So stick with us as we dive deep into the contentious Derren Brown ‘How To Beat the Casino’ TV special and shed some light on the techniques used by the amazing trickster in his attempts to outwit the casino by winning big at the Roulette table. Let’s begin!
The Set-Up
Master ‘mentalist’ Derren Brown has a long, illustrious history of bewildering audiences with his tricks at casinos. Through weaving together elements of social psychology, magic, suggestion, misdirection, and above all, showmanship, the magician cast a huge ripple in British society back in 2009 with his critically acclaimed ‘Events’ TV series.
Long-term followers of Brown will note that the magician had already broadcast a TV series entitled ‘Mind Control’ way back in 2000, in which Brown demonstrated simple techniques of counting cards in games of Blackjack order to tilt the odds back in the player’s favor.
Unsurprisingly, casinos across the nation were outraged and Brown himself has been banned from many casinos worldwide as a result. Several years later, the magician would announce his ‚Derren Brown How to Beat the Casino‘ special, billed as the triumphant finale of a nail-biting series that he claimed featured some of his most incredible feats to date.
This was indeed a highly ambitious claim as this series featured several mystifying pschological feats that had left the nation collectively scratching their heads in amazement. During this series, Brown played Russian Roulette on live TV, and successfully predicted all numbers from a live lottery.
Therefore the stage was set, a nation’s eyes were fixed on Brown as he neared the thrilling conclusion of his epic saga. Would he actually be able to pull it off? Would he truly be able to show us how to beat the casino and unlock its secrets?
The Concept
The concept of ‘Derren Brown How to Beat the Casino’ was a remarkably bold one. From the outset of the programme, Brown explained to his viewers that he planned to bet £5,000, taken from an unsuspecting member of the public, and to place it all on a single casino roulette wheel number.
By doing so, he planned to win £175,000 on this single bet and give it as a gift to the man from whom he initially hypnotised and stole money from. This exhilarating high-stakes bet would take place in an undisclosed European casino and be filmed using a secret camera from Brown himself.
This episode would also feature a mixture of pre-recorded stunts that would chronicle Brown’s preparation for this trick.
Roulette: No Stranger to Outlandish Characters
By now, the question may be forming on your lips, ‘Can casinos genuinely be beaten through games of roulette?’. Anyone aware of Brown’s work will already know that he is fond of tearing down sacred systems by turning our pre-conceived perceptions of society on their head. With casinos too, such questions exist, are the systems in place fair? Or are they simply scams to keep the House happy?
It is perhaps fitting then that Brown chose roulette as his preferred medium of outwitting the casino. After all, roulette is a game that is steeped in suspense and spectacle. Deriving its name from the French word for wheel, ‘roule’, this beloved table game has already been the subject of much romanticism and mythology.
Asides from Brown, this quintessential casino game has been the focus of many colorful characters throughout history that have all contributed to the lore of the game. One of our personal favorites has to be the tale of the legendary Charles Wells.
Renowned as ‘The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo’, Wells was a larger-than-life character who lived in London. In 1891, he amassed both fortune and fame, and later infamy by winning all the available money at the roulette tables not just once as a fluke, but on multiple occasions!
However, what goes up must inevitably come down, and Wells’ winning streak eventually came to an end. The story goes that he lost all of his fortunes once Lady Luck (and the Law) inevitably turned on him. Would Brown too, bite off more than he could chew?
Can Roulette Genuinely be Beat?
To hammer home the point about just how formidable this ‘Derren Brown How to Take Down the Casino’ endeavor truly was, we would like to briefly consider the reality of being able to manipulate a roulette table for your benefit.
While it is considered one of the most difficult casino games to beat, the roulette table can be comprised of several factors which, from the point of view of the casino, harm its integrity. Largely, human elements can disrupt the game’s seemingly random nature.
For instance, the dealer is responsible for spinning both the wheel and the ball and can unconsciously send the ball time and time again to a certain section of the wheel. If we consider that the live game will always require a potentially tired human to man it, then roulette appears to be not as completely random as other table games which used randomly generated number processors, such as slot machines.
