The story of Dr. Richard Jareka shows that sometimes luck is not pure chance, but the result of close observation and reason. The man invented how to defeat roulette, one of the least predictable machines in the casino. Thousands of hours of observation allowed him to catch the small details of this mechanism and become the owner of $8,000,000 in modern money. The story took place in May 1969 around an old roulette table in the Italian Riviera. It was surrounded by a crowd with 38-year-old Jareki in the centre. He entrusted a white roulette ball with a bid of $100,000 ($715,000 at 2019 prices). The crowd froze in silence, looking at this madman. But Jareki wasn’t going to give away such giant money for chance. He was born to a Jewish family in Germany in 1931. Because of Nazism, his family fled to the United States in 1938 in search of a better life. Jareki in New Jersey was fond of gambling, which he liked because it made it possible to win money. However, it was a hobby, and the profession the man chose in medicine, becoming by the 50’s one of the most famous researchers in the industry. Despite his professional successes, the man did not abandon his passion for gambling and casinos. Until the 1960s, Jareki was particularly fond of roulette, a game in which a small white ball rotates around a table and hits random numbers. Players must guess where the balloon will end up. In those years, roulette was considered a game where only a blind person decides. Jareki didn’t agree with the general opinion. He noticed that at the end of every night, the casinos change all the cards and dice for new ones. But roulette tables were expensive, and they weren’t touched. These tables worked for decades before they were replaced. Like any thing, the roulette wheel would wear out over time. Jareky noticed that tiny defects – potholes, surface irregularities, scratches – could increase the chances of the ball falling on certain numbers. The doctor spent weeks in the casino watching the roulette wheel work. He manually recorded tens of thousands of spins, analyzing the data in search of anomalies. Jareka’s approach wasn’t know-how – attempts were made back in the 19th century. In 1947, researchers Albert Hibbs and Roy Welford used this technique to buy a yacht. In 1950 Helmut Berlin hired a team that won $420,000. But Jareky not only wanted money, he also wanted to overcome the system. After months of collecting data, he took all his $100 savings and went to the casino. In just a few hours the initial $100 turned into $5000 (about $41,000 in modern money). After making sure that the technique was working, Jareki went for high stakes. Despite all the odds. In the ’60s, Jareki moved to work at Heidelberg University. He recently won a very prestigious award – one of 12 in the world for his work in medicine. But in Germany he wasn’t particularly interested in his career, but in the nearest casinos. European roulette offered better chances than American roulette. It had 37 slots instead of 38, which reduced the casino advantage from 5.26% to 2.7%. And the roulette tables were old and full of flaws. Jarekie and his wife Carol traveled all over Europe, including Monte Carlo, Divon le Bann, Baden-Baden. The couple hired eight accomplices who allowed up to 20,000 bets within a month. Having found out which roulette wheel gives the most stable error, Jareki took a $25,000 loan and dedicated 6 days to his strategy. At the end of the term his net profit was $625,000 ($6,700,000 for modern money). Jareki found himself in the pages of newspapers around the world. People wanted to know his secret. The man himself understood that he could only repeat the winnings by keeping his methods secret. For the press, Jareki came up with a believable story. He explained his winnings using the Atlas supercomputer, to which he supposedly gave daytime roulette statistics, and the machine was giving out what numbers to bet on. In those years, computerization was just beginning, and to most people computers looked like mythical super devices. Jareka’s story allowed him to prepare for his next big win. In San Remo, Italy, he saw a roulette with the number 33 falling out more often – the result of increased friction between ball and wheel. In the spring of 1968, he won $48,000 in three days at this casino ($360,000 today). Eight months later, he repeated, winning $192,000 ($1,400,000) in one weekend. The casino was on the verge of bankruptcy and banned Jareki from playing for 15 days. Only the bank was withdrawn, his husband won another $100,000 ($717,000 today). Only the complete replacement of all 24 roulette at the San Remo Casino allowed the institution to stop the winning streak of Jareca. In total, between 1964 and 1969, Jarechi won $1,250,000, or $8,000,000 in modern money transfers. Nowadays, doctors prefer to play bitcoin casinos to hide their money from the IRS.
