Call it luck or recklessness, or a combination of both, however some people risk huge sums of money on the off chance of a huge win. And it does occur, with some paydays so ridiculously enormous they are life altering, turning ordinary people into millionaires in a matter of hours.
Some of the luckiest casino wins of all time have occurred to ordinary folks, a lot of them down on their luck. But luck always has a way of surprising everybody, although higher payouts do tend to come in the larger stakes.
Here are 12 stories about a few of the biggest casino champions of all time.
Big casino winnerArchie Karas — Poker and Craps
Called the»king of the casinos,» Archie Karas famously turned $50 to $40 million. Karas worked as a waiter until he learned about swimming hustling, where he amassed serious riches — to the tune of $1 million. Never scared of losing, he’d wager, in one throw of the dice, exactly what many gamblers may earn in a life. While playing high-stakes card matches in Los Angeles, he won plenty of money and was also completely broke on numerous occasions.
It was in December 1992 that Archie started what many consider the greatest hot series at the history of gaming. He had lost $2 million during an Los Angeles high-stakes poker match, so he only had $50 to spare. But it was he needed to start winning big.
Karas began in Binion’s Horseshoe casino where a friend spotted him $10,000 to play with Razz, a match where the lowest hand wins. He went head-to-head together with 15 of the world’s greatest poker players, such as Stu Unger, Chip Reese, Johnny Chan and Puggy Pearson. He won countless poker before winning millions more at craps, finally coming into ownership of their Horsehoe’s $5,000 chips — worth $11 million. By the time his run ended, he had won $17 million playing poker and craps at the Horseshoe. Incidentally, he was able to repay the $10,000 loan using 50% interest.
His winning streak lasted for over two decades, until he’d gathered $40 million. He managed to turn $17 million into $17 million by besting some of the very best poker players at Vegas at seven-card stud. He also earned more than a million dollars playing nine-ball pool. The occasional losing streak wasn’t sufficient to keep him from winning far more than he lost.
His winning streak, but did eventually come to a conclusion over a three-week interval in 1995, at which he dropped $11 million playing matches. He also dropped $17 million in baccarat and a second $2 million at poker. He soon lost the rest of the $40 million — although he was finally able to borrow $40,000 to win back $1 million.
Archie’s luck could have conducted out in spectacular style, but his incredible winning streak stays the stuff of legend, and it’s evidence that anything is possible in gambling.
Elmer Sherwin — Megabucks Slots
Back in 1989, a man won $4.6 million on a Megabucks slot machine in the Cannery Casino & Hotel in Vegas. His name was Elmer Sherwin, and he beat the odds, not once but twice, on precisely the exact same slot machine. Some people consider certain machines lucky. After Sherwin won his $4.6 million, he continued playing the same machine until he eventually won $2.1 million in 2005 at age 92, regardless of the likelihood of winning being estimated at one in fifty million.
Sherwin said he had been a lover of Megabucks for a long moment. He thought it would pay off eventually, which belief lasted him for years until his second win confirmed his instincts. It took 16 years enjoying the slot machine to duplicate his first accomplishment.
Sherwin’s first triumph came on the casino’s opening night, resulting in speculation about how big wins happen on opening nights. But as everyone attempts to describe what cannot be explained, a mythology appears. People may wonder how to duplicate Sherwin’s feat of superhuman luck, but so far, he stays the major winner — twice over.
There are several other large winners of Megabucks slots, such as a retired flight attendant who risked $300 in 1998 and won $27.5 million. Such wins may be rare, but they do occur from time to time.
Slots winnerPeter — Online Slots
The honour of winning the largest online gaming payout is a member of a Norwegian gambler by the name of Peter. It might not be his real name, but that is not what’s important. What matters is that he turned into an internet casino winner by playing with a progressive jackpot slot called Arabian Knights — and it was the fruit slot machine which made his surprise win possible. His winning series netted him 11.7 million Euros, which translated to 38 million Norwegian Krone.
Peter played at the Betsson online casino that features the slogan,»Anything can happen.» Peter may have taken that to heart, and it was a good thing that he did.
Mike Ashley – Roulette
Mike Ashley, multi-billionaire owner of the Newcastle United Football Club, was already famous when he gained 1.6 million pounds in the course of three hours at a roulette table in a London casino. His lucky number was 17, and his way of betting focused on each possible combination of that amount. As fortune would have it, the roulette ball dropped to the 17 slot, converting his initial 480,000 lbs to three times that sum. Ashley recovered his winnings and called it a day.
The odds of hitting 17 were high. But Ashley has to have known that even a fortunate number rarely strikes twice in a row. Then again, stranger things have happened. Although in 2011, Ashley dropped a million pounds in the course of 2 hours. Easy come, easy go.
Sean Connery – Roulette
Sean Connery, aka super spy James Bond, had enormous fortune betting on the number 17. While at a casino in the Italian Alps, in true Bond style, Connery put his money on 17. He missed the first two times, but about the third spin, the ball found 17. Leaving his winnings there, the croupier spun the wheel. Surprisingly, the ball found that the 17 slot . What might have been even more surprising, or perhaps insane, was the simple fact that Connery once again left his winnings set up. Miraculously, the 17 came up a third time in a row, against odds of 50,000 to 1.
In Bond style, Connery coolly collected his winnings of 10,000 pounds, which in today’s marketplace might well be worth 163,000 pounds.
Curiouslythere was a time when»17″ was among the most commonly played amounts in roulette. Not merely did Connery win big over the number 17 in 1963, but he did exactly the same from the 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever.
