The casino at Monte Carlo has been the stuff of folklore for over 100 years, and part of that lore includes one of the luckiest casino players ever. Forever known as “the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo,” Charles Wells walked into the Monte Carlo casino one day in July 1891 and walked out a legend.
Proving that fortune favours the bold, rather than the righteous, Wells found himself flush with funds to wager in Monte Carlo after conning investors with tales of a “musical jump rope,” an invention that did not really exist. Wells absconded with 4,000 pounds from the scam which, like many degenerate con men and gamblers, he decided would most wisely be invested in roulette.
Surprisingly, in this case, Wells was right. Wells played roulette for eleven hours (including one stretch in which he won more than 20 spins out of 30), “breaking the bank” (not actually bankrupting the casino, but requiring that the casino bring in more chips for the table) 12 times and winning a million francs. Charlie Wells came back for another session and won another million, most notably winning on the five spot five consecutive times.
No one could ever determine any kind of system Wells might have used to tilt the odds in his favor, and to this day it is accepted that Wells just got very, very lucky. In 1892 Fred Gilbert wrote the song “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo” to memorialize Wells’ exploits.
