From the Mill to Monte Carlo: The Working-class Englishman Who Beat the Monaco Casino and Changed Gambling Forever

by Anne Fletcher

This is the story of a man who went from Yorkshire mill worker to Monte Carlo millionaire. Amongst the men ‘who broke the bank at Monte Carlo’, Joseph Hobson Jagger is unique. He is the only one known to have devised an infallible and completely legal system to defeat the odds at roulette and win a fortune. But he was not what might be expected. He wasn’t a gentleman or an aristocrat, he wasn’t a professional gambler, he was a Yorkshire textile worker who had laboured in the Victorian mills of Bradford since childhood.What led a man like this to travel nearly a thousand miles to the exclusive world of the Riviera when most people lived and died within a few miles of where they were born? The trains that took him there were still new and dangerous, he did not speak French and had never left the north of England. His motivation was strong. Joseph, his wife and four children, the youngest of whom was only two, faced a situation so grave that their only escape seemed to be his desperate gamble on the roulette tables of Monte Carlo.Today Jagger’s legacy is felt in casinos worldwide and yet he is virtually unknown. Anne Fletcher is his great-great-great niece and in this true-life detective story she uncovers how he was able to win a fortune, what happened to his millions and why Jagger should now be regarded as the real ‘man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo’.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2018

About the author

Anne Fletcher is an historian and writer. She has a successful career in heritage and has worked at some of the most exciting historic sites in the country including Hampton Court Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Bletchley Park and Tower Bridge. She is the great-great-great niece of Joseph Hobson Jagger, ‘the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo’ and he is the subject of her book From the Mill to Monte Carlo published on 15 July by Amberley Publishing. Her search for his story started with only a photograph, a newspaper article and the lyrics of the famous song.

Reviews

[Andrew MacKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very unlikely Monte Carlo legend
A very personal endeavour from Anne Fletcher as she uncovers the incredible story of Joseph Hobson Jagger, the Victorian textile worker from Bradford who took on seemingly impossible odds... and won!

Hobson is actually Anne's great-great-great uncle and his remarkable story about being possibly the first "man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo" in the 1880s is told here for the first time.

Part detective story, part labour of love, Anne tenaciously seeks to sort fact from fiction and find out whether a story handed down in her family for generations is true. Did one of her ancestors, defy ridiculous odds and win historically big at roulette in the world's premier gambling establishment?

Through painstaking research, travelling many miles, including to Monte Carlo, and talking to a wide range of individuals and organisations, gradually Anne uncovers the truth.

There is a saying that sometimes fact is stranger than fiction, and with Joseph Hobson Jackson, and what he pulled off on the Mediterranean coast nearly 150 years ago, that saying has never been truer. Here is the story of a very unlikely Monte Carlo legend.

[Matt Kuhns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a good book. Also far better than it ought to be given that the central story is little more than vignette length, at least with only surviving facts (and a reasonable amount of speculation) to work with.

Most of the book is in a sense padded with contextual history, and Jagger family genealogy. The result of which manages to feel quite interesting for the length of a book—a tremendous feat of writing.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating story, very well researched and presented into a highly readable and enjoyable book. I thought it was brilliant. I also enjoyed the insight into the textile mills and the workings of the casino.