How to beat a casino: how Derren Brown cheated and won at roulette on live TV

Derren Brown, often misspelled as Darren Brown, has a long history of amazing casino tricks. In his well-known Mind Control series, he successfully demonstrated a simple means of counting cards and thus turning the odds in Blackjack in favor of the player. The casinos were outraged and the ban on him remains in place to this day.

I remember Derren well from parties at the University of Bristol, where, as a fellow student, he used to amaze us with his magical feats. Students were often reduced to tears of disbelief by seemingly simple acts for which there was no explanation. He once stopped my friend Greg’s watch and wound a number, without going near him. While we were wide-eyed in amazement, Greg just frowned and grumbled, “You broke my watch.”

This latest series was billed as “some of his most incredible feats to date,” which was a pretty ambitious claim considering the scale of some of the earlier stunts, like the Russian roulette incident. This event, billed as the grand finale, promised to reveal the secrets to beating the casino. But was it real or just an elaborate scam? Do casino systems follow a similar scam, or can you really beat the casino?

The answer, of course, is more complicated than that. All casino games, without exception, include a house edge, the small edge that means the casino always wins over time. Roulette has one of the smallest odds at 2.7% on European single zero tables. However, the house edge they can change by making small adjustments to the odds, as Derren Brown demonstrated in his Blackjack card counting method. Effective roulette systems work in a similar way, although many are simply leveraged doubling strategies that do not produce long-term profits. Math-based systems like the Mayer roulette system alter odds in a small but significant way that allows players to slowly build a large bank that can then be used to make very large bets, as demonstrated by Derren Brown. for a lucky spectator.

So how did Derren’s system work? Derren Brown used an elaborate speed-measuring device to predict the speed and angle of descent of the ball on the roulette wheel. In the TV show, he was out and the viewer loses his money. Of course, in reality, the law prohibits the use of a system like this in a casino.

To really beat the casino, Derren Brown’s TV show showed a good trick, but only a mathematical and effective strategy will allow you to overcome the house edge and achieve consistent profits.