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Casino strategies that are best avoided

By Guardian Nigeria
14 December 2022   |   11:46 am
The increased availability of affordable handsets and the rapid shift to 5G have combined to make Nigeria one of the fastest growing markets for online businesses. Among these are the thousands of online gambling sites that contribute to a global industry worth $50 billion in annual revenue. That industry is huge in the US and…

Casino Online Gaming PHOTO: Getty Images

The increased availability of affordable handsets and the rapid shift to 5G have combined to make Nigeria one of the fastest growing markets for online businesses. Among these are the thousands of online gambling sites that contribute to a global industry worth $50 billion in annual revenue. That industry is huge in the US and Europe, but Africa is also becoming a significant contributor.

Thousands of Nigerians are trying their hand at online gambling, and there are numerous resources on the web offering advice. Some of it is genuinely helpful to real money gamblers, such as guidance on finding the top picked gambling sites that pay real money and are recommended by US, UK or Canadian players. There is other good advice, too, such as only gambling what you can afford to lose, or the fact that gambling and alcohol can be a dangerous combination.

However, there are some casino strategies that supposed experts put forward that seem convincing at first but do not stand up to deeper scrutiny. Here are three that are best avoided.

The martingale

This is a controversial choice, as there are seasoned gamblers who swear by it. But the fact is that the martingale strategy is fundamentally flawed. It is used on even money bets, such as red at roulette and works as follows. Bet one coin. If you win, pocket your winnings and bet one coin again. If you lose, double your bet and keep doing so until you win.

It seems compelling because eventually, red must come up and you end up winning a coin. For example, if there is a run of four blacks then a red, you bet 1+2+4+8+16=31. You win 16 coins at the fifth attempt and your 16 coin stake is returned, leaving you with a 1 coin profit. It works regardless of how long the run of blacks continues.

Yet therein lies the problem. Every roulette table has an upper limit. If it is 50 coins in our example, then the strategy would fall apart with a catastrophic loss if that run of blacks ran much longer, and such streaks are more common than you might think.

Blackjack insurance

The most popular casino game of them all, blackjack offers “insurance” if the dealer’s upcard is an ace. This is ostensibly to guard against the dealer having a natural – you can bet up to half your ante bet, and will receive a 2/1 payout if the dealer’s hole card is worth 10.

This is nothing more than clever marketing. The word insurance makes it sound safe, but this amounts to a side bet that the dealer’s hole card is a 10 or a face card. The chances of that are about 30 percent, and the mathematics show that this is a bad deal best avoided.

Keno

Casino trivia experts will be quick to tell you that keno was invented thousands of years ago as a way to finance construction of the Great Wall of China. That should tell you all you need to know.

With a house edge of around 20 percent, keno is a fantastic strategy if you are the one collecting the wagers and drawing the balls. But from the player’s perspective, it should be left well alone unless you are passionate about contributing to someone else’s construction project.

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