Monte Carlo Casino, Monaco (Riviera)-LCCN2002707976

Joseph Hobson Jagger (2 September 1830 – 25 April 1892) was an English

textile industry The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry. Industry process Cotton manufacturi ...

businessman from Yorkshire, who in around 1881 is said to have "broken the bank at

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

" by identifying and exploiting biases in the wheels of the roulette tables there. He used his winnings to buy property in Bradford. In 2018 he was the subject of a biography by his great-great niece Anne Fletcher.

Early life and family

Joseph Jagger was born at Cock Hill, Shelf, Yorkshire on 2 September 1830. In his youth he worked in the textile trade in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

. He married Matilda with whom he had two sons and two daughters.Joseph H Jogger England and Wales Census, 1871.
Family Search. Retrieved 20 October 2018.

Monte Carlo

In the 1871 census, Jagger was described as a "piece worker". He set up his own textile business but it failed and he was faced with

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

and four children to support. Around 1880/81 he and his eldest son Alfred, with his nephew Oates Jagger, travelled to

with money borrowed from friends and family. Having worked in the textile industry, Jagger may have observed that

spinning wheel A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning f ...

s were never perfectly balanced and always had some form of bias, and it is thought that Jagger hit on the idea of using this bias to win at

roulette Roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning ''little wheel'' which was likely developed from the Italian game Biribi''.'' In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various groupings of numbers, the ...

."Man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo, The" in ''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable''. 16th edition. London: Cassell, 1999, p. 739. After studying the tables at the Casino de Monte-Carlo for a month to determine which numbers came up most frequently he began to place successful bets. Jagger is reputed to have won over 2 million francs over several days,"High-tech rollers hit casino for £1.3m." Steve Bird, ''The Times'', 23 March 2004, p. 3. the equivalent of £80,000 at the time and, according to ''The Times'', worth £7.5 million in 2018. The expression "

breaking the bank In gaming, breaking the bank refers to a player winning a critical sum of money from the casino. The literal, extremely rare, situation of breaking the bank, is winning more than the house has on hand. The term can also be used for the act of ...

" is used when a gambler wins more money than the reserve held at that particular table in the casino. At the start of each day, every table was funded with a cash reserve of 100,000 francs – known as "the bank". If this reserve was insufficient to pay the winnings, play at that table was suspended while extra funds were brought out from the casino's vaults. In a ceremony devised by

François Blanc François Blanc (; 12 December 1806 – 27 July 1877), nicknamed "The Magician of Homburg" and "The Magician of Monte Carlo", was a French entrepreneur and operator of casinos, including the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco. His daughter, Marie-F� ...

, the original owner of the casino, a black cloth was laid over the table in question, and the successful player was said to have broken the bank. After an interval the table re-opened and play continued. The manufacturers of the roulette tables later introduced movable partitions into their tables to frustrate Jagger's method. On his return to Yorkshire, Jagger used some of the money to purchase houses in

Little Horton Little Horton (population 17,368 - 2001 UK census) is a ward in the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council in the county of West Yorkshire, England, named after the de Horton family, who were once Lords of the Manor. The population at ...

, Bradford, that were occupied by members of his family.

Death and legacy

Jagger died on 25 April 1892, according to ''Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'', "probably mainly from boredom", however, his death certificate gives

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

as the cause. His address at the time was 25 Greaves Street, Little Horton, and he left an estate of £2,081 (). Probate was granted to Alfred Jagger, cashier, Sidney Sowood, warehouseman, and Oates Jagger, gentleman. He was described as a "manufacturer".1892 Probate Calendar.
p. 287. He was buried in the family grave at the Methodist Bethel Chapel in Shelf, Halifax.Here lies the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo.
''Halifax Courier'', 5 April 2007. Retrieved 20 October 2018. He is incorrectly described by ''Brewers'' as the inspiration for

Fred Gilbert Frederick Younge Gilbert (2 March 1850 – 12 April 1903) was an English theatrical agent and writer of music hall songs. Born in London, the son of a comedian also named Fred Gilbert, he appeared in theatres as a singer before joining the of ...

's song "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo", first performed around the early 1890s; however, the song is thought to have actually been written about the gambler and fraudster Charles Wells.Short, Ernest Henry. (1946) ''Fifty Years of Vaudeville''. Reprint. Greenwood Press. p. 208. He is the subject of a biography by his great-great niece Anne Fletcher titled ''From the Mill to Monte Carlo: The Working-Class Englishman Who Beat the Monaco Casino and Changed Gambling Forever'', published by

Amberley Amberley may refer to: Places Australia *Amberley, Queensland, near Ipswich, Australia *RAAF Base Amberley, a Royal Australian Air Force military airbase United Kingdom * Amberley, Gloucestershire, England * Amberley, Herefordshire, England ...

in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jagger, Joseph Businesspeople from Yorkshire 1830 births 1892 deaths English gamblers Roulette and wheel games English Methodists Textile engineers Deaths from diabetes 19th-century English businesspeople

Early life and family

Monte Carlo

Death and legacy

See also

References