One of the most exciting and simple games on the casino floor is Roulette. Derived from the French word that means “little wheel,” this game has its roots in the Italian game Biribi and involves a croupier spinning the wheel and then spinning the ball in the opposite way.
Players can bet on numbers, groupings of numbers, the color red, the color black, an even number, an odd number or even if the spot where the ball ultimately lands will be a low number (1-18) or a High number (19-36).
Many gamblers playing roulette in land-based, or on the best online roulette sites, play casually and aren’t necessarily trying to beat the system or the game but are there simply to have a good time and test their luck.
However, some others try to attack the game in a serious manner with an expressed intent to beat the house, be it in a short spurt or quick in-and-out spins while still others of the biggest roulette winners of all time either had big nights or targeted tables or numbers.
There are two basic types of roulette: American and European.
Most casinos in the US offer American Roulette, with a wheel having 36 numbered slots (1-36) as well as green-colored slots for the 0 and the 00. Some newer versions employ a 000 slot which gives the house even more of a statistical edge.
European Roulette (aka French Roulette) is the game most widely played in casinos worldwide, and although the wheel looks a bit different than American Roulette, you can still wager on groups of numbers like rows, columns, and dozens.
In European Roulette, players can also wager on Voisins Du Zéro, Jeu Zéro, Le Tiers Du Cylindre, and Orphelins groups of numbers.
- Voisins Du Zéro Numbers: 22-18-29-7-28-12-35-3-26-0-32-15-19-4-21-2-25
- Jeu Zéro Numbers: 12-35-3-26-0-32-15
- Le Tiers Du Cylindre Numbers: 27-13-36-11-30-8-23-10-5-24-16-33
- Orphelins Numbers: 7-34-6- 1-20-14-31-9
Here we will look at 10 of the biggest all-time roulette winnings by gamblers worldwide, where they won on the wheel, and some background on how they won or what their specific strategy was heading in.
1) Gonzalo García-Pelayo €5,000,000
A Madrid, Spain music director named Gonzalo García-Pelayo noticed wheel bias when playing roulette and studied the probability and then worked with his 22-year-old son Ivan recording thousands of spins at casinos in Spain.
García-Pelayo created a computer program simulating this perceived roulette wheel bias and then put his efforts into work in 1991 with Ivan and other family members in Madrid and won €1.5 million at the Casino Gran Madrid alone.
When all was said and done, the García-Pelayo family is said to have won around €5,000,000 playing roulette. The History Channel created a documentary in 2004 called Breaking Vegas: The Roulette Assault that covered the record roulette haul of the García-Pelayo family.
Gonzalo García-Pelayo, who was also a record producer and film director, ended up having heart issues in Sin City and decided to call it quits. He is now 75 years old.
2) Billy Walters $3,800,000
Legendary gambler Billy Walters also studied wheel bias on the roulette table, and he along with partners have won an estimated $3,800,00 playing roulette.
Walters, a native of Munfordville, Kentucky, and a betting associate noticed a wheel bias at the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey—now abandoned—and then proceeded to place bets on the 7-10-29-27-36 slots.
Thirty-eight hours later, the pair had won $3,800,000, which was $2.5 million more than the previous roulette record set in 1971. The casino then asked them to stop playing.
Walters, who employed many runners to help make all of his bets, won $3.5 million backing the Saints in Super Bowl XLIV and $2.2 million on USC when the Trojans beat Michigan, 32-18 in 2011.
Walters, age 76, has an estimated net worth of over $100 million and he was recently released from prison in Pensacola, Florida for an insider-trading scandal with Dean Foods after he was granted clemency by President Donald Trump in 2020.
Walters, who was convicted in 2017 and ordered to pay a $10 million fine, is currently finishing serving the balance of his 5-year sentence under home confinement in Carlsbad, California.
3) Pedro Grendene Bartelle $3,500,000
The Vice President of Grendene SA, Pedro Grendene Bartelle also made a pretty good haul playing roulette, winning an estimated $3.5 million 2017.
Visiting Uruguay and the Hotel Conrad, Bartelle made a decision to go all-in for $35,000 on his lucky number 32, and it hit and he walked away with a cool $3.5 million for his risk, employing the “full and complete” strategy.
Billionaire Bartelle spends most of his time running the third-largest footwear company in Latin America, sandal-maker Grendene, with his brother Alexandre.
He also won $1,200,000 on the roulette wheel on another trip to the Hotel Conrad, and if there were a Mt. Rushmore of roulette, Bartelle’s face would certainly be carved in stone.
4) Paul Newey £3,000,000
In 2005, English businessman Paul Newey won £3 million at the Star City Casino in Birmingham, England, causing the casino to have to issue a profit warning after its value decreased 10%.
