What’s this? Something about clocks? Time? Nope.
We’re going to talk today about what is basically a roulette scam.
What Is Roulette Wheel Clocking?
Roulette clocking means observing the spinning roulette wheel to see what area of the roulette board it may land on.
Doing so drastically increases the odds of winning. And yes, it’s cheating.
It’s used in live casinos rather than online roulette.
How Does Roulette Clocking Work?
There are two methods of ‘clocking’.
- Visual – this literally means watching the ball and wheel with your eyes
- Electronically – using some kind of device/computer to observe the ball
Using these, the idea is to ascertain (whilst the ball is spinning but before it’s spun three times round the wheel) where the ball is most likely to land.
Then, acting quickly, to bet on that number or range of numbers.
Why It’s So Difficult
You might think it’s super easy to do roulette wheel clocking. You’d be wrong.
Let’s start with the ‘visual’ method.
As you can imagine, this is very ineffective. Using the just the human eye and brain with such a fast moving object is highly unlikely to be successful.
In the environment of a live casino it’s even more difficult. You’ve got all the sights and sounds of the casino. And also the pressure of trying to get the bet right whilst not being caught. Not fun!
Also, there’s scientific reasons it’s difficult. This is because there are so many factors that affect the randomness of roulette.
These include the size of the different parts of the wheel (like the frets that go in-between each number). But also the continual change of atmospheric conditions.
Bottom line though – our brains aren’t enough to do roulette clocking on their own.
And what about the electronic method?
In this, you’re reliant on technology for making the prediction on where the ball will land, with the human touch of actually making the bet.
This is predominantly difficult because you need to make or buy a device that can (supposedly) do this. As I’m sure you can imagine, this isn’t something you can just buy on Amazon Prime.
There have been cases (which we’ll look at below) where people have made their own hardware for this. You may also find people claiming to have built their own to sell you. It’s a scam.
You see, you could technically create something if you knew what you were doing. It would take a lot of time and money. But then you’d just get caught and you wouldn’t have won anything.
Roulette Clocking In The News
🤞 That time the Ritz got taken for £1.3million
It’s 2004. three people playing roulette have just fleeced the Ritz Casino in London for a whopping £1.3million (c.NZ$2,481,318).
Understandably, the Ritz are fuming and want answers. What was the scam and how did the ‘gang’ walk away with so much profit?
The answer? Roulette wheel clocking. Or sector targeting.
You see, the Ritz security team spent ages looking at the CCTV videos. What they found was highly suspicious. And cunning.
The three ‘winners’ had used a very sophisticated laser scanner in a tiny computer. What this scanner did, when pointed at the roulette wheel, was predict where the ball would drop.
It didn’t mean they could pick the exact number it landed on. But it did mean they reduced their odds to abut 6-1.
They could then place their bet quickly before the wheel had spun three times.
On night one (presumably just testing the system properly) they won £100,000. The second night they really turned things up a notch and won an insane £1.2 million.
By the way, this wasn’t their first rodeo. The woman was notorious in Budapest casinos and was banned at all of them.
Here’s where the story gets interesting. Not surprisingly, the casino froze the punters’ funds (£900,000 had been given as a cheque). Then all three got arrested.
I bet you’re thinking that they were then taken to court and went to jail, right?
No. In a big twist, they were allowed to walk away and got to keep their winnings!
How the hell did they get away with it?
Well for one, they couldn’t really prove anything. There was no evidence they’d tampered with the roulette wheel (because they hadn’t).
And they never got to see the actual ‘scanner’ used. So there as no real physical evidence of it.
Most importantly though, the law which might have covered this was archaic and dated back to 1845. But, as it was ancient, didn’t factor in modern technology.
So in the end the charges were dropped and the team walked away a lot richer than when they started.
🤞 Those Eudaemons in the 1970s
Way back in the 1970s technology wasn’t so advanced. But that doesn’t stop people pushing the boundaries of what was available.
The Eudaemons were a bunch of physics students at the University of California Santa Cruz.
Not content with regular lectures and partying, they decided to build a computer which could be worn in a casino to help them beat the game of roulette.
And, because why not – they wanted to make tons of money. Albeit this money was to be used towards a scientific community.
It wasn’t a quick process. We’re talking two years for them to fully develop this. They were, quite frankly, genius. They used a small computer which fit into a shoe.
Whilst this was successful (their profit on average for every dollar wagered was 44%), it wasn’t great. One of them was burned after some insulation failed. After this point they (wisely!) decided to end the project.
They didn’t do amazingly well for their efforts, however. Altogether their winnings totalled $10,000.
What Is Sector Targeting?
‘Sector targeting’ is simple another name for roulette wheel clocking.
Is Roulette Wheel Clocking Legal?
You should treat it as so.
It actually varies from country to country but even if it is legal when you are, it’s an insanely bad idea.
Legalities aside, the casino will undoubtedly catch you. Their modern surveillance and experience will find you every quickly.
Once they do, you’ll be banned from there (and probably from many others( and your funds frozen.
It’s just not worth the risk.
Summary
It’s true – roulette wheel clocking has made a small number of people rich. It’s fairly likely there’s more than we know.
But these are small numbers. It’s difficult to really quantify how many people have been successful and how much they’ve won.
What we do know is, it’s not something that is worth the risk of trying. You’re either going to fail, or be caught. Maybe both!
You’re much safer just trying a roulette strategy at one of the best roulette sites in 2022:
Further Reading
- The sting: did gang really use a laser, phone and a computer to take the Ritz for £1.3m? (Guardian)
- ‘Laser scam’ gamblers to keep £1m’ (BBC)
- ‘The Eudaemons’ (UCSC)
- UK Gaming Act 1845 (UK Government)