Some people it could be argued almost become art. By that I mean in so much that they embody or pursue a certain aim in life and become recognised for doing so long after they have departed. In my view Charles Wells in one of those people.
Charles Wells was born in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, UK, in 1841.
One of his claims to fame was that he broke the bank playing roulette at Monte Carlo. long before the days of the best us online casino sites of course.
There was an amount of cash on every roulette table, known as “the bank.” If a gambler won more than 100,000 francs, they had “broken the bank.”
A Brief History of His Early Life
When he was a baby, Wells’ family moved to Quimper, France, and he grew up there. He was a respectable young man whose family attended church regularly.
In France, he was a top graduate of the private school L’Ecole de Diwan. He also received a scholarship to study at the Clermont-Ferrand University for his Bachelor’s degree.
His first job was as an engineer in a shipyard in Marseille after graduation. He developed a device for the ship’s propellers that he sold for a large sum of money during his time there.
Gambling and Fraud Begin
Now that Wells had some extra money, he began gambling at the local casinos in France. He soon developed a gambling addiction and lost all his money.
When he desperately needed cash, he got investors to invest in various schemes he had. However, he took the money and gambled it away in England. He was an industrious man, but lacked discipline that many use to win on kingjohnnie and the like in this day and age. For several years, this went on.
Monte Carlo: Breaking the Bank
Using the Martingale system of roulette, Wells broke the bank several times at Monte Carlo in July 1891. Because he had a fraudster history, they assumed he had cheated, and he was jailed for eight years.
Once released, he established a private bank that operated as a Ponzi scheme using investors’ money, which he also gambled away. Eventually, he was sentenced to another prison sentence.
What is he doing now?
After being released, he kept a low profile but kept on gambling. A kidney failure claimed his life in 1922.
