Monte Carlo has been one of the most famous casinos in the world for over a century and has the added distinction of hosting the man that many call the luckiest casino gambler in history, Charles Wells. A con artist, Wells had weaselled 4,000 pounds from his investors through a scam invention, the musical jump rope. With this money, he decided that he would have a night on the town in the magical Monte Carlo.
He went to gamble in Feb 1891 and ended up being immemorialized in history for his exploits that day. Wells decided to play roulette and he played for eleven hours straight when he broke the bank over and over. In this case, it doesn’t mean that he actually cleaned out the casino but they did have to break out more chips for him – twelve times! He had won a million francs in that roulette streak but he didn’t stop there. He took a break and then went back at it, soon winning another million francs. His most famous win was on the five spot…five times in a row!
A year later, a song writer named Fred Gilbert wrote a song to commemorate Wells’ feat, called appropriately enough, "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo". While many have theorized or suspected Wells of some sort of cheating, given his criminal past, to this day there has been no evidence to ever turn up of his using any kind of system or trickery.
