There is something incredibly exciting about casinos, and it goes to the very heart of human nature. We are instinctively drawn to the prospect of monstrous payouts and all the fanfare that comes along with it. Casinos have been designed in such a way that the allure of winning trumps the fear of losing. The risk/reward ratio may be tilted towards the casino, but most players don’t ever see that. In actuality, it is simply the sum total of the gaming experience that resonates with players.
Over time, many a big winner has been crowned at Vegas casinos, Atlantic City casinos, Macau casinos and beyond. The stories of these winners have inspired generations of players to perfect their craft in skill-based games and games of chance. Winners abound in games of roulette, craps, blackjack, baccarat, slots and virtually every other imaginable game category. Most of the time it is simply good fortune that begets good fortune, but sometimes it is a calculated mix of skill, style and cunning that combine to deliver knockout payouts that are the stuff of legend. When it comes to winning, roulette stands head and shoulders above the rest as a stylish, chic, suave and sophisticated casino game. Big wins in roulette are commonplace, and here are some of the high flyers who made a name for themselves playing this exciting casino table game:
- Many folks know the story of Ashley Revell, since his tale is splashed about for everyone to see. This gentleman from the UK did something remarkable, or plain idiotic, depending on which way you see things. He took his life savings which he called his gambling fund of $135,000 and he flew from the UK to Las Vegas, Nevada to place his entire wager on red. He went with his money to the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, and with cameras present and with the blessing of the casino he placed his entire wager on red and it came up – 7 red. He immediately won a nifty sum of $270,600. Nowadays, Ashley is known for his post win gambling exploits with things like his failed website Poker UTD, and a recruitment company known as iGaming Recruitment which pairs up online gaming operations with the right job applicants.
- Then there is the story of Don Johnson. Now, you may be thinking of the world famous TV series Miami Vice starring Don Johnson, but this is another story entirely. The 888casino blog has given its readers an insider look at Don Johnson who is first and foremost a Blackjack Hall of Famer. Back in 2010, his run of form began and it was to be a spectacular experience. It has gone down in the gambling annals as perhaps the best ever. Johnson used a mix of skill, strategy and chicanery to get the edge over the casino – and it worked. He would pay beautiful girls and other players to throw down money on the table when appropriate, and exit the table when it suited him. Then on one night he would play 3 hands valued at $25,000, and within several hours he had racked up a tidy sum of $1.5 million. And the casino that he was playing at was none other than Caesars. The alcohol flowed and the pretty girls kept showing up, further distracting the casino dealers, pit bosses and the people up in the security rooms from knowing what was going on. What happened next was spectacular by anyone’s admission – he collected a grand total of $4.23 million from the casino and was then asked to leave. Johnson is a classic example of an advantage player. This champion of blackjack often played at up to $100,000 per hand, a feat rarely achieved by players anywhere!
- Sometimes you have got to be smart to win big money at a casino. And this means you may be required to look for anomalies among the casino’s many games. Fortunately, old school roulette wheels presented players with many opportunities to win, because biased wheels were out there. However, it is not easy to spot a biased wheel because they are so few in number. One player – Joseph Jagger – had a fantastic idea when he visited Monte Carlo. He decided to compensate the roulette dealers by providing him with the results of the most regularly-hit numbers. Once he identified wheel bias, he went ahead and started wagering on the following combination of numbers: 7, 8, 9, 17, 18, 19, 22, 28 & 29. By the end of his gambling sessions, he walked away with $375,000.
- Since roulette is so universally loved, it is worthy of a second mention. But this time we’re going back, way back to 1891. This story took place in Monte Carlo, and a gentleman by the name of Charles Wells took centre stage. It is hard to believe, but entirely true, that Mr. Wells won an incredible sum of Fr.1 million in one night of play. Barely a year later, he returned to the casino and scored another impressive win of Fr.1 million. But his is not a story with a happy ending, because good old Charles Wells wasn’t such a savoury character after all. He was repeatedly involved in all manner of misdemeanors, crimes and scams, eventually landing himself a hefty 8-year prison sentence. While Wells did not walk away a winner in the end, because his net take was zero, he had the privilege of winning a massive amount of money in next to no time at all. By the time he passed away in 1922 in Paris, France he was broke.
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