Even though some have won bundles on the number 17, it does not mean the rest of us will have the same good fortune with this number. If we’ve got lucky numbers, the challenge is in figuring them out, and they do not always come neatly wrapped in fortune cookies.
rouletteCharlie Wells – Roulette
Back in 1891, Charlie Wells netted $1 million after enjoying roulette for 11 consecutive hours. He was the guy who «broke the bank at Monte Carlo,» inspiring a famed music hall song by Fred Gilbert. Breaking the lender supposed winning more chips than are on the table, and Wells did that not once, but 12 times in the course of the evening.
It ends up Charlie Wells was a famed confidence trickster. After creating a gain from a fraudulent creation known as the»musical jumping rope,» Wells decided to test his luck at Monte Carlo. His game of choice was roulette, also it was at the roulette table which Wells took 4,000 francs in processors and turned them into a thousand francs, winning 23 out of 30 consecutive spins at one point. After winning a million francs, he came back to the same casino a year later and won a second million francs over the course of three days.
In today’s dollars, his one million francs could be worth over $20 million.
Luck wasn’t always so kind to Wells, nevertheless, and after collecting more income from those who had spent in a fuel-saving apparatus he devised for steam boats, he lost everything at gaming. He spent eleven years in prison in England for fraud and five years at a French prison until he passed away in 1922, penniless.
Money comes, and cash goes, and for guys like Charlie Wells, it was all part of life’s adventure.
William Darnborough – Roulette
William Darnborough hailed from Illinois when he played with blackjack in a Monte Carlo casino, winning half a million dollars over the course of seven years between 1904 and 1911 — which could be a staggering amount in today’s market. He had already become a professional gambler by playing roulette in the U.S. at illegal casinos functioned inside saloons. It was said he was a wheel-watcher who could anticipate where the ball might land.
Unlike Wells, however, Darnborough quit playing while he was forward, marrying into nobility and keeping his fortune.
Don Johnson – Blackjack
Gambler Don Johnson had a technique when it came to blackjack. He negotiated rules to give himself an edge, like splitting a favorable hand into four separate hands. In addition, he picked dealers who stopped drawing cards when a hands equaled 17, increasing Johnson’s odds of having a better hand. Whenever he could, he would double his wager.
Fortunately for Johnson, a few casinos provide high-rollers 10 percent paybacks, meaning he could keep an entire win while still keeping money after a loss. By also negotiating the right to wager up to $25,000 per hand, he was able to multiply his own winnings a lot more quickly.
Although Johnson relied on luck as much as anybody else, his usage of the rules left less to opportunity and more to strategy, earning him $15 million from three casinos at half a year.
Poker tournament Antonio Esfandiari — Poker Tournament
Already effective as a poker professional, Antonio Esfandiari risked a lot of cash in a 2012 WSOP charity poker event — $1 million to be precise. In so doing, he took home the biggest purse in poker history with a total of $18,346,673. Even with 11 percent of the winnings going to charity, Esfandiari netted a staggering fortune.
The win brought Esfandiari’s entire championship winnings into $23,245,838, which is the most any player won in poker tournament history.
Ashley Revell — Roulette
Around 2003, Ashley Revell sold his home and belongings in London and left for Vegas with approximately $135,000. Revell risked it all by placing it on reddish on a roulette wheel at the Plaza Casino in downtown Vegas. He immediately doubled his money and left.
Although Revell was not a gambler, he also assumed an enormous risk and won large. He now owns iGaming Recruitment that helps staff gambling businesses.
Kerry Packer — Blackjack and Baccarat
Billionaire Kerry Packer could afford to place large bets. During a 1995 trip to the MGM Grand in Vegas, he won between $20 and $40 million in blackjack and baccarat. Allegedly, Packer played up to eight hands at once on multiple tables, gambling up to $250,000 a hand. Forty minutes after his initial bet, he had won $25 million, finishing $20 million ahead of where he began.
Lady Luck favorite Packer on a number of different occasions from 2010 through 2011. A $5.8 million triumph in the Tropicana Casino took under 12 hours. In addition, he won millions over a number of nights at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.
But, his luck turned two decades later when he lost $28 million in a London casino.
Patricia Demauro – Craps
Using its many gambling options, craps provides players a chance of winning large or losing large. For Patricia Demauro, luck was on her side. She’d played craps once before, so when she arrived at the craps table at the Borgata in Atlantic City, she couldn’t have been expecting to win 154 consecutive cries at the span of 4 hours and 18 minutes. Though she never revealed her winnings, she purchased in for a mere $10 and could have won thousands of dollars with traditional stakes. If she had been placing expert bets, winnings may have been in the millions.
It must be said that the likelihood of her achievement were in 1.56 trillion, and yet it happened in a incredible night.
Lady Luck
There are in fact enormous casino payouts all the time. By way of example, an anonymous man waiting to get a basketball game in the Excalibur Casino won $39 million bucks. A woman visiting Vegas from Hawaii played the exact same slot machine for 3 hours less than $100 before winning near $9 million. Another woman won $680 on a Wheel of Fortune machine in the Palace Station Hotel, later to acquire $27 million at a Megabucks jackpot. Who says you win has to be enough?
A Former owner of the Golden Nugget composed of a video game developer named Mr. Royalty who walked with close to $5 million, only to come back a week later to acquire an extra $1.5 million.
There’s even a story of a homeless guy who cashed a $400 social security check and flipped it into about $1.5 million at the Treasure Island casino. Individuals who observed the man considered him the rudest and luckiest player they had ever seen. Sad to say, the man later lost it all before being kicked out.
Wish to see if luck is on your side? Come visit Dover Downs Hotel & Casino! If you play clever and thoughtfully, you can’t know what might happen.

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