Charles Wells - The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo Casinos

While “breaking the bank” is a term loosely thrown around in gambling to describe a great night at the tables, few people actually manage to break the bank at casinos. After all, breaking the bank requires winning every chip at a particular table, then having the casino staff close down that table until more money is available.

Englishmen Charles Wells is one of the lucky men to have accomplished this feat, and he did it an incredible 18 times! But, as you’ll find out, Wells’ life didn’t quite play out like a fairytale after his remarkable casino accomplishment. Of course, to arrive at the point where Wells’ life went downhill, it’s important to understand his history.

Born in 1841, Charles Wells had always dreamed of being rich and famous. Unfortunately for Wells, achieving his dream of being wealthy was easier said than done since he possessed few talents. In fact, Wells’ only real talent was his ability to con people out of money.

Eventually, Wells turned his con artist efforts to inventing, where he petitioned acquaintances for investments on a musical jump rope he was supposedly making. Despite the fact that it was only the 1800’s and such a device was technologically impossible at the time, several people gave Wells money for this “invention.” When it was all said and done, Wells had amassed a £4,000 casino bankroll for what he was really working on….beating roulette.

With an ill-earned £4,000 bankroll, Wells was ready to try his luck on the Monte Carlo casino roulette tables. At first, Wells gambled conservatively and only risked a small percentage of his bankroll on each bet. But Wells continued to win again and again, which fueled his confidence to the point of betting 2,000 francs a spin.

Eventually, Wells managed to pull off the rare feat of breaking the bank, and the casino staff covered the roulette table with a black cloth to signify it was done for the night. However, Wells’ session was anything but done as he moved to a second table where he broke the bank there too. Seeing as how it’s rare for someone to break the bank once, excitement filled the air when Wells did it a second……and third time.

Before long, he had attracted a huge crowd of royalty and celebrities who gathered to witness this incredible session. Soon everybody was betting on the same numbers that Wells was as people literally shoved their way to the casino table. So many people were shouting numbers that the croupiers had to limit the number of bettors just to quiet the confusion.

Interestingly enough, this wasn’t even the height of the hysteria because Well broke the bank a fourth, fifth and sixth time; this prompted those who couldn’t bet to stand on chairs and write down observations of Wells’ roulette play so they could emulate it later.

It’s no wonder why people wanted to emulate Wells’ play since he went on to break the bank 12 times in 11 hours! Now most people would have quit after the first day having turned a £4,000 bankroll into several hundred thousand francs. Wells, on the other hand, had different ideas as he spent two more very successful days in Monte Carlo. Onlookers were astounded when Wells bet the house limit 30 straight times, and won 23 of these spins. When it was all said and done, Wells had earned over 1 million francs, which was an astronomical amount of money in these days.

While Wells didn’t have the promised musical jump rope, he still returned to London as a celebrity. His roulette exploits had reached London just as Wells made it back into town. But Wells didn’t waste much time celebrating because he was back in Monte Carlo just a few months later.

Casino owners were fairly certain that they would recoup a lot of the money Wells had won; however, their preconceived notions quickly dissipated as Wells started right where he had left off. This prompted casino officials to hire detectives to watch Wells’ every move, and discover how he was winning so much money.

In the end, the detectives came up with nothing, and Wells just kept on winning. At one point, Wells made a single number bet on 5, which only has 37:1 odds of winning, and he won this bet five times in a row. By the end of this three-day run, Wells had won yet another 1 million francs, thus further adding to his already impressive wealth.

Wells gained quite a bit of fame throughout London after his first successful visit to Monte Carlo. But this time, Wells notoriety skyrocketed as newspapers across the world wrote of his exploits. As if the headlines weren’t enough, Frank Gilbert wrote the legendary song “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo,” which chronicled Wells’ rise to fame.

Suddenly he was a hot commodity in London since everybody from millionaire royals to gorgeous women wanted to hang out with Wells for one reason: to discover his roulette system. Wells ate up the attention as he was once quoted as saying, “Anyone is free to watch me play and imitate me, but the general defect of the ordinary casino gambler is that he lacks courage. He will not risk sufficiently large stakes, and he is afraid of losses.”

Wells also falsely told people that he was an inventor and engineer, and through developing a fuel conservation device for ships, he discovered a secret roulette system. The only problem was that there was no intricate system, and Wells had simply been using the Martingale system all along, which calls for bettors to double bets after every loss. And the world was about to find out the truth about Wells and his roulette exploits….

By the time Wells was about to embark on a third trip to Monte Carlo, his life had reached a “pinnacle.” Wells was able to persuade even more people to invest in the aforementioned fuel conservation device. He then used this money to buy an extravagant yacht complete with a ballroom and 60 guest rooms for his trip to Monte Carlo. When questioned about the yacht, Wells said that it was for testing his new invention.

As if the yacht wasn’t enough, Wells has brought his mistress - model Joan Burns - as eye candy for the voyage. With a beautiful woman on his arm and a lavish yacht, it’s safe to say that no luxuries were spared on Wells’ third journey to Monte Carlo.

As improbable as it seems, Wells experienced success again on the casino roulette tables after breaking the bank six times. Unfortunately for Wells, his luck had finally run out as he started to lose badly. Wells lost so much cash in fact that he sent word back to his wealthy London acquaintances for more “investment” money. It didn’t take long for Wells to blow through this money as well, and the casino losses were only the start of his problems.

Having blown tons of falsely-acquired investment money on roulette, Wells became a marked man. And despite previously earning over 2 million francs in roulette, Wells had blown through all of this money before the third Monte Carlo trip, leaving him broke. He was eventually arrested in France and shipped back to London, where he would spend eight years in prison for fraud.

So did eight years in prison teach Wells a lesson? Not quite since Wells was arrested for financial scams in London and France; he spent three years in prison for the London scam, and five years in prison for the France scam.

Wells spent the remaining years of his life broke in Paris. When asked about his incredible casino roulette system, Wells told people how his success was built upon the Martingale system and lots of luck. In 1926, Wells died without the things he coveted most - fame and fortune.