Carol Jarecki
Born in New Jersey on February 13, 1935, Carol Jarecki was a woman of many talents. She was an international arbiter, writer, and chess aficionado. After completing her studies in anesthesia, she became a nurse and a qualified pilot who would fly more than 4,200 hours. She married Richard Jarecki in 1964. She was first introduced to chess by her son John, who, at the age of 12 in 1981, became the youngest chess master in U.S. history.Carol’s passion for chess would later morph into an obsession with roulette.
Carol and her husband Richard went on one heck of a roulette streak back in 1970s. They used a method in which they exploited a tiny flaw in a casino’s roulette wheel. It was a success. The pair quickly earned over $1.2 million using this strategy. That’s equal to more than $9.7 million in today’s money. When the casino found out about this ploy, Carol and Richard were banned. However, the couple were allowed to return after the casino presumably identified and fixed the fatal flaw.
Pedro Grendene Bartelle
Pedro Grendene Bartelle is a billionaire businessman from Brazil who established the Grendene brand along with his twin brother, Alexandre Grendene Bartelle. Grendene is one of the biggest sandal makers in the world. He made investments in several companies including some that he was in direct competition with.
He married Tania Bulhoes, who is also a successful Brazilian businesswoman. And like many obscenely wealthy power couples, they were known to hit the roulette tables from time to time. On January 3, 2017, Bartelle moseyed up to the high-stakes roulette table at Uruguay’s Hotel of Conrad in Punta Del Este. He stacked USD $35,000 on his now lucky number, 32. With help from the gambling gods, Pedro’s lucky number came in, earning him a massive payout of over $1.2 million. Needless to say, there was quite a celebration.
Joseph Jagger
Joseph Jagger was born on September 2, 1830, and he would become the first truly famous roulette player in history. Jagger is also known as " The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo", a title that any of us would love to have.
It's widely believed that Jagger came up with the concept of using a spinning wheel’s natural biases to win at roulette. He related this to his days in the textile industry when he noticed a similarity in a piece of machinery and roulette wheels. Neither was precisely balanced. He discovered that imbalances in the roulette wheel could work in his favor.
Jagger hit the casino to implement his strategy. For 3 days straight, they calculated his winnings, which turned out to be over $120,000, which is equal to around $6,000,000 in today's money. After day 1, the casino became suspicious of how Jagger could pull off such an amazing feat. After hours, the casino decided to reposition the roulette tables. As a result, Jagger started to lose his profits before noticing the table had been switched. It wasn’t scratched like it typically was. He finally reunited with his favorite biased wheel and continued to scalp the casino for another two days.
Edward Thorp
Edward Thorp was born on August 14, 1932. One day in 1964, he was sitting with two other well-dressed guys on the popular television gameshow, To Tell The Truth. All three men claim to be Edward Thorp, but there was only one real Edward Thorp. He had written a book titled "Beat the Dealer" which details blackjack winning strategies using mathematical theory. It was so effective that Las Vegas casinos were forced to change their blackjack regulations. Even though the changes were only temporary, Thorp's book became a best-seller, and up until now, it remains a key guide to those players.
Thorp also had an impact on roulette. He collaborated with MIT professor Claude Shannon in creating the world’s first wearable computer. And what did this computer do? Well, it would predict where the roulette ball would land. Thorp and Shannon figured that it gave the player a 44% edge. These types of devices have evolved a lot over the years, and you’d use it at your peril.
Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo
Why was the Pelayo family famous in the 1990s? It all began when Gonzalo Garcia Pelayo discovered that the roulette wheels in casinos weren't completely horizontal. With the assistance of his son Ivan, they got their edge over Spanish casinos through computations and observations. Garcia-Pelayo reportedly won $2 million using the secret system between 1991 and 1995. Sadly for him, his reputation grew throughout Spain resulting in him being no longer welcome at some casinos.
Modern roulette wheels are virtually flawless leaving Garcia-Pelayo’s strategy obsolete. However, he continues to use his expertise in statistics and math as he searches for new ways to beat the house.
