There are hundreds of stories about players who have won on the roulette table. Have you ever heard about the millions who have lost their entire fortune and much more? Didn't think so. Naturally, sometimes lady luck can be on a player's side and they can win big. However, they are far and few between. Casinos actually like a few of those to make people believe that they can do that as well. If you like any of the stories below, you can read other true stories in an excellent write up about the world of gambling in the BOOKS section.

And by the way, "The Man Who Broke The Bank at Monte Carlo" is also the title to a famous movie released in 1935. This feathery-light tale has Colman as a Russian aristocrat turned taxi-driver who wins millions of francs at a gambling casino and then proceeds to publicly deprecate his luck and warn others to stay away from the establishment. The Casino understandably finds this harmful to business and hires Joan Bennett and Colin Clive to lure Colman back to the baccarat tables. The scheme temporarily backfires when Bennett falls for her victim, and he for her - but is imminently successful as Colman returns to the casino and loses everything - everything but a dutifully reformed Ms. Bennett.

Over a seven year period, between 1904 and 1911, William Nelson Darnborough from Bloomington, Illinois, challenged the monstrous Monte Carlo casino at roulette, winning close to a half million dollars (in early 1900s currency, mind you). He did this after winning untold sums playing roulette in the United States in illegal casinos operated in saloons. Darnborough was a wheel watcher, a man who could anticipate with an unusual degree of accuracy where the ball would land. After winning his fortune, he quit playing to marry a beautiful young woman of noble blood whose family frowned on gambling. He lived happily ever after on a huge estate in England.

In a three-year period, from 1986 to 1989, Billy Walter's roulette teams won approximately five million dollars from casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, also playing biased-wheels.

Black was said to have come up 23 times in a row at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas (a dealer told me this in the early 1990s) or was that 22 times in a row at Caesars in Atlantic City (mid-1990s)? Red once came up 21 times but I can't remember who told me or where it was. I just remember I was in Vegas and someone saying to me: "Here's another glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, sir, and Red once came up 21 times at that roulette wheel over there, no, no, turn your head, sir -- that one over there!"

At Caesars Palace on July 14, 2000, at 1:35 p.m., the number 7 came up six times in a row at Roulette Wheel #211. To figure the odds of such an occurrence, multiply 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x 38, or over three billion to one! The dealer said it was the first time he had seen this in his 27-year career. Another sidelight. After the ball landed on 7 four times, the floor supervisor told the pit boss, 'I'll bet you a million dollars that it won't come up again.' Then here it came again, and again." During this twice-in-a-century event, with players and pit bosses and dealers all agog at the incredible repeating 7, how much money did Roulette table #211 lose? Hundreds of millions? Millions? Hundreds of thousands? Thousands? Nope, a mere $300!

This story has been going around for some years. One day an unknown player to the casinos came in scruffily clad with a bag. Few took notice of him until he opened his bag and laid $100,000 on red after having watched the wheel for some time. Red came up and he left with $200,000. For several years the casino never saw him until he turned up one day. This time he was dressed elegantly and the same scenario happened, but this time he whacked over $600,000 on red and red came up. He has never been seen since.

The moral of the story? Is it that you can hit it lucky? No, it is KNOW WHEN TO QUIT! - win or lose.

What possesses a man who is worth billions to gamble? Gambling rarely has anything to do with money when it comes to the compulsive gambler. There are many reasons why any person becomes a compulsive gambler. You can click here to read about it.

Back to the Great Man himself. The most written about, most admired, and, to some casinos he's crippled, the most feared modern gambler is Australian billionaire, Kerry Packer. When it comes to Packer it's hard to get the facts of his prodigious wins and equally prodigious losses straight. He either won 20 million, 30 million or 40 million dollars over several days at MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 1997 and caused several casino executives to get the axe for reeling in this big whale who sunk their quarterly earnings report. The myth of Australia's gambling media tycoon just gets bigger and bigger with a capital "b" as in baccarat and blackjack, his preferred games. You want an outsized man with some outsized deeds? Kerry is said to have tipped one cocktail waitress a house!

How about some fightin' words? Savor this tall-tale about Packer: A loud and obnoxious Texas high roller is playing at the same table as Mr. Packer. This man is being as obnoxious as, well, as the stereotypical obnoxious Texan in countless obnoxious Texan stories. [Why aren't there any obnoxious Rhode Islander stories?] Finally, Kerry asks the man to ease up. The man gets louder: "Do you know who I am? I am worth 60 million dollars, pardner!" He pauses to let this sink in, then says: "Sixty million dollars, pardner. That's what I'm worth." Packer eyes him and says: "I'll flip you for it!"