Posts Tagged ‘beat roulette’

If we’d look back at the whole history of roulette, we might see how many people have tried to find unconventional ways to win the game. Some were pretty illegal, like slipping the bet after the stop of the wheel or somehow controlling the ball or bribing a complacent croupier. But only one method was really successful, spotting a biased roulette wheel.

Finding a bias is like finding the goose that lays the golden eggs. And often players who knew what to look for were able to take advantage of a manufacturing error of the wheel to win big before the casino could realize what had happened. The best thing is that it is not cheating at all. Spotting a bias is somehow considered a skill and you can keep all your winnings. The most famous case is probably that of Joseph Jaggers, a British man who was able to win the today’s equivalent of $5 million on a biased roulette wheel at the casino of Monte Carlo in 1873.

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Is it possible to beat a roulette wheel? According to a recent research project by Michael Small and Michael Tse, from the University of Western Australia and Hong Kong Polytechnic University respectively, the answer is yes.
Their research suggests that the key is to determine when the ball and a certain point of the wheel pass the same point at the same time. With just a few measurements and a smartphone, it’s so possible to adjust your odds against the house.

The concept isn’t a new theory, however. In the 1970s, a graduate student from the University of California also tested the possibility of beating the system. Doyne Farmer was a mathematician who used a unique wearable computer to win the roulette tables in Vegas, but never revealed his secret. Thanks to the publication of Small and Tse’s research, Farmer has decided to break his silence.

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