10 stories about the biggest gambling winnings

In 2016, $80 billion was spent on lottery tickets in the United States alone. For comparison, in the same year, about $ 30 billion was spent on video games in the United States. This demonstrates very well how much people hold on to the dream, although the chances of a big win in video games and lotteries are not so far apart.

So what about stories about the biggest payouts in gambling? What is the largest amount that horses have ever brought to the audience without even realizing why they are running in a circle? How can you hit the jackpot with one roll of the dice? And, more importantly, how does winning change a player's life? You will find that the results of gambling are often as amazing as the winnings themselves.

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10. The biggest lottery win

10 stories about the biggest winnings in gambling Life Stories, Gambling, Unbelievable, Winning, People, Videos, Long Post

Previously, it was believed that Marva and Mae Acosta from Chino Hills, California, were lucky enough to get the biggest lottery prize when they won a staggering $1.58 billion on May 7, 2016. Then it turned out that Acosta had to share his winnings with two more winners, and they had "only" $528 million left. It's great that Acosta spent most of the winnings on charity. Unfortunately, there was also a flip side of the coin – their names were used by scammers, sending emails with promises to transfer millions of dollars of their lottery winnings to anyone who would provide them with their personal information. The other lucky ones, the Robinsons from Manford, Tennessee, and a couple from Florida, did not face such problems and did not plan any particularly significant changes in their lives, except for the retirement of one of the winners.

The person who singlehandedly received the biggest prize was an anonymous person who wished to be simply called a "South Carolinian". This man won $1.56 billion. All that is known about him is that when he went to buy a lottery ticket, he let another person go ahead in the queue, allowing him to buy a ticket earlier. Rarely does such a small display of politeness pay off so much.

9. The biggest win in the dice game

10 stories about the biggest winnings in gambling Life Stories, Gambling, Unbelievable, Winning, People, Videos, Long Post

The largest amount ever won in a single roll of the dice went to William Lee Bergstrom in 1980. The circumstances of this victory are as unethical as they are spectacular: a landlord from Austin, Texas, took out a loan of $777,000 to invest in gold, which became a losing strategy for him, since he had already lost a lot of money in this market. So he put the whole amount on one roll of the dice, got a big win and paid the bank.

However, in 1985, he was going through a breakup with his beloved John. At Horseshoe Casino, in order to somehow distract himself from the loss, he bet one million dollars that the dice thrower would lose, and it ended badly for him when the thrower won. The next morning, William committed suicide. Gambling was such a significant part of his life that he left a note according to which the urn with his ashes should describe him as a man who bet one million dollars at Horseshoe Casino.

8. The longest winning streak

Speaking of people who won at dice in a short period of time, it is necessary to mention Archie Karase, a Greek immigrant with $50 in his pocket and $10,000 in debt, who worked as a waiter in December 1992. From that moment until May 1995, Karas lost only one game out of hundreds in which he took part. This series became known as "The Run", and it brought him a profit of about $46 million. Gambling, which helped him amass a fortune, included poker, billiards and blackjack.

However, fate turned its back on him. Within two years, he lost every penny. But this is not surprising, considering that before the start of "The Run" he had already won and lost $ 2 million. In 2013, the rights to the story of his impressive rise and fall were acquired for the film by the production company "First Born Films", but to date the film has not been shot. In addition to all the failures, he was accused of several crimes, including burglary and blackjack fraud, in which he was caught at least four times, starting in 1988. In 2015, Archie Karas became the 33rd person added to the "List of Excluded Persons", which means criminal prosecution in case of visiting any Las Vegas casino.

7. The biggest win at the races

10 stories about the biggest winnings in gambling Life Stories, Gambling, Unbelievable, Winning, People, Videos, Long Post

Let's change the focus of the list from crimes and suicides to a useful story, at least by gambling standards. Conor Murphy was a 29-year-old stable boy from Ireland when, in 2012, he made an online bet of 50 pounds (about $75), known as "battery." In fact, this meant that he had placed a bet on five races at the same time and could get a particularly large prize if he won all five. Murphy admitted that he did not conduct research and did not have any insider information. He chose five horses, in fact, at random. As a result, his intuition brought him $ 1.5 million.

Murphy's reaction to sudden wealth was that he moved to America and started training racehorses. By 2014, he had a stable in Goshen, Kentucky, with champion horses, including one for which he paid a six-figure sum. Murphy's horses have varying success, but some seasons are really good. In particular, in 2018, his horses came first three times. It's always good to have a plan in case you win millions of dollars, which is unlikely.

6. The biggest win at the Super Bowl

In May 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled that the PAPSA laws on sports betting restrictions will be repealed, which means that previously illegal sports betting in the amount of $145.5 billion can be accepted on an equal basis with others. One of the main beneficiaries of this decision are the people who bet on the Super Bowl. These bets are so common that about $6 billion was invested in the 2019 Super Bowl.

The person who won the largest recorded amount is known as "Bettor X". USA Today reported that at the 2018 Super Bowl, he placed a bet in favor of the Philadelphia Eagles against the New England Patriots and won a total of $ 10 million. A year later, Bettor X put $3.8 million in MGM Grand, William Hill and South Point, this time in favor of the Rams against the Patriots and lost. It is quite possible that "Bettor X" is waiting for the future of Archie Karas.

5. The biggest roulette win

It is believed that roulette was invented by Blaise Pascal in 1655. It is the basis of casino gambling and has some respectability. On the other hand, a particularly addictive form of electronic roulette was banned in the UK on Halloween in 2017. This was the result of an event that occurred on January 5, 2017, when Pedro Grenden Bartell from Punta del Este, Uruguay, won the largest prize in roulette for one spin.

Bartel bet the equivalent of $35,000 on Red 32 and won $3,500,000, which was a huge payout because he hedged his bets a bit by placing chips elsewhere on the roulette board. Bartel is not from the poor: his uncle is the founder of a billion–dollar company producing sandals, Alexander Bartel. Pedro Bartel is the president of the third largest sandal manufacturing company in Latin America, Vulcabras-Azaleia. The point of this story is that sometimes people who are luckier than others don't need it at all.

4. The biggest win in the coin toss

It is logical to assume that when it comes to the history of winning a fortune in a coin toss, the name of the winner, not the loser, will become known in history. But Dan Bilzerian has long been a well-known figure capable of sidelining the one who won a giant easy bet from him. As a successful Instagram personality and gambler, he has amassed a personal fortune worth more than $150 million and starred in films such as Survivor and Guys with Guns. One day at the poker table, he agreed to place a $6 million bet on a quarter roll, and he had to give up his chips.

Surprisingly, Bilzerian said that losing $6 million after tossing a coin was easier for him than most gambling losses, although the maximum amount he claimed to have lost in a card game was about $3.4 million. After all, it was an extremely fast process, so he didn't experience the lingering sense of uncertainty that accompanies many high-stakes poker games. There is a feeling that this makes sense. But we also note that Bilzerian did not become a professional coin tossing player to get rid of stress.

3. The biggest win online

10 stories about the biggest winnings in gambling Life Stories, Gambling, Unbelievable, Winning, People, Videos, Long Post

It's very tempting to try to win a fortune with online gambling. Who wants to go to the casino and play all the slot machines? Frankly speaking, who wants other people to look at you when you leave, having lost everything? To date, no one has received as much money from such a reasonable approach to gambling as someone known as "Christina".