In 1654, Antoine Gombaud, Chevalier de Méré won quite a bit of money by betting that he could get at least one six in four rolls of a die. He reasoned the likelihood of a six was 1/6 on each throw. In four throws then, he believed his chances would be four times as good, for a probability of 4/6 or 2/3. This told de Mere that he would win two wagers for every one he would lose and virtually assure him of heavy profitrs. This was true for a time until he began to lose and eventually sent himself into bankrupty.
Due this his gambling problems, he is partly responsible for the development of probability theory. He sent letters to Blaise Pascal seeking reasons why his theory was not working. Pascal replied explaining his reasoning was incorrect and started to lead the presently-known development of probability.