According to the proverb, the house almost always prevails. But every once in a while, a gambler shows up with sufficient talent, guts, or resources to overcome the odds and win millions of dollars.
Many people enjoy a casual wager now and then, but a select few people have made it their life’s work to outwit the bookies. Continue reading to learn how they became the richest gamblers in the world and what prizes they took home.
1. Kerry Packer – $5 Billion
Source: theaustralian.com.au
Kerry Packer’s family’s business empire may have made him the wealthiest person in Australia, but gambling is what people will remember him for. Due to Packer’s propensity for playing large, this is.
Huge financial losses are a part of this style of play, and during his career as a gambler, Packer was infamous for going on some astoundingly bad streaks.
The most well-known of these was when, between September 1999 and July 2000, he lost about $40 million while playing at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and Crockford’s casino in London.
Packer was fortunate in that he occasionally went on a hot streak. In May 1995, he may have achieved his greatest gambling success when, while simultaneously playing multiple games ro.slotsup.com of blackjack with $250,000 stakes, he won $20 million in just 40 minutes.
2. Tony Bloom: $1.5 billion
Source: wsop.com
Tony Bloom is somewhat mysterious, much like many other people who have made a living through gambling.
We do know that he began playing poker for amusement while attending The University of Manchester to study mathematics.
He has earned about $2.5 million from this pastime over the years and has participated in some major competitions, such as the World Poker Tour and Poker Million IX, where he placed second.
Because of his icy approach to the game at the poker table, Bloom also acquired the moniker “The Lizard.”
However, Bloom has not made the majority of his money from poker. He has instead amassed millions of dollars by founding his own betting consulting business, Starlizard.
Starlizard, one of the top bookmakers in the world, is reputed to wager millions of dollars on soccer leagues all over the world.
3. Bill Benter worth $1 billion
Bill Benter is another math genius who has used his wits to use gambling to make a fortune.
Like many young gamblers, Benter began his career in card counting in Las Vegas before focusing on horse racing in Hong Kong.
Together with another bettor named Alan Woods, Benter started developing an algorithm that could predict a horse’s likelihood of winning with uncanny accuracy.
After a few trying years and some adjustments, his model eventually started to bring in tens of millions of dollars annually.
The Triple Trio, a popular wager in Hong Kong in which you must predict the first three horses to cross the finish line in three different races, was Benter’s most well-known victory. This prediction was made by his model.
Benter is now a billionaire and spends his time lecturing at colleges and making donations to charitable organizations all over the world.
4. Edward Thorp, worth $800 million
Source: gamblingsites.org
Edward Thorp, the inventor of card counting, is ranked one spot behind Bill Benter as the person who first encouraged him to start gambling.
Thorp developed a strategy for playing blackjack that eliminates the house advantage by using his mathematical and technological prowess.
His first weekend using the method resulted in a $11,000 win, and after realizing how successful it was, he made the decision to write a book outlining his strategies.
“Beat the Dealer,” which was published in 1962, was a huge hit, selling over a million copies.
Thorp developed the first wearable computer after publishing his book. He had better odds of winning the roulette with this piece of technology.
Thorp became immensely wealthy after applying his gambling skills to the stock market, and he has maintained this level of wealth ever since.
5. Alan Woods, $500 million
Former Bill Benter business partner Alan Woods earned his money in a similar manner.
Both of them began by counting cards, and they even once shared a team.
Following their exclusion from Las Vegas casinos, they turned their attention to the horse races in Hong Kong.
After their disagreement, Woods created a model that was equally successful as Benter’s.
He was compelled to leave for the Philippines though when law enforcement began looking into his betting group.
Still operating out of his home, Woods amassed a substantial fortune of about $500 million while maintaining a close working relationship with his former rival Zeljko Ranogajec.
6. Zeljko Ranogajec, $420 million
Source: smh.com.au
Zeljko Ranogajec, also referred to as “The Joker,” is another extremely wealthy man who has amassed his wealth by engaging in so-called advantage gambling.
After turning a few hundred dollars into millions at the blackjack table, Ranogajec collaborated with Alan Woods before founding the Bankroll, his own betting group.
Ranogajec’s syndicate, which primarily wagers on horse racing, is said to do so on an annual basis.
Because bookmakers give him rebates and discounts on his astronomically high bets, Ranogajec still makes money even if many of these bets lose.
Ranogajec enjoys keeping to himself, but his wealth cannot be as easily hidden as he would like. One Hyde Park, the most expensive apartment complex in the world, is where he allegedly has an apartment.
Even more astoundingly, it appears that wagers made by his syndicate account for one-third of Betfair Australia’s overall operations.
