Roulette Anecdotes

Sean Connery, in the role of James Bond

When talking about roulette, it is impossible not to mention the popular agent 007 and his feats in the universe of casino.

Sean Connery, in the role of James Bond is particularly known for his passion of risks: in one of his movies we can see him place his chips on the 17 for three times in succession. What a surprise then, to see the marble stopping for three times on that famous number 17 and James Bond winning 30 000 dollars!

If we look at it through a probabilistic arguments, to calculate the real probabilities that such a thing happens: there would be in reality 1 probability out of 50 000!

Nevertheless, a similar anecdote happened on the 14th of July 2000 in the paradise of casino of Las Vegas, in the popular Caesar Palace: the number 21 came out winning for 7 times in succession!

The loss for the casino was however of only 300 dollars, since there was one single probability out of 3 billion that such a thing could happen!

An engineer known with the name of Joseph Jagger

There is another anecdote that is appropriate to mention when familiarising with the exciting universe of roulette and in particular with flaws featuring the famous process made by the croupier after s/he pronounces the sentence “no more cards”.

If someone notices a bias with the cylinder and the marble that has been thrown, the casino will be losing... What follows is an example from the popular casino of Monte Carlo, happened in 1873.

An engineer known as Joseph Jagger studies the functioning of the game of the roulette in front of him and notices a bias in the wheel, a thing that makes the number 9 come out winning a higher number of times than the other numbers. This discovery calls into question the uncertain laws governing the throw of the wheel and the small white marble.

He thus decides to bet all of his chips on that famous number 9: Jagger wins therefore the equivalent of 350 000 pounds!

Nobody knows if it was the wear of the wheel or some mechanical failures: what is sure, is that in 1873 there were no precise computer technologies to detect this type of bias. Joseph Jagger has therefore used this occasion to get the jackpot in Montecarlo!