Popular myths surrounding gambling include “it’s the same people winning all the time”. This one makes a frequent appearance in online bingo and when it comes to casinos, we often hear “the system is rigged” so nobody wins. But we’re about to discover the biggest casino winners of all-time, which will put those rumours swiftly to bed.
Australian billionaire Kerry Packer was partial to playing Baccarat and Blackjack and managed to amass a fortune through his skills. At the time of his demise, he was the country’s richest person with a fortune in excess of $6.5 billion. And on one night in Las Vegas, he decides to try his luck in the MGM Grand casino. That evening, his betting strategies landing him a sum between $20 and $40 million, the exact sum remains unknown, what with him having many of them over the course of the evening. Kerry began splashing the cash and tipped the head waiter a life-changing $1,000,000! Some years later, he was in London where it’s estimated he lost $28 million in a single night!
Sports to Multi-Millionaire
Sporting fanatics often travel to various places to support their teams, but none ever dream of going home a multi-millionaire! In 2003, a 25-year old engineer from Los Angles made his way to Vegas to support his favourite basketball team. With a gap between travel and the game commencing, he was stuck for something to do, so decided to head to the famous Excalibur casino in the gambling capital of the world.
With all the games you could possibly imagine under the one roof, where do you start first? This lucky gent decided to play the slot machines and spent $100 dollars before realising he had won a staggering sum of money! Now, $100 is peanuts compared to the sums many gamblers spend, but lady luck was on his side that night when the jackpot symbols landed and awarded one of the biggest wins to date – $39,713,982.25! Back then, this some was the casino’s entire profit for a month! He decided to remain anonymous and instead of being awarded the cash in one lump sum, he opted for an annual payment of $1,500,000! This means he will have received his winnings in full by the year 2030!
Seeing Double
If you win a major jackpot once, it’s extremely rare, but to win twice? You’ve more chance of being a repeated murder victim, but for one lucky lady across the pond, those odds were nowhere near the mark! Palace Station in Las Vegas is packed from floor to ceiling with slot machines, table games and many ways to win (and win big!) and that’s what one lucky lady did, not once but twice!
The then 60-year old woman landed a superb $600K while playing the Wheel of Fortune game and decided to invest her winnings into a hobby she loved more than most – gambling! The lucky woman in question returned to the casino on a regular basis and before long, she managed to turn her $600K fortune into a meg, eye-watering $27,000,000! Investing your winnings back into gambling would nowadays label you as having a gambling problem, so if you’re lucky enough to win and win big, make a withdrawal and run!
WWII Veteran’s Explosive Wins
A World War II veteran was 76-years old when he hit the headlines over in the US, and it was from landing two multi-million jackpots at the Mirage casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Winning such a life-changing sum of money once is a dream, but twice? It’s almost unheard of, but Elmer Sherwin did.
Just 10-hours after the lavish casino opened its doors for the first time back in 1989, Elmer triggered a $4.6million pot! Spending some of the money on a world tour, he decided to try his luck twice a week at the same venue. Before long, he hit another jackpot, only surpassing his previous win – this time $21million made its way into his bank account; more than four times his first win back in 1989! What did he do with his winnings? Donated a vast chunk to a charity which helped those affected by the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina.
And There’s More!
- #5: Don Johnson, who was later dubbed ‘The Killer from Atlantic City’, managed to extract $15million in cold hard cash from three top Atlantic City casinos between 2010 and 2011. The first, Caesar casino haemorrhaged $4.23million, the second was Borgata where his strategy bagged him $5 and the third win of $5.8million came from a 12-hour stint at the Tropicana Casino where each of his bets was $100K!
- #4: Gold Coast, Las Vegas. In 1997 a postal office worker made his ‘stamp’ in the city by landing at the time what was a record-breaking win of $12million on the Megabucks jackpot. With such a win comes to power and he decided to use that power to buy limousines and beautiful women. But it wasn’t to be the lifestyle of the rich and famous for eternity for John Trippin because in 2001 he released a book titled: “I Did It! My Life After Megabucks” where he revealed e lost all his money and became an alcoholic!
- #3: Fremont, Las Vegas. A 71-year old Hawaiian dweller began talking to a specific slot machine and said it felt alive. Before long, the machine exploded its jackpot of $8.9million and at the time, the pensioner only had $100 in her pocket!
- #2: Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort in Chester, WV. In 2006, after a 38-year teaching career, Beverly Whitten decided to try her luck on the Golden Chambers slot. Two hours into spinning, she started to grin when realising she had dropped the jackpot of $3.7million!
- #1: Fifty London Casino, London. English billionaire Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United and Sports Direct, landed £1,6million at this casino within 15-minutes of hitting the roulette tables in 2008. He only bet the once and openly stated the number 17 would be his bet. He won and once paid, he left – so he was in and out within 20-minutes with $1.6million more in his pocket!
