Derren Brown - How (not) to Beat a (fake) Casino

I've just finished watching a recorded "Derren Brown - How to Beat a Casino". Yet again, I've been thoroughly disappointed :( It's another episode where he's moved away from the mind tricks for which he became famous, and turned to magic and camera tricks.

For those who didn't watch it, Derren "stole" £5,000 from a viewer and aimed to enter a casino and bet the whole lot on a roulette wheel, with odds of 1 in 37, to win £180,000. By calculating the speed of the wheel and ball, he was going to work out where the ball would land in time to place a bet. He had a hidden camera up his sleeve so we could watch, and the whole thing went out "live". Unfortunately Derren guessed the wrong number, and lost the £5,000. He promised he'd give the £5,000 back to the viewer.

The whole thing was a scam. It was not broadcast live.

Early on in the show, Derren pointed out people have electronic devices to calculate the speeds and guess where the ball will land. Unfortunately they're easily detected, so he would have to do it in his head.

Hold on a minute - he had a camera up his sleeve!

It's quite clear that if you can't get away with a small electronic device, you won't get away with a camera! So what really happened? Well, I don't think it's hard to figure out...

The casino was fake.

There's no way he'd get in with a camera, and the shots were so bad there's no way we would be able to tell whether it's a real casino. The film was not live. Derren pre-recorded the bet, taking multiple shots until the ball landed on the number next to his prediction. They just cut the shots in to make it look live, but it was actually all pre-recorded. He got the wrong number on purpose. If he'd got it right, he'd have to pay out £180,000 to the viewer whose money he used. By getting "the next one" he simply gives the £5,000 back and everyone thinks he's genius because he was "only one number out".

Another promising show, ruined by camera and technology trickery rather than the clever mind tricks we all like to see from Derren Brown.

Related Reading

• Tricks of the Mind by Derren Brown