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Roulette is the game that most associate with casinos. It is the original game of luck and attracts players of all backgrounds because of it. There have been some pretty weird roulette plays in history, with some surprising results.
Three lightning strikes
In 1963, a young Sean Connery hit the roulette table at a casino in Saint-Vincent, Italy. His favorite number was 17. He put his chip on the table and it lost. Which isn’t unusual. He repeated the same bet, with the same result. Unmoved by this, Connery proceeded with the same bet for the third time. This time it won.
For anyone who understands roulette odds, winning at odds of 36 to 1 should be enough to pocket the winnings, buy a bottle of something wet and head out for the night. But this was the future James Bond and in true 007 style, he put it all back on 17 again. Defying the odds, the ball nestled in for a second time. Definitely, time to go? Not for Connery; he pushed it all back on 17 again and, miraculously, the ball found the 17 slot for a third consecutive time, meaning Connery cleared over $27,000 for the night. The odds of three 17s hitting in a row is 50,653 to 1.
Life savings on red
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Ashley Revell was an English gambler with an eye for publicity. In 2004, he decided to sell everything he owned and place the cash value on a single spin of the roulette table. In all, Revell managed to raise over $135,000, and made a trip to the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, where he proceeded to put it all on red.
The concept of gambling a lifetime of possessions in one roulette spin attracted the attention of Sky TV, who filmed it as a reality mini-series. Luckily for Revell, the ball landed on red number seven, meaning he returned home with $270,000 and a new start in life. This isn’t by any means the biggest roulette bet, but it was everything to Revell.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, another gambler, Chris Boyd, copied this feat at Binions Horseshoe Club with his life savings of $220,000 a few years later. Again, he decided on red, and incredibly, the ball once again landed on red number seven. Lucky number seven?
32 in a row
Placing those bets on red is more or less a 50/50 chance (on American roulette tables, they’re actually 47.37% due to the additional 0 and the 00 numbers). Placing a bet on red because black has come in five times in a row is the original gambler’s fallacy, as each spin of the roulette table is completely independent of the last, regardless of how many times one color has landed.
The longest recorded streak of one color was in 1943 when red landed 32 times in a row. The people playing were convinced black had to hit next, and were absolutely right. Eventually. But not after losing significant amounts second-guessing the ball slotting in black. While many players lost big that day, thinking that black had to come in, it proves why roulette is so popular. No one can out guess a 50/50.
Stories like these are why roulette is one of the most popular online and land-based casino games. Roulette is both simple to learn, as well as having a surprising level of depth for more experienced players too. Roulette at Mr. Green includes the two main versions: European roulette, with numbers 1-36 and a green ‘0’; and American roulette with numbers 1-36 and an additional green ‘00’ slot. All Roulette games use the same basic play style and some online casinos will also offer free-to-play roulette for practice as well as free spins and deposit bonuses.
Obviously, there are countless stories of gamblers who weren’t quite so lucky as James Bond was when betting large amounts on roulette. The reason they aren’t featured here is that, in reality, losing a roulette bet isn’t strange at all. And don’t think that this was Sean Connery’s first ever visit to a casino with that kind of play action either. But, these occurrences are out of the ordinary.
