Four Roulette Players Who Have Won Big by Spinning The ‘Devil’s Wheel’ in France

Roulette is one of the world’s most famous – and popular – casino games, and thanks to the internet, we’re now able to enjoy casino Roulette at home – meaning not even the global Coronavirus pandemic could stop us from having a few spins on the Roulette Wheel! This wheel is also known as the ‘Devil’s Wheel’, due to the numbers adding up to 666. Unlike its classic counterparts – such as Blackjack and Poker – there are very few legitimate Roulette professionals. However, there are a few punters who have made a name for themselves by playing the age-old pastime. So, let’s take a look at a number of the people who have walked away from the table with mega amounts in their pockets. 

Bradford native Joseph Jagger is believed to be the first professional Roulette player. The textile engineer also believed that no two Roulette wheels were the same, and the slightest of issues to the wheel could result in the ball landing on specific numbers and colours. 

In the late 1880s, Jagger started studying the wheels in Monte Carlo’s Beaux-Arts casino. The Englishman came to the conclusion that one of the wheels favoured the numbers: 7, 8, 9, 17, 18, 19, 22, 28, and 29. He put his research to the test and pocketed £65,000 – which in today’s money is almost around £3m – and, therefore, one of the biggest Roulette wins in history. Jagger also landed the title of ‘The man who broke the Monte Carlo bank.’ 

It took just 18 years before the bank at Monte Carlo’s most famous casino was smashed again – and Charles Wells even managed to do it using the same wheel! 

Staff at the Beaux-Arts casino soon realized that there was a problem with the wheel that Jagger bagged his fortune on. However, whether it had not been properly fixed, or almost 20 years of constant use brought it back, Wells – who was already a renowned professional gambler – noticed that the problem was still there and took advantage of it. Over the course of three days, the Hertfordshire man placed large bets on 30 separate spins – winning on a whopping 23 of them – and walked away with several million French Francs. 

In 1966, Londoner Norman Leigh gathered together a flock of thirteen men and headed for Nice’s Casino Municipal. The team opted to use a reverse Labouchere system, alongside wagers on all even-money bets. The novelist scooped a whopping 800,000 French Francs, and, as a result, ended up banned from every casino in France! However, his method was flawed and later proven as pure luck. 

Carol Jarecki – who made a name for herself as a professional chess player – also believed that not all Roulette wheels are completely random. So, in the 1970s – like Jagger and Wells – the American, and her husband, studied the wheels in Monte Carlo, and the nearby Italian coastal town of San Remo, searching for imperfections. By recording the results of the wheels, the couple successfully came up with a winning method – and like their pre-successors, won millions!