Roulette is a game that has been grabbing people’s attention at casinos for over 300 years. Yes, you’ve read this right. Ever since the white little ball took its first spin, dreamers from all over the world have been trying to crack the code. Mathematicians and physicists devised elaborate systems to beat the game and make good fortune.
Every now and then, a player comes claiming he can beat the odds, but casino owners can’t help but laugh off those so-called experts. Why? Despite all the claims, the cold, hard math tells us the casino’s got the upper hand every single time, and it’s impossible to predict the number.
Well, at least until Niko Tosa came up and turned everything on its head. Allegedly, Tosa was the most successful player. Here’s how a Croatian man, along with his two friends, beat the roulette wheel, forever changing the game.
How Does Roulette Work?
Every game of roulette consists of a wheel and a table, no exceptions. Both the wheel and table contain 36 numbers plus a 0. (And if you’re playing on an American table, you’ll likely see 00.) The dealer spins the white ball, which lands on one of the numbers on the roulette table.
Your job is to make a bet, trying to guess where the ball is going to land. If you predicted correctly, then you get paid.
Is It Possible To Beat The House at Roulette?
Now the real question lies on whether it’s possible to beat the house at roulette.
At its core, it’s all about the numbers. The game-changer is the zero. For European roulette, it’s a single zero, and for American roulette, it’s two due to the extra double zero.
Land your number, and you’re looking at 35-1 winnings. But the real odds? They’re 36-1, or even 37-1 over in the US, what with the extra zero.
Whether you’re betting on the exact number, picking a bunch of numbers, going for red or black, high or low, your winnings are always going to lower. That’s how the house always comes out the winner. Even famous physicist Stephen Hawking said that it’s practically impossible to predict roulette and beat the wheel; otherwise, physicists would make a fortune.
How Did Niko Tosa Beat The Game?
Over the years, The Ritz Club casino had seen its fair share of wild attempts by gamblers desperate to beat the wheel. But the approach Tosa and his partners, Nenad Marjanovic—from Serbia—and Livia Pilisi of Hungary, brought to the table was something else entirely.
Tosa and his companions had a unique timing trick. They’d wait for about six or seven seconds after the croupier would send the ball spinning. As soon as the ball began to lose momentum on the wooden crevices of the wheel, they’d make their move and lay down their bets just before bets were halted.
They didn’t put all their eggs in one basket, though. Instead of betting on just one or two numbers, they’d cover as many as 15 numbers at a time.
Sure, Tosa and his friends didn’t always guess the right number on every spin, but they hit the right number often enough to make the casino security staff do a double-take. Everyone couldn’t help but wonder if Tosa and his team had a crystal ball or something because it looked like they could see the future.
But how they actually managed to double their money and by starting with a few thousand pounds to walk out with £1.3 million from London’s Ritz Club casino after playing roulette across a few epic nights.
The world’s most successful roulette player, Niko Tosa, whose real name is still not revealed, explained. His secret? Not as high-tech as you’d think, but tricky to pull off all the same. According to Tosa, gamblers could find a way to beat the casino in two simple steps without a computer.
Step one: The condition of the wheel is vital. Look for a table that’s not quite on the level, one with a tiny flaw that messes with its randomness. Over time, or because of a slight tilt on the table, the spin and number that will come become more predictable, as it creates a “drop zone” where the ball is more likely to fall.
Step two: Get so good at guessing where the ball would land, just by eyeballing it, that it feels like second nature. And that, he says, takes tons of practice on a wheel of your own.
That’s Tosa’s winning strategy. That’s how he managed to beat the roulette. Not with high-tech devices or with any other James Bond fantastical concept.
How He Was Never Caught?
The roulette game is designed to be random, but Tosa and two of his friends got the casinos thinking twice. They kicked off a bunch of investigations and even got the Metropolitan Police on the case, but no one had any idea how Tosa beat the system.
Most people assumed that Tosa’s team had some sort of gadget up their sleeve, helping them figure out how the wheel spun. Those were as mysterious as ever until Mike Barnett stepped onto the scene. From electrician to professional gambler, then a top-notch casino security consultant, Barnett was the one who broke it down for the casino bosses, shedding light on the secrets of predictive roulette.
Barnett wasn’t totally sold that Tosa was using his method, but his insights sure did shake things up. He theorized that Tosa might have been using special roulette timers and predictive software to get ahead of the game. Barnett’s big reveal? If you could just rule out two numbers off the bat, the odds suddenly looked a lot rosier for the bettor.
However, after a nine-month investigation, Scotland Yard dropped the case. Tosa, the Serbian businessman and the Hungarian woman were given their winnings back and freed to walk away with the cash.
What Changed After Niko Tosa?
Since the 2004 Ritz scandal with probably the world’s most successful player, Tosa, casinos around the world have really upped their game, making winning at roulette and making a fortune at casinos even harder. They’ve swapped out the old designs for scalloped pockets, aiming to make the game even more unpredictable. Now, the ball does a whole lot more bouncing around before settling down, making the game even more chaotic.
