Joseph Hobson Jaggers (1830–1892) was a British engineer, referred to as, but not an exclusive holder of the title of, the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo. 1830 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1892 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... An engineer is someone who practices the engineering profession; a professional practitioner of engineering; someone who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems and produce goods for society. ...

Jaggers gained his practical experience of mechanics working in Yorkshire's cotton manufacturing industry. He extended his experience to the behaviour of a roulette wheel, speculating that its outcomes were not purely random numbers but that mechanical imbalances might result in biases towards particular outcomes. Mechanics refers to: a craft relating to machinery (from the Latin mechanicus, from the Greek mechanikos, meaning one skilled in machines), or a range of disciplines in science and engineering. ... Yorkshire as a traditional county. ... Cotton is a soft fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to the tropical and subtropical regions of both the Old World and the New World. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Roulette is a casino and gambling game (Roulette is a French word meaning small wheel). A croupier turns a round roulette wheel which has 37 or 38 separately numbered pockets in which a ball must land. ... In statistics, a random number is a single observation (outcome) of a specified random variable. ...

In 1873, Jaggers hired six clerks clandestinely to record the outcomes of the six roulette wheels at the Beaux-Arts Casino at Monte Carlo, Monaco. He discovered that one of the six wheels showed a clear bias, in that nine of the numbers (7, 8, 9, 17, 18, 19, 22, 28 and 29) occurred more frequently than the others. Exploiting this characteristic, Jagger swept through his first day earning USD 70,000. Over the next three days, Jaggers amassed $300,000 in earnings with other gamblers in tow emulating his bets. In response the casino rearranged the wheels, which threw Jagger into confusion. After a losing streak, Jaggers finally recalled that a scratch he noted on the biased wheel wasn't present. Looking for this telltale mark, Jaggers was able to relocate his preferred wheel and resumed winning. Counterattacking again, the casino moved the frets, metal dividers between numbers, around daily. Over two days Jaggers would lose, giving up, he took his remaining earnings, USD 325,000, and left Monte Carlo never to return. 1873 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Roulette is a casino and gambling game (Roulette is a French word meaning small wheel). A croupier turns a round roulette wheel which has 37 or 38 separately numbered pockets in which a ball must land. ... The Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey A casino is a building that accommodates gambling. ... Monte Carlo is a very wealthy section of the city-state of Monaco known for its casino, gambling, beaches, glamour, and sightings of famous people. ... In statistics, a biased estimator is one that for some reason on average over- or underestimates what is being estimated. ... The United States dollar, or American dollar, is the official currency of the United States. ...

In 1892, Fred Gilbert wrote a popular song, The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo that is mistakenly attributed to Jaggers' exploits. Instead, the song is a celebration of Charles Wells, another Englishman, who in 1891 won handsomely in Monte Carlo. 1892 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

References

• "'Monte Carlo' Wells". (January 18, 1893). New York Times, p. 3.
• Grochowski, John. (February 21, 1997). "House has built-in edge when roulette wheel spins". Chicago Sun-Times, p. 21.
• "The great expectations of a royal reporter". (April 20, 1994). Daily Mail (London), p. 50.

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External links

• The Full Monte: In 1873 a British mill engineer "broke the bank" at a Monte Carlo casino (Snopes.com)
• Lyrics to "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo"