Black hit 26 times in a row at a casino, and gamblers lost fortunes betting it had to end
On August 18, 1913, at a roulette table in Monte Carlo, the ball landed on black 26 consecutive times. As the streak grew, gamblers poured money onto red, certain the wheel was somehow "due" for a correction, and lost heavily as black kept coming up again and again. What actually governed each spin, and why did so many experienced gamblers get the odds so wrong?
Reveal the answer
Each spin of a fair roulette wheel is statistically independent of every spin before it, so the odds of red versus black reset completely each time no matter how long a streak has run; the wheel has no memory and owes no "correction." The incident became the textbook illustration of the gambler's fallacy, the mistaken belief that independent random events must balance out in the short run.
— Historical account, Gambler's fallacy — Monte Carlo Casino, August 18, 1913