Errol Musk revealed the one casino in the world he would like to take Elon to
ELON Musk’s dad claims he taught the tech tycoon a secret gambling technique which helped him land a big win in Las Vegas.
Retired electromechanical engineer Errol Musk, 77, told The U.S. Sun he would take Elon and his younger brother, Kimbal, betting as teenagers in their native South Africa.
Elon Musk’s dad Errol has claimed that the tech tycoon learned to bet on roulette when he was just 16Credit: Getty
Errol said he would take Elon and his younger brother Kimbal to a casino in PretoriaCredit: AFP
Elon and Errol are seen as teenagers in a picture from the family photo albumCredit: Errol Musk
Tesla CEO Elon, now 52, and entrepreneur and chef Kimbal, 51, would even resort to using disguises to get past the casino’s minimum age policy.
The lessons they learned at the tables later paid off for Elon during his brother’s bachelor party in Sin City over a decade later.
Errol said he started visiting a fashionable casino in Pretoria, South Africa, called Marula Sun with his boys in the 1980s.
He said, “Elon and Kimbal were very young in 1987 – 16 and 14.
“But we went anyway, the boys dressing to look 18 – which was the ridiculously low minimum age. It should be 25.
“Being pretty slim but tall, we thickened Kimbal up with a scarf around his neck and my leather flying jacket.
“When asked if he was 18, he replied, ‘I’m 23!’
“This they never expected and just let him in.
“Once inside all pretense disappeared as Kimbal, in a white long-sleeve school shirt, buttons open at the collar, wagered larger and larger sums in a swashbuckling manner.”
Errol explained that they would use a very basic betting method to start off with – and liven it up when they started racking up wins.
“By simply assuming that red would follow black or vice versa, we wagered quite large amounts for beginners,” he said.
“After particularly good winnings on one occasion, we hit the great exclusive restaurant and dined on langoustines and filet mignon.”
ELON’S CALCULATIONS
Errol said he recalls Elon would sit and calculate that they should be able to make 90,000 South African Rand a month from their trips to the casino (around $4,750 in today’s money).
He said, “Why 90,000 Rand I don’t know. Why not 100,000 Rand?
“Anyway, this went on for a few weeks, so much so that we were not even cashing the chips, but rather bringing them home to pile up.
“Then, on one occasion we experienced 14 reds in a row.
“It was almost as though the casino was rigged and suspicions still linger!
“We lost about 9,000 Rand in one such run.
“We tried to recover later and the same thing happened, about nine in a row. We lost another 5,000 Rand.”
With the losses piling up, Errol said he and his sons stopped going to the casino.
Nothing is random. It depends on what happened before.
Errol Musk
But it also drove him to do a deep dive into roulette techniques, which paid off handsomely.
“I went on to study these outcomes, leading to some quite astonishing discoveries for me, which I have shared with Elon and Kimbal,” he said.
“These days, events have overtaken the need to play roulette or even go to the casino.
“But Elon did use our knowledge to win more than $42,000 in about 2001 in Las Vegas for Kimbal’s bachelor party.”
SECRET TO SUCCESS
Asked about his roulette method, Errol said, “This took me many years. It’s not for casual sharing.
“Nothing is random. It depends on what happened before.
“It’s a subject for publication in Nature or Science magazine.
“It took 32 years. I’d look a fool for making such a claim otherwise, although many metaphysical students would agree with me.”
SpaceX boss Elon seems to have retained respect for gamblers in his later business career.
In 2022 the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon had tasked a 34-year-old former professional poker player with overseeing billions of dollars in charitable donations for him.
The outlet claimed that Musk’s faith in Russian-born Ivan Kurganov had upset his wealth manager, Jared Birchall.
Last month, Elon’s X social media platform – formerly known as Twitter – launched a new partnership to display betting odds to users in the US.
Betting platform BetMGM announced that it would be X’s live odds betting partner.
Errol said that he still dreams of going back to a high-end casino with his son one day.
“I sometimes think of going to Monte Carlo and taking Elon,” he said.
“I have on one occasion played roulette at the tables at the Casino de Monte Carlo.
“Minimum bet was €50 (around $54).
To cover red or black, high or low, odd or even was three times €50.
“I left even, but shaken.”
Errol revealed that Elon went on to use the techniques they learned in Pretoria to win $42k in Las VegasCredit: AFP
The South Africa-born Tesla CEO is seen in a childhood snapCredit: Errol Musk
