Charles Deville Wells - Monte Carlo
Charles Deville Wells was a pretty amazing man. He lived from 1841-1926. He broke the bank at Monte Carlo and had a song devoted to him by a pretty famous musician. This musician was Fred Gilbert, and he who wrote it in 1892. Breaking the bank means winning more chips than are on the table. Traditionally, a black shroud is brought in to cover the table until new chips can be brought onto it.
Here is a little history about Charles Deville Wells. He always aspired to be famous and rich, so he did everything he could to make it happen. One of his most famous tactics was to claim to be an "inventor" and ask banks for funding to develop his inventions. While creditors did not always believe that he was an inventor, they didn't refuse to give him money. As a matter of fact, they kind of new about his aspirations from the moment they began talking with him. Someone who refuses to give up on the quest of being rich can't be all bad. So most of them eventually gave in.
Playing roulette with the funding from the various people, he was able to break the bank an incredible 12 times! This made him a million francs! How any roulette player is able to have such an incredible winning streak is beyond the scope of most peoples imagination. It defies the statistics of probability according to the casinos by a landslide.
In order to find out exactly what had happened, private detectives were hired to try and understand the strategy and how on earth it was actually possible. They never figured it out, but Wells eventually told everyone what the strategy was. It's called "high risk martingale", and it's a strategy that doubles the stake to make up for losses.
The story of Charles Deville Wells eventually circulated throughout the world. He became a celebrity, and people talked about his winning streaks throughout the avenues of casino folklore. Books, movies, and more were created to make the name a hallmark. Nobody in the history of the world has had lucky streaks the way Charles Deville Wells did.
Eventually, however, the lucky streak fell short. He devised another scheme of claiming to be an inventor, when in reality he was amassing funds for his trip to the gambling halls of Monte Carlo. He was able to break the bank six more times, but eventually lost all the money between himself and his investors.
Sadly, and this may be the saddest part of all, this man died a poor individual. But before his death, he was arrested at Le Havre and extradited to England. At the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court, he was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 8 years. He committed several other crimes that he was arrested for, and in 1926, Wells eventually died a poor man in Paris.
For gamblers who love to live the dream, many of them may find this story to be kind of sad. However, crime never pays off for long, and most criminals get caught. Charles Deville Wells, as much as we wish it not to be true, was one of these criminals.