However, even if you could map out a dealer’s tendency to throw the ball in a certain direction, you’d still have to predict both the speed and motion of the wheel and that of the ball, to predict where it was going to land next. A seemingly impossible feat for the human brain to calculate on the fly, which brings us, to Brown’s ‘preparation’ for his climactic finale.
The Preparation
During the pre-recorded segments of the special, Brown showcased some mind-bending preparation stunts that he claimed would assist him when the time came to beat the casino. These tricks involved predicting the speed of cars on a dual carriageway and predicting exactly which square on a court that a thrown ball would land on.
The significance of these tricks, and the ball trick, in particular, were that they highlighted Brown’s apparent ability to mentally calculate the trajectory of an objects’ speed and motion in an astonishingly quick fashion. However, would these tricks help at all when it came to the crunch?
The Outcome
As the special reached its gripping peak, Brown thanked the people at home for tuning into his Events specials and passed them over to a live feed inside the casino. The moment of truth was finally here. Would Brown successfully show us how to beat the casino?
The scene cut to footage of Brown inside of the casino armed with a hidden camera up his sleeve, alongside an additional undercover cameraman filming him while he attempted to use his mind power to successfully guess where the ball would land.
Would Brown be able to instantaneously assess the velocity of the wheel, as well as calculate the speed of the ball to calculate exactly where it would land? With an audience of two million people viewing it at home, would Brown rise to the pressure pull off the impossible?
In the end, despite all of Brown’s grandiose theories and explanations, the ball was spun around the wheel several times and landed on the number 30, one number away from the number 8 which Brown initially predicted. After betting £5,000 of a hypnotized man’s money, Brown was forced to admit defeat and promised to pay the unfortunate participant back the money owed.
Critical Reception and Skepticism
The ‘Derren Brown How to Beat the Casino’ stunt garnered national attention and criticism due to its great failure to correctly predict where the roulette ball would land on the wheel, after much posturing. After several exhilarating and compelling TV specials, the ending of this casino special had a somewhat underwhelming effect on the public.
Room for Doubt
The premise of the entire episode also came under much critical scrutiny, with many claiming that the entire premise was too far-fetched, or speculation that the ending was a staged fail.
A lot of armchair physicists had a real problem with the notion that a human brain would ever be able to calculate the destination of a roulette ball on a spinning platform using a superhuman grasp of mathematics, deeming it to be a clearly impossible feat.
Others felt that the premise itself was somewhat ludicrous and outlandish. How would an oblivious stranger fail to notice £5,000 were missing from their account? Regardless, wouldn’t a casino simply refuse to pay such a colossal sum (£175,000) once they learned that it was involved using trickery? Wouldn’t there be legal consequences?
Regardless of how you feel about the trick, a large part of Brown’s modus operandi is to give explanations filled to the brim with misdirection and showmanship to further dazzle his audience. Was this ‘staged fail’ perhaps just a means of making his previous tricks look more impressive? Perhaps we’ll never know!
Frequently Asked Questions
As we draw to a close, we like to feature some of the most commonly asked questions by our readers. If you’d like to read about exciting games that come with a greater chance of winning big, be sure to check out some of our other informative guides to the ever-evolving world of gambling. Best of luck out there!
Did Derren Brown beat roulette?
Alas, no. Despite his best attempts and intensive training, Derren Brown was only one-off from his prediction. After betting £5,000 on the number 8, he, unfortunately, lost everything when the ball landed on the number beside it (number 30). However, you don’t need a magician to master roulette strategies and win big, so be sure to check out our guides.
Did Derren Brown beat the casino?
Despite his best attempts, Brown was unable to beat the casino this time. However, that isn’t to say, he hasn’t done it before. During his 2000 ‘Mind Control’ series, he taught viewers how to count cards at the blackjack table, a move which saw him banned from many casinos.
Does Derren Brown have a degree?
According to the man himself, Brown studied Law and German at Bristol University. As a student, he began to hone his skills on the stage by performing psychological magic in cafes and bars as a means of supporting himself. We'd like to point out that you don't need a degree to make the most of roulette, and you can find the best high-stake roulette games at the click of a button. Gamble responsibly!
