Every gambler in every game seeks an advantage on the house. That edge may seem minute but can mean the difference between a winning play and a losing one. Niko Tosa became the man who made millions by learning how to beat roulette in the casinos.
No matter the game, every player seeks an edge over the house. The house, another name for a casino, is thorough about creating and maintaining that edge. Finding a way in, however, can result in seriously large wins.
Niko Tosa managed to figure out how to give himself the edge in roulette and used it to make history. His story, in which he took millions from The Ritz Club playing the popular casino game, is one for the ages. How did Niko Tosa beat roulette?
Who is Niko Tosa and What Did He Do?
A native of Croatia, Tosa had a unique ability that few possessed. He could predict the outcome of roulette with stunning regularity. Tosa entered The Ritz Club in London with a goal in mind: make a ton of money.
Entering The Ritz Club with a man and woman at his side, Tosa sat down at the roulette table. His companions, Serbian Nenad Marjanovic and Hungarian Livia Pilisi, flanked him. Security had identified Tosa the instant he stepped foot in the club.
Over the next two weeks, Tosa and his crew won untold amounts of money. The club did its due diligence, inspecting CCTV cameras attempting to find anomalies, looking for inconsistencies, and anything that could point to a clearly unfair advantage.
The Ritz Club could not. Tosa’s winnings were his and he was free to go. It is a story that has been told countless times in the gambling world and will no doubt continue to live on as a legend.
How He Beat Roulette
So, how did he do it? What makes the story more impressive is that it was done under the watchful eye of security. The trio went to the Carmen Room, reserved for elite bettors. They started to employ a strategy that had everyone watching before long.
The trio would wait until roughly six or seven seconds after the ball was launched before acting. As the ball began to slow, all three would leap into action with what seemed to be coordinated bets. They would cover up to 15 numbers at one time.
They didn’t hit every time, but the wins started to pile up and become odds-defying. Winning streaks of eight, ten, and thirteen piled up. Moreover, their bets increased. Tosa made $310,000 while risking $30,000 in total. His friend took in a whopping $684,000.
Perhaps the most jarring thing was that they didn’t celebrate. They remained composed and played on like nothing had happened the previous turn. Even among the elite, the group stood out for its unique strategy and lack of reaction to huge winnings.
Changes as a Result of Tosa’s Method
To this day, no one is 100% certain of how Tosa beat the odds and walked away a wealthy man. It isn’t the kind of thing you see in online casinos. The game was designed to be random, but Tosa and his counterparts had managed to turn it into a successful system that no one could quite crack.
It has been suggested that Tosa used predictive software and roulette timbers to win. Some speculate that Tosa determined a flaw in the wheel like a dent or tilt. Something like that could create a “drop zone,” making it possible to predict the movement of the ball using software.
However he did it, Tosa remains free to this day. The Ritz Club closed up shop in 2020, but Tosa – under any number of aliases – continues to walk free as the man who beat roulette.