What is the Snake Bet?

Do you enjoy playing roulette online at UK gambling sites?  If so, you may be looking for roulette betting systems.  One popular system you may have heard of is the “snake bet.”  Please note that the snake bet, like most roulette systems, will not actually increase your odds of winning!  But it looks cool, it’s fun, and it’s very popular all over the world, especially in China, where the colour red stands for joy and luck, and the snake is a zodiac symbol. 

How does it work?  Basically, when you are looking at the roulette table, you are placing your wagers on the red numbers in a zig-zag fashion from one end of the board to the other.  It is also known as the “red snake.”  These are all straight bets.  No split bets are included.  You usually bet the same amount on each of the numbers. 

Even the best online casino sites do not usually offer a “Snake” button, but you can still set up a snake bet in the same way you would set one up manually in a brick-and-mortar casino.  Some casinos offer you a “custom betting” setup where you can input layouts you like for use in the future.  It’s like saving a template.  You can create a snake setup that way, and then use it again in the future with a single click instead of setting it up every time.

Why use the snake bet setup for roulette?  That’s a good question.  Honestly, there is no strategic value to the system.  Your probabilities are the same with the snake bet as they are without it.  If you bet on 12 random numbers, you would have the exact same odds of winning or losing, and the house edge remains fixed.  That is assuming of course that you took 12 straight bets on random numbers, not some other kind of bet like a split bet.

So why would you do it?  Most gamblers do it for the simple reason that it is fun and the setup is cool to look at.  Since you are already betting on a game of blind chance, why not add all the fun you can to it?  And if you are superstitious and the Chinese zodiac and mythology appeal to you, you might want to bet on the red snake because you feel it could increase your luck. 

Luck and probability are not exactly the same thing.  Probability is the likelihood something will happen, whereas luck refers to random happenstance.  If you believe in luck, perhaps the red snake will aid you.  And if not, you can still have fun with the snake bet in roulette!