This Simple Trick Allowed College Professor to Win $8m Playing Roulette
If you have ever been to Vegas or Atlantic City and mixed in with the locals in the USA’s most prolific casino locations, you probably already know that some of the most talked-about stories are the ones about unlikely winners or smart schemes that made someone rich quick. Some are factual, some are hearsay, and others are darn right ridiculous, but no matter which is the case, if you love casinos, you probably love a good winner’s story because we all dream about that hot streak or dream win.
As far as gambling stories go, one of the best of them covers an ambitious professor who took land-based casinos across Europe for $8 million during the 1960s. It’s a story of ingenuity and cunning, and one that will probably never be repeated. That’s because the casinos learned from the weaknesses the professor exploited in the same way casinos learned from blackjack card counters. Thanks to the professor, the best online casinos for US players from roulettesites.org all use brand new roulette wheels that are fully maintained, and if you want to find out exactly why, feel free to read on!
Modern roulette wheels are built to extremely high standards and are regularly tested against flaws.
Who is this Professor?
The professor in question was a German-born doctor named Richard Jarecki, who died just a few years ago in 2018, aged 86. Much like other success stories such as that of the first American self-made female millionaire, Jarecki came upon an idea and used it to change his life for the better. Not that he ever struggled for money as a doctor, but $8 million will make a big difference to anyone.
After lots of hard work and dedication, and using his knack for mathematics, he was able to come up with a system that enabled him to come out on top after most sessions at many of Europe’s most illustrious brick and mortar casinos.
From a young age, the educated man quickly developed an affection for gambling. Initially, it was card games such as blackjack that Jarecki had a fondness for, but that soon switched to roulette, a casino game he eventually decided he could beat.
It is important to remember that roulette, when compared to other casino games, has quite a high house edge. European Roulette, Jarecki’s preferred variation, has the best house edge of 2.7% while American Roulette is close to double that at 5.26%. Jarecki knew all this, of course, but it wasn’t the odds of winning that he was focusing on.
The System Jarecki Created to Beat the Casinos
Roulette differs from other games as it uses a mechanical wheel to help determine the results. It was this that Jarecki focused on as he realized mechanical devices will always suffer wear and tear over extended use. The smallest defect, whether a dent, slightly uneven surface, or a tiny chip, might cause the ball to land on certain numbers more often than others.
Jarecki, his wife, and some people he hired spent countless hours at major casinos across Europe tracking the results of thousands upon thousands of spins at the roulette tables. The hard work did not end there, as he then spent just as many hours analyzing the data he and his team had collected.
Before long, he could identify particular tables that were flawed. It got to the point where he knew which numbers would likely follow a particular sequence of numbers that had landed previously. Once he was confident his system would work, he borrowed $25,000 and put it into practice. He visited major European casinos, including Baden-Baden in his homeland, the San Remo in Italy, the Divonne-les-Bains in Monte Carlo, and even visited Las Vegas for a short time.
The System Quickly Brought Consistent Profits
Between 1694 and 1969 he had amassed $625,000 which, in today’s money, is worth a cool $8 million! He had become a scourge to the casinos, with some even trying to ban him outright. The casinos could not understand how he was winning so much money from a game they held a big edge.
Though the casinos suspected he had noticed flaws, he was still winning when they would switch the wheels between tables in an attempt to confuse him. However, he had remembered minute differences and knew each table by hand. Even more genius was how he kept the casinos guessing by claiming he had used a powerful computer in London to crack the game.
All Good Stories Come to an End – But at Least this One Was a Happy Ending!
Eventually, most of the casino industry performed a complete overhaul by introducing digitized tables and that put an end to Jarecki’s run. By then, the German-born doctor had already filled his pockets to the tune of $8 million playing a casino game that was meant to give the casinos a big house edge. After his exploits, Jarecki spent a large part of his life as a commodities futures trader in the US before finally moving to Manila in the late 90s, where he saw out the rest of his life.
It is hard to believe a story like this will ever happen again. At least not to the extent of this man’s success. Modern roulette wheels are built to extremely high standards and are regularly tested against flaws, so if you’re thinking of using doing similar as an easy way to make some extra money, think again!
