Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo

Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1947. Before becoming famous for roulette, he worked as a record producer and filmmaker. His analytical mind and technical curiosity led him to wonder whether Joseph Jagger's 19th-century methods could still work in modern casinos with supposedly precision-manufactured wheels.

In the early 1990s, Garcia-Pelayo began systematically recording roulette results at Casino Gran Madrid. Using a computer to analyze thousands of spins, he identified wheels with exploitable biases. His family joined the operation, and together they won over €1.5 million from the Madrid casino before being banned.

Garcia-Pelayo updated Jagger's methods for the computer age. He developed software to analyze spin data and identify statistically significant biases with precision impossible through manual calculation. His family team would spend weeks gathering data before betting, ensuring their edges were mathematically verified.

When Casino Gran Madrid sued Garcia-Pelayo for fraud, he defended himself in court. In 2004, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled in his favor, establishing that using one's intellect to beat casino games was not illegal. This landmark decision protected advantage players throughout Europe.

Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo proved that wheel bias tracking remained viable in the modern era. His story was documented in his book "La Fabulosa Historia de Los Pelayos" and a feature film. His legal victory established important precedent that skill-based advantage play is legitimate, not cheating.