Roulette - Everyday Profit Secret, Mark Wilson

Out of curiosity I picked this one up on EBay for the price of a bag of wine gums. The vendor offered free postage too, and as it claimed I could make up to £300.00 per day I thought I'd grab a bargain and look forward to taking early retirement. Frankly I wish I'd bought the wine gums.

This publication is not a book, but a stapled booklet of the type you buy for your kids to help them with their GCSE studies; 72 sides of A4, displaying large 14pt type with a fair smattering of half page screen dumps of online roulette tables included to illustrate the staking plan recommended. There are no printer's or publisher's details included anywhere, or contact details for the author (who claims to have been "betting professionally", whatever that means, for 18 years), and I suspect this is to protect them from irate purchasers getting in touch and asking for their money back. There's no price indicated on the cover either, as with most normal books, and I've no doubt this has also been deliberately left out so those peddling it can get whatever they can persuade punters to part with for it. To cap it all there's no indication of how long it's been in print and available.

The contents? Amateurishly presented, and containing more than the odd gramatical error. Between the covers you'll find a description of how to apply a complete bollocks system based on a "dozens" methodology - the Secret Strategy. Look to see which dozen (first, second or third) came up four spins ago and bet one unit each on the other two. If you win, bet the winning unit on the dozen that came up four spins ago. If not, start again. If you lose six times on the trot, continue by doubling the initial two bets. If ten times, increase your bets further. That's it - if you're losing chase your losses. Not so secret now is it? It's depressing to think that some people will buy into this nonsense. According to the author the zero "has very little relevance because of the methods you'll be using". Is that right? I don't think so.

For the record, all systems that require a bet on each of two dozens (thereby covering 24 of 37 numbers) are ill-advised. If you're playing on a table where 50% of evens-payoff bets are returned on a zero being spun (common in the UK), by betting on two dozens you're simply exposing all of your wager to a 2.70% edge, whereas if you were to bet on either "high" (19-36) or "low" (1-18) and then make an additional bet on a six line block to make up the 24 numbers (ie low, 1-18 plus the line 19-24), the majority of the amount wagered would only be exposed to a 1.35% edge; a significant difference which will show through over the longer term. Savvy roulette players will know this.

Overall then, this publication is 99% drivel and will be finding a home in my recycling bin very shortly. A great shame that a tree had to be felled to provide the paper for the print run. As a final thought I should say it does contain one very thin ray of sunshine (hence 99% drivel and not 100%), and that is the advice not to accept any sign-up bonuses should you choose to play "live" roulette online - as if you do you may find you're unable to withdraw any winnings that result from your gaming. At least Mark Wilson got that bit right.

One for the hoarders to file under "voodoo nonsense".

April 2015.