Only a few players can claim to have had great success at roulette and won large sums of money. But there are exceptions to the rule, and Croatian Niko Tosa is one such case. In 2004, he and two partners legally won more than one million British pounds over the course of a few days at the Ritz Casino in London. You can explore more exciting gaming experiences at Spins Heaven Casino.

The non GamStop casino operators suspected the trio of fraud using a device and the police investigated. Niko Tosa and his assistants played roulette using the “wheel-watching” strategy and did not use any aids, so they were ultimately allowed to keep the money they won.

Nevertheless, Niko Tosa did not tell the story of the coup at the Ritz Casino until around 20 years later.

Niko Tosa, the successful wheel watcher

On March 15, 2004, Niko Tosa entered the Ritz Casino in London accompanied by Serbian businessman Nenad Marjanovic and 32-year-old Hungarian Livia Pilisi. The trio looked for a specific roulette table and started playing with several thousand pounds.

They always waited until the ball was already in the wheel and then placed coordinated bets in groups of three to cover several numbers in the wheel. They were extremely successful in doing this and won around 1.3 million British pounds (around 1.51 million euros) in several sessions within a very short space of time.

When they returned the following evening, the police were waiting for the trio and arrested Niko Tosa and his alleged accomplices. During a search, however, the Scotland Yard officers did not find a mysterious device to influence or predict the coups, as they had suspected.

The three partners’ mobile phones were not suspicious and in the rented hotel rooms the investigators only found cash and a list of local casinos and non GamStop casinos with a rating of each of the trio.

Nevertheless, Scotland Yard investigated Niko Tosa, Nenad Marjanovic and Livia Pilisi for nine months. The officers even took the roulette table apart, evaluated the footage from the surveillance cameras and questioned the croupier that evening. In December of the same year, the officers closed the investigation and dropped the charges. Niko Tosa and his two partners were allowed to keep the money.

Who Is the Roulette Player Niko Tosa?

Niko Tosa is a pseudonym. The man who successfully beat roulette lives in a Croatian village south of Dubrovnik. Only now, around 20 years after his success in the Ritz Casino, has he told his story in an interview with Kit Chellel, a reporter from the business magazine Bloomberg.

According to his own statement, he is “a simple man” who never uses laser technology or a complicated computer. “You can call me Nikola Tesla if I have such a device!” he joked in an interview.

The secret of his success lies in his superhuman ability to concentrate. His roulette strategy is as simple as it is complicated. The trio used wheel watching in the Ritz Casino.

To do this, they looked for roulette wheels with minimal unevenness or irregularity in the process, which reduced the role of chance in the ball’s path. Thanks to years of experience, Tosa was able to predict which zone of the wheel the ball would land in. Tosa called the ability to predict such a zone the “Achilles heel of roulette.”

Tosa studied the trajectory of the ball at home on his own roulette table. The 50-year-old Croatian visited casinos and non GamStop casinos around the world to refine his technique. Despite false identities and disguises, angry casino operators repeatedly threatened, intimidated or even beat him up.

In search of venues where he was not yet known, he travelled to Romania, Poland, Slovakia and even Kenya, attracting little public attention until March 15, 2004, at the Ritz Casino in London.

Niko Tosa chose the casino because there was a roulette table in the “Carmen Room” that he already knew and at which he had had success in the past. The Ritz Casino was only accessible to members and welcomed famous people such as Al Pacino, Johnny Depp and Bill Clinton. The celebrity factor and the high amount of winnings from Niko Tosa and his assistants at roulette caused the casino operators to alert the police.

What Is the Wheel Watching?

The so-called “wheel watching” is a roulette strategy that, unlike other strategies, does not deal mathematically with the stakes, but with the physical properties of the ball’s path itself.

With skill and experience, the player tries to predict the likely final position of the roulette ball in the wheel shortly before the coup is canceled in order to be able to quickly place a corresponding bet on a number or a series of numbers.

The player looks for clues as to the possible landing position of the ball, taking into account the speed at which the wheel rotates, the speed at which the ball travels, the angle at which the croupier throws the ball or the throwing technique, as well as possible irregularities in the wheel itself.

To capitalize on this strategy, the player must know the roulette machine well and observe many coups in order to make successful predictions. Quick bets are placed on adjacent numbers in the wheel, called “neighbors” or “voisins.”

Casino operators can make wheel watching more difficult by simply canceling deals early, changing croupiers frequently, or using automated and electronically controlled wheels.

Can You Still Play Roulette Like Niko Tosa Today?

The Ritz Casino in London had to close its doors in 2020 because the businesses were unable to recover from the pandemic-related forced closures. So if you want to beat roulette like Niko Tosa, you’ll have to find another place to play.

Even the most experienced professional player can never completely rule out chance when it comes to wheel watching. Casino operators also have several options to combat this type of game. For example, they can make it more difficult to win by setting a table limit.

The lower the maximum possible bet at the table, the more often a player would have to win to win a large sum. In addition, the earlier the croupier cancels the coup, the longer the ball will be in the wheel, making it more difficult for the player to make an accurate prediction.

There are fewer than 50 roulette players worldwide who successfully use wheel-watching. Constant improvements in technology make the process even more difficult. Manufacturers have further flattened the recesses or pockets in the wheel and turned them into round depressions, which means the ball runs and bounces longer and more chaotically in the wheel. Computer-controlled electronics ensure precise torque at high speed to prevent defects from being exploited.

The invention of wheel-watching itself, known in English as the “biased wheel” strategy, is attributed to the engineer Joseph Jagger, who was able to make handsome winnings with it in the 1880s at the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco. Another successful player is Dr. Richard Jarecki, who was also able to beat roulette in this way.

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