: > there was a popular song in the (1910's? 1920's?) called 'the man who : > broke the bank at monte carlo' and I do recall reading (in a book of : Short of actual references, this remains an urban legend. Even if : demonstrated, it doesn't necessarily mean anything about the practical : application of doubling and similar strategies. I have a reference to that somewhere, but I'll save us all the bother of looking it up. The song was based on a guy (I think he was an engineer) who noticed a slight imbalance on one of the wheels, giving him a minor advantage which he parlayed up by long and boring repetitive bets on numbers at that side of the wheel. It wasn't a Martingale system. G