A native of Dorset, Newey continued to play however, and lost all of the money he won back to the Star City Casino. Newey is also a semi-professional poker player and has participated in the World Series of Poker with four cashes and one Main Table finish.
The founder of Ocean Finance and New Wave Ventures, the now 54-year-old Newey also won $1.75 million playing on a $5,000-a-pull slot machine in Las Vegas at the Aria Casino in 2014.
5) Charles Wells 2,000,000 Francs
Charles Wells might be on a Mount Rushmore of roulette for his legendary winning streak in Monte Carlo in 1891. A known small-time crook, Wells visited the world famous Monte Carlo Casino Resort, started playing roulette and went on a dream run.
Wells is said to have won 23 of 30 spins at the Monte Carlo Casino Resort, breaking the bank at the table and forcing play to be stopped. And all on luck. Wells left with close to 1 million Francs.
Englishman Wells then returned to Monte Carlo Casino Resort and won over 1 million Francs, all by luck as history tells it, a known scammer, Wells eventually ended up in jail for 8 years and he died, broke, in 1922 in Paris, France.
An all-time roulette winner legend, Wells proved that you don’t always need a computer program, wheel or number bias or a lucky number to strike it rich on the roulette wheel.
6) Sir Philip Green £2,000,000
Another Englishman, Sir Philip Green, also won a bunch of money playing roulette one night, a cool £2,000,000 at Les Ambassadeurs Club in Mayfair, London, England in 2004.
Green, a British business mogul and former chairman of the retail conglomerate called the Arcadia Group, was known to frequent casinos in London and is pretty good at roulette.
And like fellow countryman Wells, Green also made a return to the casino where he won his millions to win £1 million and many other large amounts from that same Les Ambassadeurs Club.
Located at 5 Hamilton Place in Mayfair, London and still in operation, Les Ambassadeurs Club has been portrayed in the classic James Bond film Dr. No (1962) and was also used for some scenes in The Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night (1964).
7) Mike Ashley £1,300,000
Former Newcastle United FC (EPL) owner Mike Ashley won £1.3 million on the lucky spin of the roulette wheel at the Fifty Casino in Mayfair, London, England back in 2008.
How did he do it? Billionaire Ashley wagered £480,000 on a “complete bet” on the number 17, covering every combination that included 17. When the black 17 appeared, he won £1.3 million.
Ashley, the owner of Frasers Group Plc (formerly Sports Direct), is now 58 and still focused on the retail sporting goods market. Ashley sold the Magpies in October of 2021.
8) Richard Jarecki £1,280,000
When Billy Walters and his partner broke the prior roulette record of £1,280,000, they broke the record held by Dr. Richard Jarecki, another pioneer of roulette bias, set back in 1971 at the San Remo Casino in Monte Carlo.
Jarecki, was a brilliant German-born American physician who passed away in 2018 and who developed a system to try to beat the game through years of observation, looking for patterns, and then executing his plan at various casinos throughout Europe.
9) Chris Boyd $440,000
Yet another Englishman with great luck on the roulette wheel one night was computer programmer Chris Boyd, who won $440,000 at the Binion’s Horseshoe Club in Las Vegas in 1994.
Boyd decided to save up as much money as he could to place it on a single spin of the roulette wheel. He saved up $220,000 over a three-year period and then headed to historic Binion’s in downtown Sin City, the site of the original World Series of Poker.
The casino only had a $100,000 limit on that roulette table, so Boyd phoned Binion’s ahead of time and asked if they could take his massive $240,000 one-spin bet. They agreed.
Unlike all of the other historic all-time roulette winners, Boyd went with a color (Red) and after the ball finally stopped spinning, it landed in the red 7 slot and Boyd’s life was forever changed, both financially and fame-wise.
After winning, Boyd reportedly asked Binion’s to lock his money up so he wouldn’t be tempted to bet anymore. Maybe his simple strategy was the best as didn’t spend time studying wheel bias, hoped for good luck on just one spin and kept it simple with a color.
But asking Binion’s to lock out the 00 and then not gambling after he won may be two of the best decisions that Boyd ever made in his life.
10) William Darnborough $415,000
An American gambler from Bloomington, Illinois, William Darnborough won an estimated $415,000 playing roulette in Monte Carlo from 1904 to 1911.
Darnborough died in 1958 after totaling what would be millions of dollars today.
Honorable Mentions of Past Roulette Winners
Some other big roulette winners through history include Joseph Jagger winning $375,000 in Monte Carlo in 1873 and Ashley Revell winning $270,000 in Las Vegas in 2004.
But you don’t have to travel to Monaco, Europe, or Las Vegas in search of your own big roulette wins. The best online roulette real money sites offer mobile roulette with free bonuses for new members.
