--- title: "A Math and Physics Savant Reportedly Figured Out How to Beat Roulette" description: "What We know what you're thinking: isn't roulette a game of chance? To most people, sure, but apparently, not everyone. According to Bloomberg, there's a man out there who's beaten the game, no computer required — and all he says it took was a little practice. Easy! That man's name is Niko Tosa, a Croatian […]" date: "2023-04-09" modified: "2023-04-09" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/math-physics-savant-beat-roulette" categories: - "Future Society" - "Physics" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "gambling" - "mathematics" - "roulette" - "the digest" --- # A Math and Physics Savant Reportedly Figured Out How to Beat Roulette ![According to Bloomberg, there's a man out there who's beaten Roulette, no computer required — and all he says it took was a little practice. Easy!]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## The Unbeatable Game We know what you're thinking: isn't roulette a game of chance? To most people, sure, but apparently not to everyone. According [to *Bloomberg*](), there's a man out there who's beaten the game, no computer required — and all he says it took was a little practice. Easy! That man's name is Niko Tosa, a Croatian math and physics savant who travels the world, sometimes with fake documents and wearing some type of disguise, to win the game that even Stephen Hawking once said is pretty much impossible to beat. "It is practically impossible to predict the number that will come up," [Hawking] once wrote about the game, as noted in the *Bloomberg* profile of Tosa. "Otherwise physicists would make a fortune at casinos." Beating roulette *and* Stephen Hawking? Wildly impressive. ## Practice Makes Perfect Tosa — that's a pseudonym — is so good at winning, in fact, that the London police launched a full-scale against him and two colleagues back in 2004, under the theory that they'd been using some type of computerized device to cheat. They weren't, but the investigation did reveal that, under perfect conditions, the game can be bested, as long as the wheel itself is ideal. "Those conditions are, in effect, imperfections of one sort or another," explains *Bloomberg* writer Kit Chellel. "On a perfect wheel, the ball would always fall in a random way. But over time, wheels develop flaws, which turn into patterns. A wheel that's even marginally tilted could develop... a 'drop zone.' When the tilt forces the ball to climb a slope, the ball decelerates and falls from the outer rim at the same spot on almost every spin. A similar thing can happen on equipment worn from repeated use, or if a croupier's hand lotion has left residue, or for a dizzying number of other reasons." "A drop zone is the Achilles' heel of roulette," he continues. "That morsel of predictability is enough for software to overcome the random skidding and bouncing that happens after the drop." In other words: no computer needed. Just practice, the perfect wheel, and Tosa's computer-like brain. "You can call me Nikola Tesla," Tosa told Chellel, when, after the reporter had tracked him down in Croatia, he was asked if he'd ever used some kind of computing machine to beat the unbeatable game, "if I have such a device!" **More on gambling:** [*Casinos to Use Facial Recognition to Keep "Problem Gamblers" Away*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()