Can Traders Learn Anything from Gambling Strategies?

Gamblers have been arguing about the viability of gambling strategies for years. There are those who will argue that they are useless. Casinos are all about sheer chance after all. There are also those who believe that you can bend luck to your will with just a bit of effort. Players are now able to access  PayID review pages and guides that have elevated the iGaming market to incredible heights. It has also led to a lot of discussion about how gambling strategies can influence the average trader. The idea of this article is to examine three classic strategies and then explain how they can help traders improve.

The Classic Blackjack Strategy

The classic blackjack strategy is exactly what it sounds like, a system developed around blackjack, that has been used for centuries. In the hyper-advanced digital era of the 21st century, there are many people who play blackjack online. The good news is that this strategy is effective, even if you are playing at online casinos, because at the end of the day, all the blackjack strategy is, is knowing when to hit, when to hold, and when to throw in the towel. 

The goal of blackjack is to accumulate cards until you get a 21 (or as close to a 21 as possible). However, if the player’s hand surpasses a 21, they lose the game instantly. To that end, blackjack players have come up with a system on when you should hit, depending on how strong your hand is. For example, if you start out with a weak hand (5 or lower), then you always hit, no matter what. If you start out high (16 or higher) you never hit. There are plenty of rules for a hand in the middle as well, which we can’t delve into right now. 

Blackjack is already one of the most popular gambling games, specifically because of the relatively low house edge. Whereas other games have a house edge between 2% and 5%, blackjack’s can be as low as 1.5%. That being said, players have noted that, when using the classic blackjack strategy, the player odds increase further, and the house edge can drop as low as 0.5%. 

The James Bond Roulette Strategy

Roulette is another one of those classic card games that everyone has heard about, even if they’ve never played. The red and black wheel is such an iconic symbol, that it is hard to believe that people are unfamiliar with it. That being said, there are many who may not know the ins and outs of the game exactly. There are also a lot of people who may not be familiar with noteworthy roulette strategies. Well, have we got a doozy for you. 

Named after one of the greatest film and literary spies, the James Bond strategy is ripped straight out of Fleming’s novels. James Bond’s creator was also a pretty prolific gambler. There is a reason that the first ever novel is set in a casino after all. Fleming portrays Bond gambling and hitting the grand prize in many of the books. One of the games he plays is roulette, and experts have tried their hand at the James Bond strategy for winning.

The system involves placing a wager across the board. However, not all aspects of the board should get the same amount of money wagered. Instead, your bankroll should be divided into three piles at a ratio of 70 – 25 – 5. Once you’ve done so, you wager 70% on the high numbers (19 – 36), 25% on the low numbers (1 – 18), and the remaining five go on the 0 pockets. The James Bond strategy is quite effective for a return, but is also very risky, which is why we wouldn’t recommend to low-rollers or to newbies.

Card Counting

It all comes back to blackjack with this one. Card counting is a very straightforward gambling strategy, that involves the player counting the cards in a blackjack deck, with the hopes of predicting whether the next one will be a high or a low number. Based on past experiences, card counting has proven to be one of the most effective blackjack strategies that one can use. The infamous MIT Blackjack Team used card counting to beat casinos all over the world, and make a name for themselves as the most notorious gamblers of all time.

However, there is a catch. Despite what many believe, card counting is not an illegal practice. Tracking cards does not break any laws in most countries in Europe, and certainly no laws in the United States. However, casinos do frown upon the practice, and some even consider it cheating. If the casino considers the practice cheating, then obviously they are not going to allow it in their private businesses. Which means, players who are suspected of counting cards often get kicked out of the casino, and may even suffer a long-term ban. 

On the other hand, professional blackjack players view card counting as a must-have skill. Blackjack tournaments are full of players who, to put it simply, compete in who can out-count the other. If the pros are doing it, then it is clearly a skill worth having. However, we wouldn’t recommend using it to frequently, especially not if you are just having fun at a land-based casino. 

The Takeaways

The savvy trader will certainly have picked up by now that gambling and trading have a lot of things in common. Both industries are plagued by the idea that luck is the only thing that matters. But the truly skilled traders understand that a certain understanding of the best stocks is necessary to be truly successful.

That same rule applies to the gambling market. It is certainly true that chance plays a bigger role in casinos than in trading. But with a bit of knowledge and understanding of odds and gaming, a gambler can twist luck in their favor. That is why we believe that participants in either industry stand to benefit from learning something from each other.