Review of Roulette Fortune Bookie
- Title:
- Roulette Fortune Bookie
- Author:
- Serena Lee Ng
- Publisher:
- -
- Date:
- 2003
- ISBN:
- -
- Pages:
- 102
- Price:
- $13.99
June 10, 2003
Historians can't tell us for certain exactly when the game of roulette
was invented, or by whom. Historians also don't tell us who invented the
first roulette betting method designed to beat the game, but I wouldn't be
surprised to find out that it occurred about 5 minutes after the first casino
with a roulette wheel opened to the public. As long as there has been
roulette, there have been people scheming ways to beat the wheel. For
some reason, this game seems to attract more method betters than any
other casino game. Recently, I received a copy of the book, Roulette
Fortune Bookie written by Serena Lee Ng. Does it unlock the
secrets to this legendary game?
The book begins with some introductory material, including a brief
description of how the game is played. Some background information
of use to
the reader is provided, while other material I would have expected
is absent. For example, the reader is told what what sorts of bets
and betting levels are expected at a wheel with a given posted minimum
bet, but no mention is made of proper etiquette regarding when bets
must be placed and when bets may be picked up. This book doesn't
contain a thorough introduction to the game, it's intended for folks
who have played roulette before.
After the introduction, Ng describes her method. Basically, it seems
to involve "pre-qualifying" the dealer to determine what pattern the
numbers are about to take, and then choosing bets based upon
the previous result or results. After this brief description of
the method, we have a set of tables which tell the reader which numbers
Ng expects are more likely to come up based upon the last number hit.
Since each of these sets of tables take up two pages, and the American roulette
wheel (which is the only layout covered in this book) has 38 numbers,
these tables make up the clear majority of this book's pages. The book
closes with some more explanations about the author's betting methods.
In the first place, this self-published book could use an awful lot
of copy editing. This isn't all that surprising, as I've generally
come to believe that a grammatical error in the title (I'm reasonably
sure Ng means "Booklet" rather than "Bookie") does not bode well
for the rest of the book, and in this case these concerns are well
justified. Despite a myriad of language errors, however, I believe the
author is usually able to convey her meaning, so grammar is not the
biggest problem with her explanations.
The biggest problem with the book is that the methods proposed are
basically untestable.
At any one time, I would expect that the recent history of the numbers
to present multiple patterns from which the next number should be
extrapolated. So, I can't determine unambiguously from the text which
set of numbers I am supposed to bet on next. Consequently, winning
results are probably obvious in hindsight, so they become a self-fulfilling
prophecy, although there's no reason to think this will translate into
cold, hard cash.
Ng combines her vague predictions about which numbers will come up
next with a Martingale-like betting progression (double up after losses),
which means that over a short betting progression, the better is likely
to be a small winner with a small, but significant, chance of being a
big loser.
The combination of this tendency with an indefinable strategy means that
it would be practically impossible to prove to the author that this betting
method cannot work in the long run. Despite this the house advantage,
about 5.26% on an American wheel, is inescapable.
The author is likely to object that I'm in no position to decry the
methods advocated in the book because I didn't give them a proper
field test. Truthfully, I have no intention of ever putting enough
of my money
on the wheel to test her assertions. I am certain that the author
firmly believes that there are patterns in the wheel, if only she can
extract them, and if that feeling was good enough for Dostoyevsky, then
who am I to argue? However, I have every bit as much faith in the
Central Limit Theorem as anyone could have in their favorite
betting system, so I seriously doubt a debate would do anyone any
good. Since this is my review, though, the bottom line is that
since this book is neither entertaining nor provides practical advice,
there is no good reason for anyone to purchase this book.
Capsule:
In my opinion, Roulette Fortune Bookie is yet another
ill-conceived betting scheme for beating the game of roulette
that cannot possibly win in the long term. Further, the book is
not very thorough in it's coverage, is not rigorous in defining its
methods, and is poorly written. I can't come up with a plausible
reason why someone should pick up this book. Frankly, by giving
this book a long and serious review, I'm giving it much more credit
than I think it warrants.
Note: I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher.
I have no other interest, financial or otherwise, in the success of
this book.
Click here to return to the index of reviews.
|