How Does the Roulette ATM Strategy Work?
In reality, the ATM strategy is not at all complicated. You use only two types of bets, the low and the dozen. On each spin, you only play them and you adjust the bet size whether you win or lose. Here’s how to get started:
- You stake 3 chips on low bets, covering the 1 to 18 numbers.
- You stake 2 chips on the third dozen covering the 25 to 36 numbers.
That’s it. You only use two bets and you cover a total of 30 numbers on the table. On the European roulette table this means 30 out of 37 possible outcomes are covered, so you win over 80% of the time.
On any win, you keep on using the same stakes. But if you lose here’s what you need to do:
- After the first loss: Bet 9 units on the low and another 6 on the dozen.
- After the second loss: Bet 33 units on the low and 22 on the dozen.
- After the third loss: Bet a total of 74 chips on the low bet and another 36 for the dozen bet.
- Once you win go back to the original bet sizes.
That’s as far as the progression goes. It doesn’t say what to do if you hit a fourth losing spin in a row. This is probably so since the odds of losing 4 times in a row while betting 30 numbers on the table are low. How do you think this system will work in real play. We can put that to the test with our real-life simulation.
Testing the ATM System
As usual, we create 4 players and we put the strategy to the test with 500 spins in total. All of the players have the same starting bankroll and follow the rules of the strategy to the letter. So, let’s see what kind of results they managed to get.
- As you can see from the graph Player 3 was the one who managed to make the most profit. By spin 275 his bankroll reached 1,111 units and he managed to make a profit of 67 units at the end.
- Both players 1 and 2 ended the simulation with a loss. Player 1 lost a total of 65 units and player 2 lost a total of 40 units.
- Player 4 was the unluckiest one. He lost a total of 438 units and went bust.
Main Issues of the ATM System
The main issue with this system is that players have a high chance to win, but it can also be incredibly volatile. The entire ATM system is based on the prelude that you won’t be able to lose 4 times in a row. Still, as many roulette players know, this is always a possibility. Even when you cover 80% of the table, you can still hit a losing streak which can easily break your bank. This is clearly seen in the results from the simulation. The biggest disadvantage is that you can’t easily recover your losses if you hit a losing streak.
When you do have to chase your losses you quickly see that the increase of bets is very aggressive. Even in the highest Martingale systems, bets like this are hard to come by. We are talking about tripling and quadrupling your stake. So even one loss can be devastating, especially if you are playing high-stakes online roulette. This strategy may help you make a profit short term, but if you play for a long time eventually the house edge will work for the casino.
Conclusion
At first glance, the ATM strategy may seem like a viable one. After all, you have an 80% chance of landing a win and you only need one to keep the strategy going. The main premise is that players rarely face more than 3 losing spins in a row if they cover a big portion of the table. Short term it can work if luck is on your side. If you are playing with high stakes you can even make a nice profit. But like any other casino game the longer you play the more the house edge works against you. So, in the long run, the chances are you will end up in a loss, with a big chance to go bankrupt.