12 of the Biggest Casino Wins in History

Call it chance or recklessness, or even a combination of both, however a few people risk huge amounts of money on the off prospect of a huge win. And it does occur, with some paydays so ridiculously enormous they’re life changing, 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 everyone, although higher payouts do tend to come from the bigger bets.
Here are 12 stories about some of the greatest casino champions of all time.
Big casino winnerArchie Karas — Poker and Craps
Known as the»king of the casinos,» Archie Karas famously turned $50 into $40 million. Karas was employed as a waiter before he learned about swimming hustling, where he gathered serious wealth — to the tune of about $ 1 million. Never scared of losing, he would wager, in a single throw of the dice, what many gamblers might earn in a life. While playing card matches in Los Angeles, he won lots of money and was likewise completely broke on numerous occasions.
It was in December 1992 that Archie began what many believe the best hot streak at the history of gambling. He had just lost $2 million during an Los Angeles high-stakes poker game, so he only had $50 to spare. But it was all he needed to begin winning big.
Karas started in Binion’s Horseshoe casino where a buddy spotted him $10,000 to play high-stakes Razz, a game where the lowest hand wins. He travelled 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 tens of thousands more at craps, finally coming into possession of the Horsehoe’s $5,000 chips — worth $11 million. By the time his run finished, he’d won $17 million playing poker and craps at the Horseshoe. Incidentally, he managed to settle the $10,000 loan with 50% interest.
His winning streak lasted for over two decades, until he’d amassed $40 million. He managed to turn $17 million into $17 million by besting some of the very best poker players in Vegas at seven-card stud. He also earned more than a million dollars playing nine-ball pool. Even the occasional losing streak wasn’t enough to prevent him from winning far more than he lost.
His winning streak, but did finally come to an end on a three-week period in 1995, at which he lost $11 million playing matches. In addition, he dropped $17 million at baccarat and a second $2 million . He lost the remainder of his $40 million — even though he was eventually able to borrow $40,000 to win back $1 million.
Archie’s luck may have ran out in spectacular fashion, but his phenomenal winning streak stays the stuff of legend, and it is evidence that anything is possible in gambling.
Elmer Sherwin — Megabucks Slots
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 today consider certain machines blessed. After Sherwin won his $4.6 million, he continued playing with the same machine until he eventually won $2.1 million in 2005 at age 92, regardless of the likelihood of winning being projected at one in fifty million.
Sherwin said he was a lover of Megabucks for a very long time. He thought it would pay off eventually, which belief sustained him for years until his second win confirmed his instincts. It took 16 years enjoying with the slot machine to replicate his first accomplishment.
Sherwin’s first triumph came on the casino’s opening night, resulting in speculation about how big wins occur on opening nights. But as everyone attempts to explain what cannot be clarified, a mythology arises. People may wonder how to replicate Sherwin’s feat of superhuman luck, but so far, he remains the big winner — double over.
There are other large winners of Megabucks slots, including a retired flight attendant who risked $300 in 1998 and won $27.5 million. Such wins could be rare, but they do occur from time to time.
Slots winnerPeter — Online Slots
The honor of winning the biggest online gaming payout belongs to a Norwegian gambler by the name of Peter. It might not be his actual name, but that isn’t what is important. What’s that he became an online casino winner by enjoying a progressive jackpot slot called Arabian Knights — also it was the fruit slot machine which made his surprise win 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 proprietor of the Newcastle United Football Club, was already famous when he won 1.6 million pounds in the span of 3 hours at a roulette table at a London casino. His lucky number was 17, and his way of betting focused on each potential mixture of that number. As luck would have it, the roulette ball fell into the 17 slot, turning his initial 480,000 lbs to 3 times that sum. Ashley retrieved his winnings and called it a day.
The likelihood of hitting 17 were large. But Ashley must have known that even a lucky number rarely strikes twice in a row. Then again, stranger things have happened. Although in 2011, Ashley lost a million pounds in the span of 2 hours. Easy come, easy go.
Sean Connery – Roulette
Sean Connery, aka super spy James Bond, had enormous luck betting on the number 17. While in a casino at the Italian Alps, in true Bond style, Connery place his money 17. He missed the first two times, but on the next spin, the ball found 17. Leaving there, the croupier spun the wheel. Astonishingly, the ball found that the 17 slot . What may have been more surprising, or maybe insane, was the simple fact that Connery once more left his winnings set up. Miraculously, the 17 came up a third time in a row, against chances of 50,000 to 1.
In Bond fashion, Connery coolly collected his winnings of 10,000 pounds, which in the modern market might well be worth 163,000 lbs.