The story of Dr. Richard Jareka shows that sometimes luck is not pure chance, but the result of close observation and reason. The man invented how to defeat roulette, one of the least predictable machines in the casino. Thousands of hours of observation allowed him to catch the small details of this mechanism and become the owner of $8,000,000 in modern money. The story took place in May 1969 around an old roulette table in the Italian Riviera. It was surrounded by a crowd with 38-year-old Jareki in the centre. He entrusted a white roulette ball with a bid of $100,000 ($715,000 at 2019 prices). The crowd froze in silence, looking at this madman. But Jareki wasn’t going to give away such giant money for chance. He was born to a Jewish family in Germany in 1931. Because of Nazism, his family fled to the United States in 1938 in search of a better life. Jareki in New Jersey was fond of gambling, which he liked because it made it possible to win money. However, it was a hobby, and the profession the man chose in medicine, becoming by the 50’s one of the most famous researchers in the industry. Despite his professional successes, the man did not abandon his passion for gambling and casinos. Until the 1960s, Jareki was particularly fond of roulette, a game in which a small white ball rotates around a table and hits random numbers. Players must guess where the balloon will end up. In those years, roulette was considered a game where only a blind person decides. Jareki didn’t agree with the general opinion. He noticed that at the end of every night, the casinos change all the cards and dice for new ones. But roulette tables were expensive, and they weren’t touched. These tables worked for decades before they were replaced. Like any thing, the roulette wheel would wear out over time. Jareky noticed that tiny defects – potholes, surface irregularities, scratches – could increase the chances of the ball falling on certain numbers. The doctor spent weeks in the casino watching the roulette wheel work. He manually recorded tens of thousands of spins, analyzing the data in search of anomalies. Jareka’s approach wasn’t know-how – attempts were made back in the 19th century. In 1947, researchers Albert Hibbs and Roy Welford used this technique to buy a yacht. In 1950 Helmut Berlin hired a team that won $420,000. But Jareky not only wanted money, he also wanted to overcome the system. After months of collecting data, he took all his $100 savings and went to the casino. In just a few hours the initial $100 turned into $5000 (about $41,000 in modern money). After making sure that the technique was working, Jareki went for high stakes. Despite all the odds. In the ’60s, Jareki moved to work at Heidelberg University. He recently won a very prestigious award – one of 12 in the world for his work in medicine. But in Germany he wasn’t particularly interested in his career, but in the nearest casinos. European roulette offered better chances than American roulette. It had 37 slots instead of 38, which reduced the casino advantage from 5.26% to 2.7%. And the roulette tables were old and full of flaws. Jarekie and his wife Carol traveled all over Europe, including Monte Carlo, Divon le Bann, Baden-Baden. The couple hired eight accomplices who allowed up to 20,000 bets within a month. Having found out which roulette wheel gives the most stable error, Jareki took a $25,000 loan and dedicated 6 days to his strategy. At the end of the term his net profit was $625,000 ($6,700,000 for modern money). Jareki found himself in the pages of newspapers around the world. People wanted to know his secret. The man himself understood that he could only repeat the winnings by keeping his methods secret. For the press, Jareki came up with a believable story. He explained his winnings using the Atlas supercomputer, to which he supposedly gave daytime roulette statistics, and the machine was giving out what numbers to bet on. In those years, computerization was just beginning, and to most people computers looked like mythical super devices. Jareka’s story allowed him to prepare for his next big win. In San Remo, Italy, he saw a roulette with the number 33 falling out more often – the result of increased friction between ball and wheel. In the spring of 1968, he won $48,000 in three days at this casino ($360,000 today). Eight months later, he repeated, winning $192,000 ($1,400,000) in one weekend. The casino was on the verge of bankruptcy and banned Jareki from playing for 15 days. Only the bank was withdrawn, his husband won another $100,000 ($717,000 today). Only the complete replacement of all 24 roulette at the San Remo Casino allowed the institution to stop the winning streak of Jareca. In total, between 1964 and 1969, Jarechi won $1,250,000, or $8,000,000 in modern money transfers. Nowadays, doctors prefer to play bitcoin casinos to hide their money from the IRS.
