JAGGERS'S SYSTEM

JAGGERS'S SYSTEM

JAGGERS is the only man I ever heard of who

completely defeated the Bank at Monte Carlo

by fair means, and won and kept a large sum of

money.

He was a Yorkshireman, and a mechanic by

trade, and therefore knew how impossible it is

to construct and maintain a delicate machine in

an absolutely perfect condition. He consequently

realized that every Roulette Wheel in

the rooms at Monte Carlo was sure to be untrue,

in a greater or less degree, and he did not see

why he should not turn this knowledge to some

account.

He engaged a staff of six clerks, and set them

at different tables to mark down the numbers

all day long. Meanwhile he himself was busily

engaged on an elaborate analysis of the result

of each table. At the end of a month he had

discovered a weak spot in every one of the

cylinders. Certain numbers appeared at certain

tables considerably oftener than they should have

done by the law of average. At each of these

tables there was a group of numbers which

always kept behind their average. The numbers

that were ahead steadily increased their lead,

whilst the other group fell more and more in

arrear.

Armed with this knowledge Jaggers and his

staff set to work to play on the good numbers,

and in course of time they won £120,000.

Then the Administration of the Bank discovered

his system, and changed the cylinders about

from table to table every night. From that day

Jaggers of course began to lose, and he had

soon lost ^40,000 of his winnings. Then he

perceived what they had done, and set to work

to beat them again. By dint of patience and

keen observation he soon discovered a distinctive

mark on most of the wheels, so that no

matter where they placed them he would know

them again. In most cases the mark was so

minute as to be quite unnoticed by an ordinary

observer, but Jaggers was gifted with a very

quick eye, and the slightest scratch or speck on

the paint was sufficient for him. Being then

able to follow each of his cylinders day after

day from table to table, he soon recognized his

old friends, and knew that certain numbers were

good to play on at certain tables. He soon

regained the £40,000 which the Bank had

won back from him.

The Administration were then in despair.

They had known players win before, it is true,

but they had never known a man win steadily,

regularly, and consistently like Jaggers. It was

a constant drain on their resources, and as others

were beginning to follow him wherever he

staked his money, it meant ultimate ruin unless

they could put a stop to it. So they sent a

representative to Paris to consult the head of

the firm who had manufactured the wheels.

Fortunately for Monte Carlo he was a man of

resource, and saw in a moment how he could

baffle Mr. Jaggers.

He knew, like Jaggers, that it was impossible

to make a Roulette Wheel absolutely true, but

he saw at once how he could effectually prevent

a player from profiting by this knowledge, and

what he did was this. The irregular results, he

argued, arose from the partitions dividing the

numbers being slightly irregular : as long as

these partitions WQIQ fixed, it was possible for a

minute observer to profit from the irregularity ;

but if you could make them so easily movable

as to be able to change them without difficulty

every evening, although the wheel would

still remain untrue, it would be quite impossible

for any player to profit from it, as the

irregularity would never be the same two days

following.

He accordingly constructed a new set of

wheels with movable partitions, so that the little

receptacle for the ball, which was opposite Zero

one day, might be placed opposite No. 5 the

next, and opposite No. 22 the day after.

Against this, of course, Jaggers could do

nothing, and having discovered that the game

was up, he finally left Monte Carlo the winner

of about £80,000.

All this happened over twenty years ago, and

although it would probably be waste of time to

try the Jaggers system at Monte Carlo, where

they are ever on the look-out, I still think it

would be possible to bring off the 'coup' at

one of the less frequented gambling resorts

where the Administration are not so wideawake.

At one of the Belgian establishments the

writer found that the wheels were never moved

from table to table, and from an analysis of the

results, acquired by marking the numbers at the

same table two hours every day for a month, it

was apparent that certain numbers invariably

turned up oftener than others. As some numbers

were continually increasing their lead, and others

daily falling more and more behind, it was

evident that the cylinders were never adjusted.