- Maths reviewed by Josh Miller
- Tested by Diana Westfield
Limbo has one rule and a limbo calculator needs one formula. You pick a target multiplier, the game rolls a number, and you win if the roll is at least your target. On a 99% game the chance of reaching 2× is 99 ÷ 2 = 49.5%. At 10× it’s 9.9%. Put your target and the game’s house edge into the free CasinoCalcs calculator above to see the win chance, the cost and the streaks to expect.
Limbo game odds by target
| Target | Win chance (1% edge) | Average bets to a win | Lose 20 in a row |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5× | 66.0% | 1.5 | under 1 in a billion |
| 2× | 49.5% | 2.0 | 1 in 850,000 |
| 5× | 19.8% | 5.1 | 1 in 83 |
| 10× | 9.9% | 10.1 | 1 in 8 |
| 100× | 0.99% | 101 | 1 in 1.2 |
| 1,000× | 0.099% | 1,010 | almost certain |
The last column is the one people underestimate. At 10× you’ll lose 20 bets in a row about one session in eight. At 100× losing 20 straight is normal. The game is working fine when that happens.
Why no limbo strategy changes the cost
Your average return is the win chance times the payout. At 2×: 0.495 × 2 = 0.99. At 50×: 0.0198 × 50 = 0.99. Every target gives back 99p per $1 on a 99% game, so the house edge, 1%, is the price of every bet whatever you aim for. The target only changes the ride: low targets mean steady small wins and the odd painful loss, high targets mean long droughts and the occasional big hit.
Raising your bet after losses, the usual “limbo strategy”, doesn’t change that either. It swaps lots of small losses for rare enormous ones, and at a 2× target a ten-loss streak means a bet 1,024 times your first. The martingale calculator shows how quickly that runs into a limit.
Limbo, crash and dice
Limbo is a crash game without the waiting: the crash game calculator uses identical maths. Crypto dice works the same way from the other direction, with a win chance you set and a multiplier that follows, as the crypto dice calculator shows. To check a result really came from the published seeds, use the provably fair calculator.
Rounds take a second each. Losses add up fast. BeGambleAware.org offers free support.