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Famous Roulette Players - The Best Casino Players Worldwide

History shows that a few lucky gamblers succeeded as a professional roulette player.


Best Roulette Players From Monte Carlo And The Online Tables

History shows that a few lucky gamblers succeeded as a professional roulette player.

Written by: Stefano Rossi | The review was last updated: 14 October 2023 | Fact-check by: Kim Birch

CERTIFIED EXPERT CERTIFIED EXPERT
Stefano Rossi, a BETO™ expert in game theory and quantitative analysis, specializes in classic casino games like Roulette, drawing on considerable experience from Italian casinos. About Stefano Rossi

Roulette is one of the most popular and exciting casino games globally, and players love it. The name of this fantastic table game comes from the French word "roulette", which means "a little wheel". You will find this popular table game in almost every casino, and it never fails to gather a strong crowd.

Most of the revolutionary changes to the game from one Monte Carlo Casino (Casino de Monte-Carlo), and these changes have survived for hundreds of years for the famous professional roulette players to try and beat. From the famous professional gambler Phil Ivey to cinematic legends like James Bond, who were seen gambling across casinos in their movies.

If you also want to have a good time gambling online, make sure you read our review of some of the best and most famous casinos online with a good reputations. We at BETO have reviewed every online casino with a respected gaming license, and you will get excellent and honest reviews about those roulette sites.

While most people who visit casinos visit for some random fun, some players are always there in casinos who are avid gamblers, and they do nothing else other than try to beat the casinos. Along with the other casino games, some of the most famous roulette players have also become known as the best by the media. Here are some stories about roulette players who have marked their names in history by trying to play professionally and beating the casinos.

Joseph Jagger is considered the Roulette King by many players.

Joseph Jagger is considered the Roulette King by many players.

If you ask gamblers their favourite table game, you shouldn't be surprised if most of the answers favour roulette. The classic table game has never failed to win the hearts of casino players for many centuries. The game was invented sometime in the 17th century and has not undergone any significant design changes since then. It is almost the same game as it was around 300 years ago. The only thing that has changed in some variants is some game spaces' colour schemes and zeroes' placement.

The game of roulette is just perfect. The roulette game successfully creates dramatic tension in the minds of its players as they watch the ivory roulette ball spin in the wheel and eventually jump through the various spaces in the wheel.

It would not be wrong to say that the game of roulette is a total game of luck, there is zero involvement of skills in the game, and there are no chances of influencing the game's outcome in any sense, which is another plus point of the game. During the game's long history, there have been some famous gamblers who have made history through the game. In this article, you will see the stories and mentions of such players and their historical bets.

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The Player Who Discovered Wheel Bias in Roulette Wheels

There have been many iconic roulette players in the game's history, and Joseph Jagger is one of the most notable names for gambling on roulette. Joseph Jagger is famously known as "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo".

It was in the year 1873 when Jagger understood that not all wheels in the casino are perfect. Some wheels have flaws, and they can be used to make loads of cash if you spot the wheel bias before the casinos.

Jagger Was The First Professional Roulette Player

After observing different roulette wheels for several days, Jagger was sure that a roulette wheel in a casino was biased towards 9 specific numbers, which was enough for Jagger to get started. To gain this advantage, Jagger employed some people to visit casinos and observe the working of these roulette wheels. Jagger immediately started his gambling adventure on that specific roulette table, winning almost €65,000, almost over €3 million in today's money.

After a few years, in 1891, another gambler named Charles Wells tried to defeat casinos similarly. In the July of 1891, Charles Wells, a minor criminal of the time, entered a casino and headed towards the roulette table, he had a few thousand pounds with him that day, and those, too, were the fruits of some illicit activity. Wells broke the bank that day by winning all the money stored in the roulette table, then he moved to the rest of the tables and kept winning for around eleven hours this way. He repeated this same thing again after a few months in November and won around a million Francs from the casino. Charles, however, based his games on pure luck and didn't exploit any deformity as Jagger did.

Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo is another famous roulette player who won loads of money while betting on roulette games. Like Jagger, Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo also successfully located a particular roulette wheel with a bit of deformity and was biased on specific numbers. This roulette wheel was situated in a casino in Madrid, and Garcia-Pelayo won over a million Euros by gambling on that wheel. Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo took advantage of this wheel and kept on betting.

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Famous Roulette Bets

Players have made a name in gambling history by winning big payouts. There have also been some casino gamblers who made their name just by some single bets rather than long gambling sessions. Like, in 2004, there was a gambler Ashley Revell, this man hailed from London, and he took a risk that some would call absolutely craziness; this man sold everything he owned in the open market and decided to bet all the money he made on a single bet on the roulette wheel. Revell raised $135,300 by selling all of his stuff, and then he gambled all of that money at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, placed his bet on the red at the table, and won! Revell collected his winnings from the casino, which amounted to $270,600, and he left $600 as a tip.

Similarly, in 2009, gamblers witnessed another famous roulette spin live on UK television. A famous TV personality and illusionist, Derren Brown, tried to predict the space where a roulette ball was going to land after the spin. Brown took 5000 pounds from somebody to spice up the show and earned all that money in a single spin. Brown said that he was sure where the ball was going to land, as he had used various mathematical formulas and laws of physics to determine the resting space of that ball. As the wheel started spinning, it took Brown around 3 seconds to identify the space where the ball was going to land, and he wagered all of the money on number 8. Sadly, the ball landed one space on the side of number 8 and landed on the 30 number. It was a foolish idea, but it gained a lot of publicity and is one of the most famous roulette spins in history.

Another famous spin in casino history was spun by a gambler called Chris Boyd, an ordinary 40-year-old man who worked as a computer programmer. One day, he suddenly decided to bet all his savings on a roulette spin at a casino in Vegas. When he approached the gambling city, he was turned down by most of the casinos as the bet of $220,000 was huge, and they couldn't afford to lose that much on a single spin. However, Chris finally got the green light for his spin at a casino called Binion's Horseshoe Club, and he tried his luck. Most people will label a man like him crazy, but he got lucky with the spin and doubled his money.

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Connection of Movies to Roulette Games

Hollywood movies have many casino scenes that include Roulette games

Hollywood movies have many casino scenes that include Roulette games

The relationship between Roulette and films is ancient and exciting. Movie directors have been using Roulette wheels for years to portray dramatic moments and scenes in movies. You will surely remember a movie where when the hero needs urgent money, he goes to a casino and bets money on a Roulette table, and just like that, he comes out of the casino a wealthy man.

You will find many movies where the connection between the movies and the famous table game has been highlighted. For Example, in the famous German Movie "Run, Lola, Run", the main character of the film, Lola, wagers 100 Marks on the 20 number space twice, and she wins both times. She won more than 129,600 Marks, way more than the 100,000 she needed to pay off her boyfriend's debts.

You will also notice Roulette's appearance in the famous movie Casablanca. In the movie, Humphrey Bogart owns a city cafe with a Roulette wheel, which he often uses to scam his customers to get their money. Similarly, he helped a Bulgarian couple bribe the police by asking them to bet on a specific number on the Roulette wheel.

These were some movies that featured the Roulette wheel. However, the legendary James Bond series is the most iconic movie featuring the Roulette wheel. The famous British Spy travels the whole world and visits different casinos. He loves gambling and frequently bets on the Roulette tables and baccarat games. He loves gambling and frequently bets on the roulette tables and plays baccarat. This was the Seventh James Bond movie called Diamonds are Forever.

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Celebrities who love playing Roulette

Like ordinary people, celebrities also love to gamble at casinos; for them, Roulette is one of the most popular table games.

Ricky Hatton is one of the most famous boxers globally, and he, too, is a great lover of the classic table game. Ricky Hatton is very popular and has fought against all the top boxers worldwide, including Floyd Mayweather. Mayweather is undoubtedly the most famous boxer of this time and has not lost a single fight. After Hatton's fight against Mayweather, which Hatton lost in the end, a video of the famous boxer went viral in which he headed straight to a casino after the fight and started playing Roulette.

