12 of the Biggest Casino Wins in History

Call it chance or recklessness, or a combo of both, however a few people risk large sums of money on the off chance of a huge win. And it does occur, with some paydays so ridiculously huge 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 in their luck. But luck always has a way of surprising everybody, although higher payouts do often come from the larger stakes.
Here are 12 stories about a few of the greatest casino winners of all time.
Big casino winnerArchie Karas — Poker and Craps
Known as the”king of the casinos,” Archie Karas famously turned $50 to $40 million. Karas was employed as a waiter before he learned about swimming hustling, where he amassed serious wealth — to the tune of $1 million. Never scared of losing, he would wager, in a single throw of the dice, what many gamblers might earn in a lifetime. While playing card games in Los Angeles, he won plenty of money and was likewise completely bankrupt on various events.
It was in December 1992 that Archie began what many consider the greatest hot streak in the history of gambling. He had lost $2 million during a Los Angeles high-stakes poker game, so he only had $50 to spare. But it was all he had to start winning big.
Karas started in Binion’s Horseshoe casino at which a buddy seen him $10,000 to play high-stakes Razz, a match where the lowest hand wins. He travelled head-to-head together with 15 of the world’s greatest poker players, including Stu Unger, Chip Reese, Johnny Chan and Puggy Pearson. He won countless poker before winning tens of thousands more at craps, eventually coming into ownership of the Horsehoe’s $5,000 chips — worth $11 million. By the time his encounter finished, he’d won $17 million playing poker and craps at the Horseshoe. Incidentally, he managed to repay the $10,000 loan using 50% attention.
His winning streak lasted for over two decades, until he had gathered $40 million. He was able to turn $7 million into $17 million by besting some of the best poker players in Vegas at seven-card stud. In addition, he earned over a million dollars playing nine-ball pool. Even the occasional losing streak was not enough to keep him from winning far more than he lost.
His winning streak, however, did eventually come to a conclusion on a three-week interval in 1995, where he lost $11 million playing craps. In addition, he lost $17 million at baccarat and a second $2 million at poker. He soon lost the remainder of his $40 million — although he was finally able to borrow $40,000 to win back $1 million.
Archie’s luck may have conducted out in spectacular style, but his incredible winning streak stays the stuff of legend, and it is evidence that anything is possible in gambling.
Elmer Sherwin — Megabucks Slots
Back in 1989, a guy won $4.6 million on a Megabucks slot machine at the Cannery Casino & Hotel in Vegas. His name was Elmer Sherwin, and he beat the odds, not once but twice, on the exact same slot machine. Some people consider certain machines lucky. After Sherwin won his $4.6 million, he continued playing the same machine before he eventually won $2.1 million in 2005 at the age of 92, despite the likelihood of winning being estimated at one in fifty million.
Sherwin stated he had been a lover of Megabucks for a very long time. He thought it would pay off eventually, and that belief sustained him for years until his next triumph supported his instincts. It took 16 years playing with the slot machine to replicate his original feat.
Sherwin’s first win came on the casino’s opening night, leading to speculation about how big wins occur on opening nights. But as everybody attempts to describe what cannot be explained, a mythology arises. People may wonder how to duplicate Sherwin’s feat of superhuman luck, but so far, he stays the big winner — double over.
There are other large winners of Megabucks slots, such as a retired flight attendant that risked $300 in 1998 and won $27.5 million. Such wins could be rare, but they do happen from time to time.
WinnerPeter — Online Slots
The honor of winning the largest online gaming payout is a member of a Norwegian gambler by the name of Peter. It may not be his real name, but this is not what is important. What’s that he turned into an online casino winner by enjoying a progressive jackpot slot known as Arabian Knights — and it was the fruit slot machine which made his surprise triumph potential. His winning streak netted him 11.7 million Euros, which translated to 38 million Norwegian Krone.
Peter played in the Betsson online casino which features the slogan,”Anything could happen.” Peter may have taken that to heart, and it was a fantastic thing he did.
Mike Ashley – Roulette
Mike Ashley, multi-billionaire owner of the Newcastle United Football Club, was already famous when he won 1.6 million pounds in the course of three hours in a roulette table at a London casino. His lucky number was 17, and his way of gambling centered on every potential mixture of that amount. As luck would have it, the roulette ball fell to the 17 slot, converting his first 480,000 lbs to 3 times that amount. Ashley retrieved his winnings and called it a day.
The likelihood of hitting 17 were high. But Ashley has to have known that even a lucky number rarely strikes twice in a row. Then again, stranger things have happened. Although in 2011, Ashley lost one million pounds in the course of two hours. Easy come, easy go.
Sean Connery – Roulette
Sean Connery, aka super spy James Bond, had tremendous fortune betting on the number 17. While at a casino in the Italian Alps, in true Bond fashion, Connery place his money on 17. He missed the first two times, but about the third spin, the ball found 17. Leaving there, the croupier spun the wheel. Surprisingly, the ball found the 17 slot again. What might have been even more surprising, or perhaps insane, was the fact that Connery once again left his winnings in place. Miraculously, the 17 came up a third time in a row, against chances of 50,000 to 1.
In Bond style, Connery coolly collected his winnings of 10,000 lbs, which in the modern market could very well be worth 163,000 pounds.
