THE ROULETTE WHEEL has been adapted so that it gives a greater chance of some numbers than others and was reputedly seized from Barnet Fair in 1885.
Casinos use more sophisticated roulette wheels than this particular example, but the gaming industry relies upon an enormous turnover of stake money that changes hands many times during the course of a session, and a roulette wheel will be operated many times. A slight change in the apparent odds can therefore have enormous implications for the casino operation and may not be apparent, even to the assiduous observer, of the operation of equipment that should give out results by random chance.
The most recent acquisition for the Crime Museum (2015) was a set of playing cards which Mihai Lacatos from Romania had used when playing poker, making very slight marks and bends on the cards to improve his chances and thereby fraudulently winning money from casinos in various parts of the country over a six-year period. The Playboy Club in Mayfair lost over £43,000 in one week, for instance. He had been banned from a number of casinos but had started to use false identities and was arrested at Luton airport on 20 November 2014. He admitted fourteen offences and was the first person to be prosecuted for the specific offence of card marking.
c. 1885
Roulette wheel with cover (lifted to reveal ball location)
1900
The Crime Museum Visitor Book signed by Harry Houdini