 STORIES (WINNERS AND LOSERS)
For your enjoyment, below we’ve compiled a list of some of gambling’s biggest winners and losers throughout the years. Read on to see just how much some people have risked, won, and lost.
Joseph Hobson Jaggers
Known as the “man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo”, Jaggers discovered, during the 1800s, that some of the roulette wheels at the Monte Carlo casino weren’t producing random results but were instead biased towards certain numbers. Taking advantage of this information and his skill with numbers, Jaggers was able to win $70,000 his first day and more than $300,000 over the next few days. As he kept winning and others copied his bets, the casino struck back and changed its wheels; ultimately taking away Jaggers ‘tell’ and sending him home with a nice hefty ‘payout’.
Pete Rose
Perhaps more well-known in the States than elsewhere, Rose was one of the best baseball players to ever play the game and holds all-time records in several the sport’s major categories. After retiring from baseball, Rose agreed to a lifetime-ban from the game after allegations surfaced that he had bet on (for) his own team. To this day, one of baseball’s greatest players is still not in its Hall of Fame and the issue remains extremely contentious (especially considering that in 2004, Rose admitted the allegations were true).
Peter Swan and David Layne
In 1965, footballers Peter Swan and David Layne bet £50 that Ipswich Town would beat Sheffield Wednesday (the team they played for). They did, 2-0. The case went to court. They were found guilty of "conspiracy to defraud", banned from English football for life and sent to jail for 4 months. Once the ban was lifted after 10 years, their best playing days had long passed by.
Chris Moneymaker
Moneymaker, a relative ‘nobody’ before 2003, shocked the poker world and became a household name after winning that year’s World Series of Poker and $2.5million. With an initial entry fee of $40, and only 3 years of prior experience (mostly online), Moneymaker went on to beat some of poker’s most notable figures and take home one of poker’s biggest prizes.
Andrew "Jack" Whittaker Jr
In 2002, Whittaker became the largest single lottery winner of all-time by taking in $314.9million from a Powerball lottery. Choosing to take a single lump-sum payment instead of 30 annual installments, Whittaker walked away with ‘only’ $170million after taxes.
Stuart Wheeler
Multi-millionaire and chairman of the spread betting company, IG Group, won £30,000 in the 1997 General Election by betting on a Tory defeat. He recently donated them £5 million.
Anonymous Slot Winner
The largest slot machine payout is $39,713,982.25, which was won by a 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles after putting in $100 in the Megabucks slot machine at the Excalibur Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas on March 21, 2003. The winner – who has chosen to remain anonymous – was in Las Vegas visiting his family and to watch college basketball's "March Madness" tournament. He said he had put in about $100 when he turned his head away for an instant. When he looked back, he had just won more than $39 million.
Ashley Revell
This 32-year old Brit bet his life savings (~ $135,000) on one single spin of the roulette wheel in March of 2004 and won! Placing everything on ‘red’ at the roulette table in the Plaza Hotel in Vegas, Revel walked away with $270,600.
Joseph Hachem
The most recent World Series of Poker winner (2005), Hachem, from Austrailia, took home $7.5million for beating the largest field ever at this event.
Kerry Packer
This billionaire businessman is reported to have won over $20 million playing baccarat in Vegas over a weekend. One rumor holds that when Packer met a Texas oil man reportedly worth $50million, Packer asked him if he’d “toss for it”.
|
Free Pick of the week
