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Joseph Hobson Jagger 1830 - 1892

Some sources called him John. Born in Little Horton, Bradford. He became an engineer in charge of spindles at Bottomley's Mill, Shelf.

During the summer holidays of 1875, he travelled to France where – seeing the aged mechanism in the casinos with an engineer's eye – he observed the patterns of numbers which came up and was able to break the bank at Monte Carlo. His experience told him that wooden spindles, on which roulette wheels turned, were subject to wear and tear, thus creating a bias. He engaged a team of clerks to write down the numbers which came up at each table, and then analysed these to predict winning numbers. He observed that one particular roulette wheel had a tendency towards the numbers 17, 18, 27 and 28. A single zero roulette wheel with a clear non - neutral behaviour. In other words a sick wheel.

He placed his first bet on 7th July 1875 and won a considerable amount of money. Over an 8-day period, he won 2,000,000 old francs – about £400,000 at the time, or £26 million pounds today. The Casino officials were suspicious about Jagger's success and security men were told to keep him under observation. He occasionally lost a bet to allay suspicion. Arousing the management's suspicions, the cylinders in the tables were changed around, but he had marked the winning cylinder with a little scratch and followed the winning roulette wheel around. Finally, the management won and replaced the winning cylinder with a brand new non-bias.

He travelled back to England as a rich man with around £400,000 in winnings and gave up his job at the mill and bought property at Little Horton, Bradford.

Jagger was according to history of gambling the first person who broke the bank at Monte Carlo. He only played roulette.

He was buried at Bethel Church, Shelf. Aged 61. He left £200 for the upkeep of his grave and the painting of the railings around the grave. It has been repainted twice, and on both occasions, the painter died shortly afterwards.

His gravestone at Bethel Church, Shelf. Near Halifax

It has been confirmed that the famous song "The Man Who Broke The Bank at Monte Carlo" was not written about Joseph Jagger's success but another gambler who had similar success playing roulette in Monte Carlo.

The song was written to Charles Deville Wells.