There have been some very lucky and, let us not forget, clever wins out there to scoop up jackpot wins when playing at casino and online at sites like EasySlots. But there have been some huge winners elsewhere. Let’s take a look.
21 Million in Vegas
Elmer Sherwin at the grand age of 92 scooped $21m in Vegas; however, 16 years earlier he also won $4.6m just as The Mirage opened on the Vegas Strip. Alas two years after his big win he sadly passed away. He’d not only supported his family financially but also helped with Hurricane Katrina. Sherwin beat all the odds, the chances of winning the Megabucks twice is 2 ½ quadrillion!!
Rich get Richer at the Casino
Mike Ashley, a British billionaire with retail interests and ownership of Newcastle United Football Club won £1.5m playing roulette in 2008 at the Fifty Casino in London. Ashley placed a complex bet called a ‘complete’ which involves betting on every single combination to include a particular number, in this case, the number 17, in every kind of pattern and Ashley started with £480,000 and walked away only 15 minutes later nearly a £1m richer. His words to the croupie were ’That’ll do me nicely, thanks very much”.
Charlie Deville Wells, also known as the man who broke the bank of Monaco played for eleven consecutive hours starting with only $4000 and walking away with $1,000,000, a huge amount of money in 1892 only twenty-nine years after the Casino at Monte Carlo was launched. Breaking the bank of Monaco is an expression, used when a gambler wins more money than the reserve has at that particular table.
It’s not all happy ever after though, Archie Karas, a Greek American gambler drove to Las Vegas in 1992 with only $50 in his wallet to then convince a fellow gambler to loan him $10,000 and by the beginning of 1995 had gambled it into a nice $40m sum. Karas is famous for the longest and largest documented winning streak in gambling history simply known as The Run. His run went on for over two and a half years. Alas, his good fortune came to a crashing end in 1995, only three years after he arrived in Las Vegas with his $50, and lost all his money. Allegedly Karas has gambled with more money in casinos than anyone else in history.
Ashley Revell
Ashley Revell, at the time a 32-year-old man from London, decided to sell everything including clothes, his Rolex watch and his BMW and set off to Vegas with only what he was wearing and £80,000 in his wallet. Revell chose roulette and placed his bets on black but at the final minute supporters persuaded him to change his bet to red. He made the right choice and went from £80k to £154k. He has stayed within the gambling industry and owns iGaming Recruitment.
And finally, Cynthia Jay Brennan, a cocktail waitress living a very frugal lifestyle whilst working extra shifts to save for her wedding won almost £35m from a Megabucks slot machine in 2002. Tragically an incident only a few weeks after her win, Jay Brennan was left paralyzed from the chest down and has been told that she will never walk again.
