BREAKING THE BANK AT MONTE CARLO!
The incredible story of Yorkshire engineer Joseph Jagger who won the equivalent of £7m at the world’s richest casino after he discovered a flaw in its roulette wheel in 1880
NNE admits we’ll never know for sure just how Jagger latched upon the idea of roulette as a way out of debt but she believes his engineering knowledge was crucial to the plan. “He makes this connection that no wheel can spin truly level, therefore there’s got to be a flaw on every roulette table that can be exploited,” she says.
There followed a lengthy fundraising campaign as Jagger set about getting together enough money to make the trip to the most famous casino in the world.
“I suppose you could describe it as a kind of 19th-century crowdfunding,” says Anne. “He talked to family, to friends, to anyone who might help him out. I unearthed one letter that basically says, ‘Can you lend FAMILY TALE: Author Anne Fletcher me five quid?’ That’s dated 1875 – he’d gone bankrupt in 1861 and didn’t go to Monte Carlo until 1880. So I think there’s possibly 10 years of begging and borrowing money to see out this crazy idea. “It shows he was not only desperate but also completely convinced he was right. He must have fervently believed this was the solution to all of his problems.”
Eventually Jagger raised enough money to pay for his travel, a smart suit and a stint at the tables. Taking his eldest son Alfred and nephew Oates he travelled to Monte Carlo and put his plan into action. His theory was that as no wheel could ever spin entirely truly, any imperfection would result in certain numbers coming up more than others. After studying the wheels for hours, possibly days, and noting down every winning number, he finally struck gold. One wheel seemed to be biased to a particular set of numbers so Jagger gathered together everything he had spent the past decade scraping together, took a deep breath and gambled. By
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