Richard Jarecki: the man who beat roulette
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14 Jun 2025 •
Reading time: 3 minutes Richard Wilhelm Jarecki, born on 1 December 1931 in Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland) and died on 25 July 2018 in Manila, was a German-born doctor who became famous for beating the roulette wheel in European casinos in the 1960s and 1970s.
From a childhood marked by exile to a scientific vocation
Richard Wilhelm Jarecki was born on 1 December 1931 in Stettin, a German town at the time, now located in Poland under the name of Szczecin. Born into a German Jewish family, he grew up in a climate of political instability. Fleeing the rise of Nazism, his family emigrated to the United States in the late 1930s, like thousands of others seeking to escape persecution.
Settling in Asbury Park, New Jersey, young Richard quickly distinguished himself by his academic abilities. A brilliant student, he went on to study medicine at Duke University, before going on to obtain a doctorate in Heidelberg, Germany, symbolically reconnecting with his European roots. This transatlantic journey forged in him a rigorous scientific curiosity, combined with a spirit of analysis that was soon to be illustrated in a completely different field: that of gambling.
Observation as a secret weapon
Rather than betting blindly, Jarecki took a quasi-scientific approach. With the help of his wife Carol and other assistants, he collected the results of tens of thousands of spins in several European casinos. Why did he do this? Over time, each wheel developed tiny flaws (chips, dents, bumps) that slightly influenced the trajectory of the ball.
Using this method, Jarecki won the equivalent of more than €5 million today in just a few months in the casinos of Sanremo, Monaco, Cannes and Monte Carlo. Unlike martingales doomed to failure, his approach based on statistics and mechanics left the casino vulnerable.
Catching on to the deception, the casinos were quick to react: they replaced the wheels, fine-tuned the manufacturing tolerances and began banishing Jarecki from their tables. The manager of the Sanremo casino, where he won more than 1.2 million dollars (now equivalent to around 7 million euros) in one weekend, called him ‘a threat to every casino in Europe’.
A successful reconversion
After these successes, Jarecki returned to the United States and went into commodities trading (gold, silver), while continuing to gamble in the casinos of Atlantic City and Las Vegas. He later settled in Manila and died in 2018 at the age of 86, leaving behind a legacy of legendary winnings and an example of rigorous method.
How did the strategy work?
- Massive data collection: with his team, Jarecki systematically picked winning numbers.
- Rigorous analysis: he hunted down statistical discrepancies using tools – or pretending to use a University of London computer – to cover his tracks.
- Prudent exploitation: the betting was gradual, without haste.
But then… was it legal?
Yes: Jarecki never cheated, rigged or betrayed the rules of the casino. He was exploiting mechanical imperfections – a grey but legal area. The casinos, aware of the danger, decided to modernise their equipment.
Does Jarecki’s strategy still work today?
Although Richard Jarecki’s strategy caused a sensation in the 1960s and 1970s, it is important to point out that it no longer works today. At the time, the roulette wheels used in casinos had minor but recurring manufacturing faults: slight imbalances, mechanical wear or imperfections in the frets could influence the behaviour of the ball. Jarecki was able to exploit these flaws with scientific precision, observing and analysing thousands of draws to detect recurring biases.
But casinos have learned from this lesson. Since the 1980s, roulette wheel manufacturers have considerably improved the quality and accuracy of their equipment. Modern wheels are regularly checked, recalibrated, and designed with an extremely low error tolerance. Casinos are also replacing their wheels more frequently to avoid exploitative wear and tear. In addition, digital surveillance and automated detection systems make any attempt at prolonged observation virtually impossible.