Curiously, there was a time when»17″ was among the most commonly played amounts in roulette. Not only did Connery win big over the number 17 in 1963, but he did the same in the 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever.
Although some have won bundles on the number 17, it does not mean that the rest of us will have the exact same good luck with that number. If we have lucky numbers, the challenge is in figuring out them, and they do not always arrive neatly wrapped in fortune cookies.
rouletteCharlie Wells – Roulette
Back in 1891, Charlie Wells netted $1 million following playing roulette for 11 consecutive hours. He was the man who «broke the bank at Monte Carlo,» inspiring a famous music hall song by Fred Gilbert. Breaking the lender supposed winning more processors than are on the table, and Wells did this not once, but 12 times in the course of the night.
It turns out Charlie Wells has been a famed confidence trickster. After creating a profit from a fraudulent invention known as the»musical jumping rope,» Wells chose to try his fortune at Monte Carlo. His game of choice has been roulette, also it was at the roulette table that Wells took 4,000 francs in processors and turned them into a thousand francs, winning 23 out of 30 successive spins at one point. After winning a thousand francs, he came back to the identical casino a year later and won another million francs over the duration of 3 days.
In today’s dollars, his one million francs could be worth over $20 million.
Luck was not always so kind to Wells, nevertheless, and after collecting more income from those who’d spent in a fuel-saving apparatus he devised for steam ships, he dropped everything at gambling. He spent twenty five years in prison in England for fraud and five years in a French prison before he passed away in 1922, penniless.
Money comes, and cash moves, and for guys like Charlie Wells, it was all a 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 span of seven years between 1904 and 1911 — which might be a staggering amount in the present market. He had already become an expert gambler by playing roulette in the U.S. at illegal casinos operated inside saloons. It was said he had been a wheel-watcher who might anticipate where the ball could land.
Unlike Wells, however, Darnborough stopped playing while he was ahead, marrying into nobility and keeping his luck.
Don Johnson – Blackjack
Gambler Don Johnson had a technique when it came to blackjack. He negotiated rules to give himself an advantage, such as dividing a positive hand into four individual hands. He also picked dealers who ceased drawing cards when a hands equaled 17, increasing Johnson’s chances of getting a better hand. Whenever he could, he would double his wager.
Fortunately for Johnson, a few casinos offer high-rollers 10 percent paybacks, meaning he can 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 managed to multiply his own winnings much more quickly.
Although Johnson relied on chance as far as anyone else, his usage of the principles left to chance and more to plan, earning him $15 million in three casinos in half a year.
Poker tournament Antonio Esfandiari — Poker Tournament
Already successful as a poker professional, Antonio Esfandiari risked a great deal of cash in a 2012 WSOP charity poker event — $1 million to be exact. 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 championship winnings to $23,245,838, that’s the most any player ever 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 all of it by placing it on red on a roulette wheel at the Plaza Casino in downtown Vegas. He quickly kicked his cash and left.
Although Revell wasn’t a gambler, he also assumed a huge risk and won large. He owns iGaming Recruitment which helps staff gambling companies.
Kerry Packer — Blackjack and Baccarat
Billionaire Kerry Packer could manage 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 simultaneously on multiple tables, betting around $250,000 per hand. 25 minutes following his initial wager, he had won $25 million, completing $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 millions over a variety of nights at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.
However, his luck turned a couple of years later when he dropped $28 million in a London casino.
Patricia Demauro – Craps
Using its many betting options, craps gives players an opportunity of winning big 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 could not have been hoping to win 154 consecutive cries in the span of 4 hours and 18 minutes. Although she never revealed her winnings, she bought to get a mere $10 and could have won thousands of dollars with conservative bets. If she were putting professional stakes, winnings may have been in the millions.
It must be said that the odds of her achievement were 1 in 1.56 trillion, and yet it occurred in a unbelievable night.
Lady Luck
There are in fact huge casino payouts all the time. For instance, an anonymous guy waiting to get a basketball game in the Excalibur Casino won $39 million dollars. A woman seeing Vegas from Hawaii played the exact same slot machine for three hours less than $100 before winning close to $9 million. Another woman won $680 on a Wheel of Fortune machine at the Palace Station Hotel, later to win $27 million in a Megabucks jackpot. Who says one win has to be enough?
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 return a week later to acquire an extra $1.5 million.
There’s even a story of a homeless guy who cashed a $400 social safety check and flipped it into roughly $1.5 million in the Treasure Island casino. Individuals who observed the guy 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 never know what might happen.

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