Biggest Roulette Win

In 1891, Charles Deville Wells made history by collecting the biggest roulette win ever recorded. Playing at the Monte Carlo casino, Charles is commonly known as the man who 'broke the bank'.

About Charles Wells

Born in 1841, Charles Deville Wells had dreams of hitting it big and becoming famous. To raise money to fund his landmark roulette bet, Charles persuaded several investors to contribute financially to an invention he was supposedly building. The successful conman collected £4,000 and headed to Monte Carlo Casino to make the biggest roulette win in history.

Breaking the Bank

In casino terms, breaking the bank means that a player's winnings completely empty out the chips available at the table. In the eleven hours that Wells spent in Monte Carlo Casino that night, he broke the bank 12 times. During one winning streak, he won his bet 23 times out of 30 spins - an accomplishment that has never been repeated. Wells made the biggest roulette win in history that night, totaling a million francs.

An Unlucky End

Wells played roulette several other times at the Monte Carlo Casino and continued to collect unrealistically big winnings. Eventually, his fraudulent lifestyle caught up with him and Charles Wells was arrested and convicted on several counts of fraud and financial scams. After 16 years in prison, the man responsible for history's biggest roulette win died a poor man in 1922.

Charles Deville Wells made his mark in gambling history. Casino officials tried for years to uncover his secret, but Wells claimed that the biggest roulette win in history was pure luck.