The James Bond Betting Strategy

The James Bond Roulette strategy: will it leave you shaken or stirred?

In the movie Casino Royale, Bond (aka 007) plays poker, winning a fortune and tipping the dealer a cool $500,000 poker chip. However, in Ian Fleming’s book, Bond also plays baccarat and roulette at this casino. And he has a particular strategy, which is obviously highly successful – I mean, 007 never loses at anything, does he?

So, is this sophisticated, smooth operator’s game plan one which we should emulate for a surefire win at the roulette table? The simple answer is ‘no’, because there is no way of constantly winning in a game of chance, and where the casino’s house edge often prevails. But still, it’s a good strategy so let’s explore this in more detail.

The Bond strategy is simple, but must be played consistently. Each bet must always be exactly the same. Let’s use $100 as the total bet, which will be distributed at a ratio of 70:25:5. $70 goes on the high numbers (19-36), $25 is allocated to the line bet (13-18) and $5 to the 0 (in American roulette, this can be split over the 0 and 00).

This wagering system covers 25 of the possible 37 numbers (or 38 in American roulette), giving you a 67.6 % chance of winning, but also a 32.6% chance of losing, if one of the 12 other numbers comes up. Sometimes, part of the Martingale strategy is used, by doubling the bet amount following a loss to try and maintain a profit. However, this could be a case of digging yourself deeper into a hole.

The bottom line is that roulette is purely a game of chance and, as they say, ‘the best laid plans of mice and men’ … can be sunk by the mere spin of a wheel. Of course, any strategy is better than none especially if it covers as many bases as possible while still offering a good chance of a profit.

While the James Bond is the most popular flat betting strategy, there are quite a few others that have become famous. There’s the Martingale as mentioned, the Reverse Martingale, plus the Fibonacci and Labouchere strategies. And, of course, unlimited numbers of strategies devised by individual gamblers.

So, the bottom line is: does 007’s strategy work? If the gods of fortune are on your side, then yes, we think it might. Conversely, you may not have Lady Luck on your side on the day and sadly it may not work out that well for you. But all is not lost; you can have fun devising your very own strategy or tailoring one of the famous ones to suit your style of play. Working with a strategy can make roulette so much more interesting and rewarding, so shake it up and stir in some strategic magic!