Professional Roulette Players - How They Won at Roulette (2024)

There are thousands of gamblers who make a living by trying their luck on a variety of gaming products. Most gravitate towards casino games where the players actively make choices that have a measurable impact on their success rate, most commonly poker and blackjack. Some dabble in sports and horse betting, but few, if any, take a crack at roulette. But why is that? Read the article below to find out more about professional roulette players and if they exist.

Which Roulette Players Are Professional?

How does one distinguish professional roulette players from the common variety of gamblers? The difference is quite simple – one group plays for fun while the other looks to make a living at the roulette table. Simply put, a professional roulette player is a job occupation rather than a hobby or a passing interest.

Do Pro Roulette Players Exist?

Now that we have got the definition out of the way, the time has come to see if there are any professional roulette players. The answer to this question is simple – rarely, and the existing ones could be called professionals, but not really in the way that you think.

Previously, we mentioned how most pro gamblers aim to play games where they can make meaningful decisions that influence the game. Blackjack and poker are perfect examples of this, giving you ample opportunities to showcase your skills.

Roulette is a game of chance, where your luck is the only deciding factor in any winning or losing spin. This makes it impossible to consistently earn a profit over a long period of time. It all boils down to the math behind the game and how the odds are structured. It also matters that you choose a legit casino with fair roulette games. Norwegian players can find reputable operators in this list of the best roulette sites in Norway.

Roulette Odds – Better Than Any Gambler

All of the best roulette players know that roulette comes in two main varieties – European and American. The former features a house edge of 2.7%, whereas, with the latter, the casino’s cut is 5.27%. So, given these odds and an inability to influence them, what happens after placing thousands of roulette bets? On average, the casino keeps 2.7% or 5.27% of the turnover.

The odds of the game are insurmountable. There is no way to do away with them. Even roulette players who apply the best roulette betting systems bow down before the mathematical superiority of the house edge. In practice, roulette is a table version of a slot machine. The size of your winnings will only correlate with your personal luck.

If you look at our list of the richest gamblers, you will find that none of the individuals played roulette professionally. All of them chose gambling products where they can have input on the game or the opportunity to turn the odds. This is simply not possible with roulette. Well, that is not strictly true, which leads us to our next point – roulette cheats.

Professional Roulette Players – Cheats by Any Other Name

One way to skirt the house edge and the odds, in general, is to play outside the established parameters of the game. This is easier said than done. But roulette players have developed ingenious methods to beat the casino, some more unscrupulous than others. Some of the most memorable gamblers include:

Below, we will explore the modus operandi of each of them, showing exactly how they managed to beat the casinos. Moreover, you will also read about how much cash they managed to bring in.

Carol Jarecki

Carol Jarecki was a US chess organiser responsible for numerous high-profile chess competitions throughout her life. Aside from her love for chess, Carol also developed a knack for emptying casino vaults. She and her husband – Richard Jarecki – would exploit the biased roulette wheels at various Italian casinos.

The two created a betting system, allowing them to take advantage of the wheels’ imperfections. Of course, such faults have been fixed at UK live roulette casinos nowadays. Over the years, the two managed to bring in more than $1.2 million before their scheme was discovered. In fact, the casinos were so upset that these pro roulette players received a ban from entering the country for a while.

Charles Wells

In the gambling business, you often earn fame for winning large sums of money. Bonus points are given if you break the casino’s bank and someone writes a song about you. This is the case of Charles Wells, a well-known English swindler.

Mr. Wells made headlines in 1891 when he broke the bank at the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco. In this case, ‘breaking the bank’ means that a particular gaming table ran out of cash reserves, and play needed to be suspended.

Wells received a lot of publicity for this feat, though his past frauds sullied his victory as speculation that he had cheated arose.

He claimed to use an ‘infallible system’, perfected over time. No cheating could be proven when he won the money, and now 130 years later, the truth has long been buried with him. As for his system, it proved not as infallible as he claimed. A year later, in 1892, he once again played at Monte Carlo but quickly found himself 100,000 francs poorer. Regardless, Charles Wells is remembered as one of the most successful professional roulette players in history.

Joseph Hobson Jagger

While Charles Wells received a song for his exploits, he was not the first one to accomplish that particular feat. In fact, it was done several times before him. Roulette player Joseph Jagger managed to break the bank at the Monte Carlo Casino a decade prior.

Jagger was a textile worker in the second part of the 19th century. At one point, he considered that all wheels were unbalanced. This served as his inspiration to try his luck at the Monte Carlo tables.

Having studied the roulette wheels for a few weeks, Jagger noticed a wheel bias on certain numbers.

With a statistical edge of knowing where to bet, Jagger set out to make over 2 million francs in a short period of time. Unlike Wells, he didn’t generate the same attention at the time. Unfortunately for Jagger, roulette table manufacturers came out with movable partitions for their tables. As a result, he couldn’t pinpoint which specific wheel was slotted into the table, breaking his system.

Chris Boyd

Chris Boyd is one of the famous roulette players on our list who did not employ any form of cheating or game manipulation. His strategy relied on pure and simple luck. Mr. Boyd was a UK programmer who managed to save $220,000 through hard work. In spite of any logic or reason, he decided to stake it all on a single roulette bet.

Finding a casino that would take this wager was a challenge. Chris was turned down at several venues until he came across Binion’s Horseshoe Club. After some arguing and haggling, the casino management agreed to forgo their $100,000 bet limits for once.

So it was that Chris Boyd wagered his life savings of $220,000 on red and won. Since the bet pays 1:1, he left the casino with $440,000. It was enough to put him on our biggest roulette wins list.

Laszlo Kovacs

Lazslo Kovacs is a modern roulette player known for his dubious gambling methods. The Hungarian used an electronic device hidden in his shoe to reasonably predict the outcome of future spins. By tapping his foot, he could activate the device, which would then obtain data about the speed of the wheel and its potential stopping point. Unfortunately for him, such devices can’t work with modern UK roulette online games.

Lazslo Kovacs became famous in 2005 when he was arrested in Australia for supposedly cheating. It happened in Star City Casino, Sydney (now known as The Star Syndey), when casino employees alerted the police. Accounts differ regarding their reasoning. Some claim that Kovacs was winning too frequently; others say that it was his foot tapping that gave him away.

Regardless, Kovacs won around $200,000 before his exploits came to an end. Interestingly enough, he was not convicted of any crime. However, this event did lead to his deportation from Australia.

Popular Questions

We hope you learned something from reading this article. If you have any more questions about pro roulette players, please look at the FAQ below. We aim to cover the most popular questions and give you a complete picture.

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