples of this system, including the Martingale strategy. These systems are generally easy to follow but may require a significant roulette bankroll to get to the point where you make a profit.
Positive Progression Systems
A positive progression betting strategy works in the opposite way to a negative one, so you’ll be increasing a wager after a win and decreasing it after a loss. The Reverse Martingale is a popular example of this system, and it’s usually preferred by players who care about their money management.
Handy Tip: There is no risk-free roulette strategy and each betting strategy has its own risk level. The D’Alembert System, for example, is considered to be a low to medium risk whereas the James Bond Roulette strategy has a medium risk. In contrast, the Martingale System is considered to be a high-risk strategy since wager values can increase significantly during a losing streak.
Finding the Ideal Roulette Bankroll Strategy
The rules of a roulette money management system are not fixed but can be adapted to different players and bankrolls. Casual players would probably wager according to the table’s minimum limit whereas high rollers might be willing to risk more.
Playing roulette offers players a fairly simple game with plenty of optional betting, including placing racetrack bets and using betting strategies. Used together with a money management plan, these options can make your gambling experience more interesting while ensuring that you don’t wager any more than you afford to lose.