Betting Like Bond Doesn’t Offer a Licence to Win

James Bond, the fictional suave and sophisticated 007 spy from the late British author Ian Fleming, was an avid gambler in the books and in the movies is often seen inside a casino.

Fleming explained the reason for 007 spending so much time there. It was because skill at gambling and knowledge of how to behave in a casino were then seen as attributes of a true gentleman.

Bond is a casino regular — complete in a tuxedo — because as well as making contacts and money, that is where the rich and evil tend to hang out according to the fantasy world of the books and movies.

He is unstoppable at the tables, which helps make the 007 character attractive to various beautiful yet flawed ladies who frequent casinos in the books. Although Bond enjoys playing a plethora of games across these movies, it is baccarat — specifically the chemin-de-fer of the classic card game — that is favoured.

Baccarat, which dates back to the 1800s when originally popular among French nobility, puts the player in a head-to-head matchup with the dealer.

Bond was introduced to a global movie audience in 1962’s Dr No in a fictitious London casino playing baccarat before uttering those now immortal words of “Bond, James Bond”.

In Casino Royale, the inaugural 007 novel published in 1953, Bond plays baccarat against the baddie Le Chiffre. The game of baccarat returned for the movies Thunderball, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Goldeneye.

Although it would ultimately take some practice to attain Bond’s high level of playing baccarat, there are plenty of online casinos to try your luck or simply explore the game. Once you get the hang of how to win then if you want to double, sometimes even triple, your budget right away you can always try out the best casino bonuses.

Card games and casinos feature in other Bond movies, although 007 does not always gamble.

He puts a stop to Auric Goldfinger’s cheating at high stakes gin rummy in Goldfinger, and he collects some golden bullets from a casino in The Man With The Golden Gun.

Bond played craps in Diamonds Are Forever, with scenes shot at Las Vegas hotel & casino properties, backgammon in Octopussy and the ancient Chinese dice game of Sic Bo in Skyfall.

Bond is busy at poker in the Casino Royale movie, where they battle it out with No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em.

The Casino Monte Carlo was the setting for Never Say Never Again’s bizarre variation of a video game, where 007 had to use all of his guile to avoid being the loser who will receive an electric shock.

Although roulette was featured in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, it surprisingly didn’t follow the James Bond roulette strategy that Fleming created.

This invented roulette strategy is a combination bet. It works just as well as any of the simple bets it consists of, when it comes to the average expected profit per round, which is the house edge.

The expectation is that the combination of the parts covers more possible outcomes, which indicates that players reduce the risk of a loss.

A total amount of usually £200 is distributed to three bets as follows: £140 on the high numbers (19 to 36), £50 on a Six Line or Double Street (13 to 18) with and £10 on the Single number 0.

Fleming’s description of placing a single bet on the number 0 only applies to the European variant of roulette, where there are the numbers from 1 to 36 on the wheel, plus the 0. In total, there are 37 numbers on a European roulette wheel.

Whereas an American roulette wheel comprises 38 numbers as there’s the addition of 00, so the odds are slightly shortened to win.

The expected average profit for a bet with the Bond strategy in European roulette means that there are three different possibilities to win, and one to lose. These depend on the number that the ball lands on in the wheel.

• Ball lands on 0 — Single bet win (probability 1/37)
  
• Ball lands on a number from 1 to 12 — Player loses (probability 12/37)
  
• Ball lands on a number from 13 to 18 — The Six Line wins (probability 6/37)
  
• Ball lands on a number from 19 to 36 — the High Numbers win (probability 18/37)
  

Just like 007 relies on M and MI6, players can trust online casinos for offering the latest and greatest games 24/7. Thanks to the ever-evolving mobile technology that Bonds utilises, then it will surely not be too long before the super sleuth uses a mobile phone to try his luck at an online casino.