The earliest evidence Quote Investigator ↗ locates comes from the pen of reporter Ted Thackrey, Jr., in 1968 — a “Secrets of a Master Gambler” article in the Toledo Blade and his book Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek, published the same year. In both, the remark is a beat in an anecdote about the gambler Nicholas Andrea Dandolos showing Einstein around Las Vegas. Quote Investigator suspects the whole episode is a tall tale and says it cannot tell whether Dandolos or Thackrey invented it.
“No One Can Win at Roulette Unless He Steals Money from the Table While the Croupier Isn't Looking” not Albert Einstein. The earliest known appearance is Ted Thackrey, Jr., “Secrets of a Master Gambler,” Toledo Blade, 30 October 1968, and his book Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek the same year. Quote Investigator judges the anecdote a tall tale. — Quotle.info · Verbatim: “No one could possibly win at roulette unless he steals money from the table while the croupier isn’t looking.”
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Albert Einstein. Use the credit shown above instead.
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In context
Evoking the world of Ted Thackrey, Jr. — American newspaper reporter, rewrite man and author. Theme: "No One Can Win at Roulette Unless He Steals Money from the Table While the Croupier Isn't Looking". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "No One Can Win at Roulette Unless He Steals Money from the Table While the Croupier Isn't Looking". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Where the line actually comes from
Earliest documented appearance
Secrets of a Master Gambler: Roulette’s A Sucker Game In U.S. (Fourth In A Series)
Publication
Ted Thackrey, Jr., in the Toledo Blade (Toledo, Ohio), 30 October 1968, section Peach, page 1
Also 1968
Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek by Ted Thackrey, Jr. — Rand McNally edition published July 1968; the roulette scene is on page 129 of the Pocket Books printing
Einstein reference works
A close variant appears in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (Princeton University Press) under the heading “Probably Not by Einstein”
Indeed, Albert Einstein once made the flat statement no one could possibly win at roulette "unless he steals money from the table while the croupier isn't looking." But during the little mathematician's visit to Las Vegas the Greek stopped off briefly at a roulette table, bought a handful of chips, plunked them down on red — won — and let them ride for two more spins, on which red also appeared.
Ted Thackrey, Jr.’s fourth “Secrets of a Master Gambler” article, as transcribed by Quote Investigator ↗. Note that Einstein never speaks the line here: Thackrey reports it as something Einstein “once made the flat statement” of, with no source given.
Quote Investigator ↗ traces the saying to Ted Thackrey, Jr., and reproduces both 1968 texts — the Toledo Blade article of 30 October 1968 (section Peach, page 1) and the book Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek. Its conclusion is that “the earliest evidence of the saying was from the pen of Ted Thackrey, Jr.”, that the anecdote is probably a tall tale, and that QI cannot tell whether Dandolos or Thackrey created it.
We checked the Wikiquote page for Albert Einstein ↗ directly, reading the full source wikitext rather than a summary. It carries no roulette quotation in any section — sourced, attributed, disputed or misattributed. There is no competing attestation to weigh against Thackrey’s.
Quote Investigator records that The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (Princeton University Press) places a variant — “The only way to make money at a roulette wheel is to steal it when the dealer isn’t looking” — in its “Probably Not by Einstein” section, where the editor notes she was not able to confirm the story.
On the reliability of the one witness: Quote Investigator quotes a 2001 Los Angeles Magazine ↗ piece on Thackrey’s death in which a former Los Angeles Times colleague says, “I liked Thackrey. But he made stuff up all the time.” That is a judgement about the man, not proof about this sentence — but it is the only pen the sentence has.
The wording in circulation originates in Ted Thackrey, Jr.’s 1968 newspaper article and book, both first published well after 1930, so the text is treated as in copyright. Quote it as Thackrey’s, with attribution — not as Einstein’s.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Often misattributed
A gambling anecdote that hardened into an Einstein epigram in under two decades.
✕
Commonly credited toAlbert Einstein Refuted
No source in Einstein’s own writing, speech or correspondence has been produced. Quote Investigator found none ↗, and The Ultimate Quotable Einstein files a variant under “Probably Not by Einstein”.
✕
Whose sentence this isTed Thackrey, Jr. Author of the earliest known text
Thackrey wrote the words down in 1968, presenting them as Einstein’s. Quote Investigator ↗ concludes the earliest evidence of the saying is his — while noting it cannot establish whether he or his subject invented the story.
~
The other man in the storyNicholas Andrea Dandolos (“Nick the Greek”) Context
The gambler at the centre of Thackrey’s series, who died in 1966 — two years before the anecdote first appeared in print, and so never in a position to confirm or deny it.
✓The line is best described as a 1968 newspaper flourish. Quote Investigator ↗ suspects the roulette anecdote and quotation are part of a tall tale built around a larger-than-life gambler.
Context
Why it stuck
The story works because it flatters everyone in it. The most famous mind of the century looks at a roulette wheel, pronounces it unbeatable by mathematics, and is then beaten by a gambler on three straight spins of red. It is a perfect anecdote, and perfect anecdotes are the ones most worth checking.
It hardened into a quotation the way these usually do — by being lifted out of its story. When Science Digest ran the line as a standalone epigraph in April 1985, above an article about physics graduate students who really were trying to beat roulette with hidden computers, the surrounding tall tale had fallen away and only the sentence and the famous name were left.
Nick the Greek died in 1966. The story about him and Einstein first appeared in print in 1968.
Read the full story
Thackrey’s book version is considerably taller than the newspaper one. In it, Dandolos meets Einstein at the airport and introduces him around the casinos as “Little Al from Princeton — controls a lot of the action around Jersey”, on the grounds that his gambling friends would not otherwise know who Einstein was. After the three winning spins, Einstein asks to have his mouth washed out with soap.
Those details are presented as fact and are the reason Quote Investigator treats the whole episode as a tall tale rather than a garbled memory of something real.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1918–2001 · American newspaper reporter, rewrite man and author
Ted Thackrey, Jr. reported for The Wichita Eagle and the Los Angeles Examiner before joining the Los Angeles Times in 1968, where he became a rewrite man. He was the son of the newspaper editor Theodore Olin Thackrey. Alongside the journalism he wrote books, among them Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek — the 1968 volume that carries the earliest known version of this line. He died in July 2001; a Los Angeles Magazine notice that year quoted a former Times colleague saying he “made stuff up all the time”.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
The primary source (Chicago)
Ted Thackrey, Jr., "Secrets of a Master Gambler: Roulette’s A Sucker Game In U.S. (Fourth In A Series)," Toledo Blade (Toledo, OH), October 30, 1968, sec. Peach, 1. See also Ted Thackrey, Jr., Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek (New York: Pocket Books), 129; Rand McNally edition published July 1968.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘No One Can Win at Roulette Unless He Steals Money from the Table While the Croupier Isn’t Looking’?” Last verified 30 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/no-one-can-win-at-roulette-unless-he-steals-money-from-the/