After some time, Hatton was questioned about his love for Roulette in an interview. He said he is a big fan of Roulette and loves playing it while hanging out with his friends.

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Roulette is loved by women as well

Lara Dutta (Miss Universe 2000) also loves playing Roulette

Lara Dutta (Miss Universe 2000) also loves playing Roulette

Lara Dutta won the Miss Universe title in 2000 and is undoubtedly one of the most famous models of all time. Like Hatton, Dutta is also a Roulette lover, and the model has a great passion for Roulette games. Dutta has often been spotted in casinos when she visits Macau for the Gala award events.

Lara Dutta said that her love for Roulette games started when she played with her friend Ritesh Deshmukh, who also loves table games. He taught Dutta the game basics, and she has now become an expert in the game. She has been interviewed by journalists numerous times, and during these interviews, Dutta has said many times that she has built a strong passion for Roulette games over the last few years.

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Don't gamble all your money away at the Roulette tables

These were a lot of interesting stories and tales about some famous betters and bets in roulette history. However, even though these stories were very fancy and intriguing, you should always remember that Roulette is a game of pure chances, and you should never bet more than you can afford to lose. If we start talking about the above stories, none of the players had a winning strategy except for Jagger, and they just won out of chance, which is extremely dangerous. Make sure you never put too much at stake for fun, and never rely on gambling to make money. You're mistaken if you think you can formulate some winning strategy or formula to make money at casinos. Gambling has only one purpose, and that is to entertain.

All the names we mentioned in the article are not professionals, they are just ordinary people who got lucky. None had prior knowledge or technical details about the games except Jagger. If you try to develop a formula for predicting roulette outcomes, you need very detailed technical information about the game that will help you narrow down your space field. For Example, there are 3 different broad variations of roulette casino games, American Roulette, European Roulette, and French Roulette. All of these games have specific differences, and they have different technical features. For Example, European Roulette has 37 numbers, and its RTP is around 97%, whereas the RTP of French Roulette is around 98%. These games have higher RTPs than American Roulette, which has an RTP of 95%. These technicalities will make it difficult for you to construct a working formula to predict the roulette outcomes. However, even if you sort these technicalities out, you still need to consider the betting patterns, which include both inward and outward bets, and there are many more such technicalities.

Ultimately, it can be concluded that there is no way to cheat the roulette wheel, and you rely purely on luck while playing Roulette.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Famous Roulette Players and Bets

Most asked questions related to famous Roulette players and famous bets

How much money can you win playing Roulette?

There is no hard and fast rule related to the maximum win of Roulette games, as it depends on the casinos and their rules. While doing our research, we found that the highest betting limits were as high as up to €10,000, which lets players win up to €360,000 on a single spin, which sounds unreal. However, the holder of the biggest win in roulette history is still Charles Wells, with the biggest win.

What is the best strategy to achieve the biggest Roulette wins?

As mentioned in the article above, there is no viable winning strategy for winning Roulette games that you can follow to become a champion in the classic table game. The game of Roulette is a pure game of chances, and there is no way you can influence the game or predict its outcome using mathematical formulas.

What are my odds of winning in Roulette?

The best chance you have at winning a roulette game is a probability of 35:1 at the European roulette table and 36:1 on the American version of the classic game.

Who has scored the biggest win in the history of Roulette?

Many people in history have scored unbelievable wins in Roulette games. Still, the record of the biggest win ever scored in a Roulette game is held by Charles Wells, who won 2 Million Francs in 1881 while playing at a casino in Monte Carlo, which sounds just unbelievable.

How does James Bond play Roulette?

James Bond is one of the most famous fictional characters of all time. Bond was created by Ian Fleming, who developed a powerful character of a man who worked for the British Government as a spy. As we can see in the movies, Bond loves gambling, amongst other things. In the movies, James Bond uses a strategy that covers a series of bets to win the games.