In the summer of 1966, as England were winning the World Cup, Norman Leigh took a team to the Casino Municipale in Nice with the express intention of systematically winning large sums of money at roulette.

Two weeks later his team was banned from every casino in France - the reason being, not that they had cheated or behaved badly, but simply that they won - methodically and consistently.

This book is a detailed and wry account of the events that led to an event that all expert opinion holds to be impossible - beating the bank at roulette.

Reminiscent of Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House, Thirteen Against the Bank reveals how Leigh assembled his crew of thirteen, instilling in them the discipline, stamina and bankroll required to bring off his coup and then apply it using a system known as the reverse Labouchere betting progression which placed wagers on all six outside, even-money bets at the same time; odd, even, red, black, high and low.