Games, Tips and Strategy Articles: Famous bets

Famous bets

In 1873, the Briton Joseph Jaggers made the first famous biased roulette wheel exploit. Mr. Jaggers, with a team of six accomplices, carefully observed all the wheels at the Monte Carlo casino and found one wheel with significant bias. By taking advantage of this flaw they managed to win over $325,000, an astronomical sum in 1873.
In the summer of 1891 at the Monte Carlo casino, a part-time swindler and petty crook from London named Charles Wells, broke the bank at each table he played over a period of several days. Breaking the bank meant he won all the available money in the table bank that day, and a black cloth would be placed over the table until the bank was replenished. In song and life he was celebrated as “The Man That Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo.”
In the 1942 film Casablanca, Rick’s Café Americain has a trick roulette wheel. The croupier can cause it to land on 22 at will. Rick (Humphrey Bogart) urges a Bulgarian refugee with whose case he becomes sympathetic to put his last three chips on 22 and motions to the croupier to let him win. After the man’s number dramatically comes up, Rick tells him to let it all ride on 22 and lets him win again. Although the details are not mentioned in the film (the croupier only notes that they are “a couple of thousand” down), it appears that Rick has given the man 3885 ((3*36*36)-3) francs. Three on any number would pay 35 to 1, “letting it ride” would result in a bet of 108 (105+3) pieces, which would yield a payoff of 3780, or 3888 if he took his bet down.
Near the beginning of the 1973 film The Sting, Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) takes his share of the money conned from a numbers runner and loses nearly all of it on a single bet against a rigged roulette wheel.
In 1992 in Gdynia (Poland) in Jackpol casino, Paweł Piskorski (Polish politician, former Secretary General of Platforma Obywatelska and Member of European Parliament, today Leader of Stronnictwo Demokratyczne) claimed to have won 4,950,000,000 zloty (approximately $175,000 today). This, at least, was the explanation he gave to the revenue office for his income that year. The claim is implausible, because the house maximum at that time was 1,000,000 zloty: he would have had to have won 138 times in succession, with each bet set at the house maximum.
In the third part of the 1998 film Run, Lola, Run, Lola (Franka Potente) uses all her money to buy a 100-mark chip. (She is actually just short of 100 marks, but gains the sympathy of a casino employee who gives her the chip for what money she has.) She bets her single chip on 20 and wins. She lets her winnings ride on 20 and wins again, making her total winnings 129,600 marks (29,600 more than her smuggler boyfriend owed his boss, Ronnie). The odds of two consecutive wins on a European roulette wheel are exactly 1368-to-1 against.On a European roulette table, 1 chip would pay 35. Letting it ride would yield a payoff of(36*35)1260 pieces, or in this case 126,000 marks. It should also be noted that the odds of “any” number repeating is exactly 36-to-1 (37-to-1 on a 00 wheel).
In 2004, Ashley Revell of London sold all of his possessions, clothing included, and brought US$135,300 to the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas and put it all on “Red” at the roulette table in a double-or-nothing bet. The ball landed on “Red 7” and Revell walked away with his net-worth doubled to $270,600.
In the music video for “Palace & Main” by Kent, guitarist Harri Mänty goes to Las Vegas and bets the entire video budget on black. He wins, and the profits are donated to charity.
In 2009, on Friday 2 October, Derren Brown (as part of his controversial “the events” series) bet £5000 of a member of the public’s money on a single number of a roulette wheel somewhere in Europe. This was shown live across the UK using a hidden camera in Derren’s sleeve. His plan was to use the laws of physics to predict where the ball would end up, based upon what speed the wheel and ball are spinning. Derren took approximately 3 seconds after the wheel started spinning to place his £5000 bet on number 8, only to see it land on number 30 – just one number out.