Curiouslythere was a time when”17″ was among the most commonly played numbers in roulette. Not merely did Connery win big over the number 17 in 1963, but he did exactly the exact same in the 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever.
Although some have won bundles on the number 17, it doesn’t mean that the rest of us will have the same good luck with that number. If we have blessed numbers, the challenge is in figuring out them, and they don’t always come neatly wrapped in fortune cookies.
rouletteCharlie Wells – Roulette
In 1891, Charlie Wells netted $1 million after playing roulette for 11 consecutive hours. He was the man who “broke the bank at Monte Carlo,” inspiring a famed music hall tune by Fred Gilbert. Breaking the bank meant winning more chips than are on the table, and Wells did this not once, but 12 times in the course of the evening.
It ends up Charlie Wells has been a famed confidence trickster. After making a profit from a fraudulent invention known as the”musical jumping rope,” Wells chose to try his luck in Monte Carlo. His game of choice has been roulette, and it was in 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 thousand francs, he came back to the same casino a year later and won another thousand francs over the duration of three days.
In today’s dollars, his one million francs might be worth over $20 million.
Luck wasn’t always so kind to Wells, nevertheless, and after collecting more money from people who had invested in a fuel-saving device he devised for steam ships, he lost everything at gaming. He spent eleven years in prison in England for fraud and five years at a French prison before he passed away in 1922, penniless.
Money comes, and cash moves, and for men like Charlie Wells, it was all part of life’s experience.
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 span of seven years between 1904 and 1911 — that could be a staggering sum in today’s market. He had already become a professional gambler by playing blackjack at the U.S. at prohibited casinos functioned inside saloons. It was said he was a wheel-watcher who could anticipate where the ball might land.
Unlike Wells, however, Darnborough stopped playing while he was ahead, marrying into nobility and keeping his luck.
Don Johnson – Blackjack
Gambler Don Johnson needed a technique in regards to blackjack. He negotiated rules to give himself an advantage, such as splitting a favorable hand into four individual hands. In addition, he picked dealers who stopped drawing cards when a hand equaled 17, increasing Johnson’s chances of having a better hand. Whenever he could, he would double his wager.
Fortunately for Johnson, some casinos provide high-rollers 10 percent paybacks, meaning that he could keep an entire win while still maintaining money after a reduction. By also negotiating the right to bet around $25,000 a hand, he was able to multiply his own winnings much more quickly.
Though Johnson relied on luck as much as anyone else, his use of these principles left less to opportunity and more to strategy, making him $15 million in three casinos at half a year.
Poker championship Antonio Esfandiari — Poker Tournament
Already successful as a poker pro, 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 largest purse in poker history with a total of $18,346,673. Even with 11% of the winnings going to charity, Esfandiari netted a staggering fortune.
The win brought Esfandiari’s entire tournament winnings to $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 putting it on reddish on a roulette wheel in the Plaza Casino in downtown Vegas. He quickly kicked his cash and left.
Though Revell was not a professional gambler, he assumed a huge risk and won large. He now owns iGaming Recruitment that helps staff gambling companies.
Kerry Packer — Blackjack and Baccarat
Billionaire Kerry Packer could manage to place huge 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 around eight hands at once on multiple tables, gambling around $250,000 per hand. Forty minutes after his first wager, he had won $25 million, finishing $20 million ahead of where he began.
Lady Luck favored Packer on quite a few other occasions from 2010 through 2011. A $5.8 million triumph in the Tropicana Casino took under 12 hours. He also won countless over a number of nights in the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.
But, his luck turned two decades later when he lost $28 million at a London casino.
Patricia Demauro – Craps
Using its many betting options, craps provides players an opportunity of winning large or losing big. For Patricia Demauro, fortune was on her side. She’d played once before, so when she came at the craps table at the Borgata in Atlantic City, she could not have been hoping to win 154 consecutive cries at the span of 4 hours and 18 minutes. Although she never disclosed her winnings, she bought in for a mere $10 and could’ve won thousands of dollars with conservative bets. If she had been placing expert bets, winnings may have been in the millions.
It must be said that the likelihood of her accomplishment were in 1.56 trillion, and it occurred in one incredible night.
Lady Luck
There are actually huge casino payouts all the time. By way of example, an anonymous guy waiting to get a basketball game at the Excalibur Casino won $39 million dollars. A woman visiting Vegas from Hawaii played exactly the exact same slot machine for 3 hours less than $100 before winning close to $9 million. Another girl won $680 on a Wheel of Fortune machine in the Palace Station Hotel, later to win $27 million in a Megabucks jackpot. Who says one win has to be sufficient?
A Former owner of the Golden Nugget composed of a video game developer named Mr. Royalty who walked out with near $5 million, just to come back a week later to win an extra $1.5 million.
There is even a story of a homeless guy who cashed a 400 social safety check and turned it into about $1.5 million at the Treasure Island casino. Individuals who observed the guy considered him the rudest and luckiest player they had ever seen. Unfortunately, the guy later lost it all before being kicked out.
Wish to see if fortune is on your side? Come see Dover Downs Hotel & Casino! If you play clever and thoughtfully, you never know what might happen.

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