Who are the most iconic roulette players of all time?

As a mostly a game of chance, the majority of roulette players can only dream of winning big. Still, over the years, many stories of big roulette wins have hit the headlines. Some players do genuinely strike it lucky, where others foolishly indulge in attempts to cheat the casinos at their own game. Here’s our list of the 5 best and most iconic players in the history of roulette…

Norman Leigh

Back in 1966, Norman Leigh and 12 employees travelled to Nice, France and each walked away with a profit of around £4230. And while this may not seem like that much, this equates to £75,000 today – a good win by most people’s standards!

As chronicled in Leigh’s book Thirteen Against the Bank (1976), the group’s leader chose his 12 employees after a thorough interviewing and training process before taking them on the jaunt to Casino Municipal in Nice.

The £975,000 win was enough for the French authorities to ban Leigh and his team from every casino in the country.

Christian Kaisan

Christian Kaisan is probably the most famous roulette player (and all-round gambler) in his native Germany. He hit the scene in 1972, when he developed a taste for the thrills of horseracing.

After German gambling laws loosened to allow casino games, Kaisan began his lifelong association with the roulette tables. Now in his early seventies, Kaisan is still a professional roulette player and is a major proponent of the Kesselgucker system, which involves closely observing the spin of the roulette wheel. While some casinos frown on such activity, this hasn’t stopped the German from using roulette to maintain an enviable lifestyle.

Joseph Jagger

As ‘The Man Who Broke The Bank at Monte Carlo’, Joseph Jagger takes his place on pretty much every list of iconic roulette players. And Jagger’s 1873 bonanza is arguably the most legendary of all legendary roulette wins.

The story goes that Jagger and six colleagues had a system which involved making notes of every number the ball landed on over a set period. This allowed Jagger  and his friends to find wheels with a certain bias. On one table, they found that the ball landed on nine numbers more often than others. Using this insight, the team were able to win £60,000 over a 72-hour period. Allowing for inflation, this equates to £6.2 million today!

Charles Wells

British inventor Charles Wells arrived in Monte Carlo in July 1891 with £4000, ready to hit the tables at Monte Carlo. In just 11 hours, Wells bankrupted every table in Casino de Monte-Carlo. What’s more, Wells managed the same feat twice in the same year, winning over 1 million Francs each time.

Ashley Revell

In 2004, London-born Ashley Revell sold all his possessions and travelled to Las Vegas to bet every penny of his earnings ($135,000) on a single spin of the roulette wheel. Betting on red, Revell walked away with $270,000 and even tipped his dealer S600.