Roulette Archive News from 1947 – Students Make $12,000 at Roulette with their Own System

28 Jun 2011

Researching some old news we came across a press article from 1947 which was published in the Milwaukee Journal that described how two students developed a roulette system and used it to convert their total life savings of $300 to $12,000, which is an amazing return.

The two students were Roy Walford and Albert Higgs and their exploits attracted a large audience at the casino. Higgs was a student of mathematics and Walford was studying for a degree in medicine. They played for a continuous 40 hours and walked away with $11,700, an amazing 400% profit.

That was their second 40 hour marathon at the roulette wheel. The first had been a week earlier. On that occasion they did not do as well, but still won $6,000 dollars.

On the first occasion they played individually, each one playing for an eight hour shift at a time. Eventually they only stopped when the casino, horrified by the amount of money they were losing, demanded that the roulette wheel should be changed.  The pair were not too keen on that so on the second occasion they played at a different casino.  

With a total profit of $12,300 in 1947, imagine what that would be in today’s money. We did a quick calculation and made it £126,000.

So what was their amazing system and would it work nowadays? They had taken time out of college and hitchhiked to Reno. Once they got there they spent some time sitting at the roulette wheels recording the winning numbers.  The casino staff grew suspicious and called in the police who arrested the pair however they were subsequently released as they had not broken the law.

After a week or recording numbers they started playing for real money. They bet on the number 9 every spin, varying the size of the bet from 2 to 13 chips, and it worked out very well for them. They took their winnings, bought a yacht, and spent the following year sailing round the Caribbean.

Albert Higgs went on to become a well known mathematician and television presenter, Walford became an eminent doctor and was responsible for several medical advances, but it is not known if they continued to make money at the roulette tables.

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