Martingale if applied correctly does work under certain conditions. In the long term, it will always fail. However, I have made decent chunks by applying this strategy in even odds games in the short term.
It is a smart money management strategy overall if used properly just like many popular progression strategies. Also, I don't think anyone gambles with 1 sat seriously. It helps enhance the fun aspect by helping you stay in the game longer with "Real money". Not everyone gambles seriously.
Depends on how long you play martingale it could both work and fail at the same time but the time period you use doesn't exactly mean you will win neither. The theory is that if you play long enough there is a chance you will face a big losing streak, of course you can start with a 10 bet losing streak as well but odds of that happening is significantly lesser compared to playing 10 thousand bets for example, if you wager 10 thousand bets eventually you will have a bad losing streak.
The negative of martingale is that you win 1x many times mostly but in the end when you get a losing streak it becomes 1x-2x-4x-8x-16x-32x-64x-128x and goes on very quickly as you can see, so you have to be very careful. It is not a suggested strategy at all but some people could become lucky as well of course.