Posted: Feb 14, 2019 7:10 pm
I'm With Stupid wrote:In theory it works.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. If you place bets at 50/50 odds (which you can't in a casino) then your expected return playing a Martingale over any finite number of bets is 0, your expected return if you have a finite bank roll and play until you win some fixed amount or go bust is 0 and similarly if the house has a limit to bet size your expected return is 0.
If the house has an edge (like all real casino games do) then your expectation is losses.
The important mathematical result relating to Martingales is The Optional Stopping Theorem.