All of us fantasize about winning the jackpot and putting millions in the bank. For most of us, the fantasy will never become reality; however, a small number of individuals have managed, through sheer luck or impressive skill, to win astounding sums of money.
Despite the fact that some of these men and women eventually lost every single red cent they won, all of them deserve to have their minute in the spotlight.
Read below to learn about the 5 biggest gamblers in history!
Charles Wells
Towards the end of the 19th century, a man named Charles Wells visited the Monte Carlo casino with a not insignificant sum of 4,000 pounds. However, he walked out with more than 60,000 pounds to his name.
This was so unprecedented that the casino covered the table he had played with black cloth of mourning. It is said that Charles cleared the casino’s bank that day.
While some people loudly proclaimed that Mr. Charles was a shill for the casino and that the entire debacle was nothing more than a trick to advertising the casino, his legend grew so much that it inspired the world-renowned song, The Man Who Broke The Bank of Monte Carlo.
Stu Ungar
Our next gambler on the list is none other than Stu Ungar.
Stu played and won his first World Series of Poker, the world’s most prestigious poker tournament when he was only 24 years old. A year later he repeated the feat, and then once more in 1997. Making him one of only two people to have won the tournament three times.
His ability to strategize and make ingenious plays was impressive. His mind possessed great depth and lightning-fast speed.
He regularly beat players with many more years of experience than him.
He is estimated to have won and lost over $30 million over his career as a professional gamble. Nevertheless, he is regarded by many as the greatest Texas Hold’em and Gin player of all history.
Archie Karas
Archie was born in Greece, where he discovered at an early age that he had a natural talent for cards. In 1991, having borrowed $10,000 from a reluctant friend, Archie traveled to Las Vegas. Once there, he sat at a poker table and won 4 million dollars.
He was challenged repeatedly by the world’s greatest players to no avail. No one was able to beat him while his luck lasted. He eventually lost all his money in the same manner that he won it.
Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo
Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo has been a radio announcer, music producer, television host, and even film director throughout his life. But his greatest renown came from winning big by placing sports bets and by gaming the roulette tables in a large number of casinos.
According to Pelayo, all roulettes have a physical imperfection that causes some numbers to be much more likely to catch the ball than others. Based on this information, Pelayo was able to come up with a data-centric statistical system that allowed him to consistently choose the numbers with the highest probability of coming on top
Vanessa Selbst
Vanessa Selbst is known around the world as one of the best poker players of all time. She is currently the only woman to have reached the number one spot on the Global Poker Index.
She has reached the final match of the World Series of Poker 8 times, and her lifetime earnings exceed 11 million dollars. She is the highest-earning female poker player in the world. All of this without ever being a full-time player as she studied Political Sciences at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.