Great Gambling Scams. Howard Monte/Nigel Montgomery
balance of the chips to the correct bet. Casinos remove half your stake from an even-money bet when zero comes up. The second, and more serious problem, was how to physically handle the Reverse Labouchere betting system in a live casino. At home on his practice wheel, he had plenty of time to calculate and place his bets on the six even-money chances, but he was painfully aware that in the real hustle and bustle of a casino that would not be possible. And, third, how would he finance the operation? He went to bed that evening feeling rather dejected, but woke up the following morning with a brilliant idea. He would recruit 12 players, show them the system and take them to France with him to beat the casino. He would even ask them to bankroll the operation, and he would take his cut of the action. That morning, Norman Leigh placed a classified advert in the following day’s edition of the Evening Standard, and waited for his phone to ring.
The response was phenomenal. He got responses from people of all walks of life, from different backgrounds and of different age and sex. Out-of-work actors and actresses, a struck-off accountant, a retired schoolteacher. The list was endless. By the end of the week, he had arranged a series of meetings at his home, where he would demonstrate the system to his new recruits, and then carefully select the 12 he would bring with him to France to take on the Casino Municipale in Nice.
Each time potential candidates arrived at Norman’s home for interview, he took them into his room, where the roulette table was set up, and lectured them like a schoolmaster. He took this mission extremely seriously, and he had no room on board for passengers. Some fell by the wayside there and then; others became even more interested. By the middle of 1966, Norman Leigh had his team together, they were sufficiently bankrolled and Norman noted with satisfaction that they all entrusted him with their stake money, which he would change slowly over a period of time in the West End into French Francs. They agreed that, as the scheme was his brainchild, Norman would keep 50 per cent of the profits after expenses.
The team spent weeks practising the Reverse Labouchere system on his home roulette table until they had the staking discipline absolutely perfected and spot on. Norman decided that they would go to France and play for ten days, with two teams of six on each roulette table, each playing the staking system at the same time on odd, even, red, black, high and low, with him as an overseer in charge to make sure everything went according to plan. As the casino staff would swiftly uncover the team, with their notepads for writing down the progressions and their unusual betting patterns, he decided that he would inform the casino management that he had devised a system that he believed would win at roulette, and ask if they had any objection to him trying it out and using it. This was a gamble worth taking, as he knew the management would welcome them with open arms. He also knew, deep down, that they would beat the casino.
In the summer of 1966, Norman Leigh took his team of 12 to Nice. They checked into a hotel near to the casino, and dined in a restaurant together the same evening. There, Norman Leigh delivered his last lecture to the group. The very next night, they were going to the Casino Municipale to put the Reverse Labouchere roulette staking plan to test, and, if all went well, they would be doing the same for the next nine nights as well. Norman Leigh handed out 12 manila envelopes to his team; each was crammed with their stake money in French Francs.
Over a decade after leaving the casino with his father, both of them with tails between their legs, Norman Leigh led his team to the Casino Municipale in Nice. Norman Leigh’s heart missed a beat as he entered the glitzy surroundings, but not because of the extra tables that had been installed, or the redecoration, or the bustle of the gaming floor. It was because of the casino manager he set eyes upon, chubby and resplendent in his dinner jacket, arms folded, just as he had been all those years earlier. Norman Leigh screwed his eyes up and looked at him with pure malice, took a gulp, hoped he wasn’t recognised and went straight over to him. ‘I believe I have discovered a betting system that can beat your casino at roulette. I have brought a team of 12 players with me from England, and, if you have no objections, I would like to put my system to the test at your casino.’
The manager, who had heard it all before, let out a small chuckle and welcomed these new punters with open arms. He never even gave Leigh a cursory glance and, if he had, he wouldn’t have recognised him anyway. Over the years, he had taken great pleasure in watching a host of English punters go bankrupt in his casino. Norman Leigh’s team headed for two empty roulette tables, got out their pads and pencils, and started work.
Almost as a mirror image to their weeks of preparation, nothing much happened for the first couple of hours. A small progression on odd fizzled out on one table, and on the other a similar streak on red was thwarted just as it was about to mushroom. Norman Leigh, meanwhile, was hovering between the two tables, keeping an eye on everyone, and making sure nobody was uncomfortable or panicking, and that the crib cards were keeping the staking plan accurate.
One of the bizarre features that Norman Leigh had noticed about the Reverse Labouchere system was that a progression that fizzled out just as it started looking promising often reappeared and got going again with gusto shortly afterwards. And that was what happened on the first roulette table with odd. The man playing odd was a retired schoolteacher from Epsom, one of the stronger and more reliable members of Norman’s team, and one that he had selected from the early batch of applicants. All of a sudden, odd started unbalancing even quite dramatically, and the bets were becoming substantial. Norman looked over the teacher’s shoulder to see the progression on his pad, which now looked like this: 606, 744, 882, 1,068, 1,254, 1,512, 1,770, 2,100, 2,430, 2,760, 3,162, 3,564, 4,018, 4,522, 5,026. The next wager would be 5,626 units, approaching the table maximum, and, if that one obliged, the streak on odd would have run its course, and the player would draw down his winnings and start all over again with a bet of just five units. By now there was a small crowd of onlookers at the table, in awe of the towers of chips and plaques in front of the schoolteacher. ‘Fait vaux jeux.’ The dealer spun the wheel. The little white ivory ball spun round and round and clanked into a slot with number 11 on it. ‘Onze, noir, impair.’ Just over three hours after walking into the Casino Municipale, the first progression had climaxed, netting the team a substantial win. The schoolteacher neatly stacked up his high-value winning plaques, and then staked the minimum, five units, on odd, just as he had been taught.
Meanwhile, on the other table, a similar progression was taking place on the low numbers. Norman wandered over to observe. This time it was the turn of the out-of-work actress to be the centre of attention as the low numbers prevailed. A second mushroom climaxed with almost the same ease as the first, and the team had hit the house limit twice within the space of a few minutes. They carried on playing for about another hour, during which nothing much of note happened, all the even chances balancing each other out. Norman then gave the signal to cash in and leave, and meet him in his suite at the hotel. He hurried up to his rooms, and pulled six bottles of chilled champagne out of the fridge; he hadn’t believed in his wildest dreams that he would be celebrating this quickly. Two successful progressions on the first day! The team arrived, all in a jolly mood, and spilled their French Francs out on to the bed. Norman poured the champagne as they counted the large bundles of French banknotes into neat stacks. They had won the equivalent of $18,500. Norman took his half and shared the balance out among the other team members, who were absolutely thrilled at the ease of their tax-free gains.
The following night, they were back at work in the casino. Nothing happened. They drew a blank on night three as well, which was probably just as well, because what happened on night four was quite extraordinary. Literally the minute they sat down at the tables, a progression started on red, quickly followed by one on even on the other table. Within a quarter of an hour, both progressions had maxed out, and another took over on high on the first table. This one matured as well, and by now, with the team having hit three successful mushrooms in less than an hour, the casino management started taking a little more interest in them. ‘Your system seems to be working well, Monsieur, but we have seen these things before. You’ll give it all back in time.’ How wrong they were, as the team went on to have the most successful night ever, culminating in five successful winning streaks, and winning over $50,000.
On night five, the casino started playing tricks on the team. Shills – players employed by the house – were used to crowd the teams at the table, and take their seats during toilet breaks. Croupiers were told to spin the ball quickly