From the Ancient Greeks to Elizabethan England, history is filled with stories of our love for games of chance. Now we don’t even need to step into a real casino to get that same buzz for the games we love.
Sadly, we can’t promise you the massive roulette jackpots described below. However, there are so many casino sites with a huge range of increasingly advanced games that winning a giant jackpot is still a possibility.
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They make it easy to experience all the thrills of these classic casino moments. And all from the comfort of your own home.
Whether we’re walking through those casino doors or firing up a game online, we always feel hopeful that we’re going to walk away as a big winner. Casino gaming is one of the few ways that you can go from rags to riches in an instant. And a few lucky gamblers have done just that.
The house may have an edge, but these casino busters prove that even without experience, you can bleed the house dry with a little luck on your side. Their stories are now the stuff of legend and sum up why we’ve always loved a little bet.
Casino Buster Ashley Revell
Heading to the casino with some loose change is one thing, but that wasn’t nearly enough for one extraordinary gambler who earned himself worldwide fame in 2004.
Ashley Revell is one of our casino busters. He sold every single one of his possessions to raise money for a very special wager. His clothes, his car, his bike – everything he owned was sold off at car boot sales and auctions.
Revell managed to get $135,300 of life savings together and headed straight for the Plaza Casino in Las Vegas. At the roulette table, he placed every penny he owned on red, and cameras were there to capture the amazing outcome.
The ball duly landed on 7 red, and Revell instantly doubled his money to $270,600. Cool as a cucumber, he then tipped the dealer $600, said “thank you”, and walked away.
As well as inspiring Simon Cowell’s hit TV gameshow Red or Black, Revell also taught casino lovers everywhere the importance of knowing when to quit.
Mike Ashley Winning Big
Maybe Ashley’s a lucky name? Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United, may not have been short of a bob or two, but that didn’t stop him from taking a hefty risk on the casino floor.
In an extraordinary 15 minutes at the roulette table of the Fifty London casino in Mayfair in 2008, Ashley made a ‘complete’ bet on his lucky number, 17.
It was certainly lucky for him that night, and he netted an astounding £1.5 million in an instant. The crowd was stunned, and Ashley left the casino to the sounds of rapturous applause and, we bet, a very big grin on his face.
Elmer Sherwin
You don’t have to stick to roulette to win big. The MegaBucks progressive slot machines were launched back in the 80s as a revolutionary new slot game. The machines are connected to all the other MegaBucks machines across the whole state of Nevada.
The jackpot grows with every dollar that’s dropped through the slot, resulting in some of the highest progressive slot jackpots in the world. Tens of millions of dollars are up for grabs, but the chances of winning that jackpot are around fifty million to one.
It’s those odds that make the 92-year-old Elmer Sherwin the luckiest man on the planet. He not only won the inaugural $5 million jackpot in 1989, he then won it again in 2005. Only this time, it stood at a cool $21,030,657.77! Sometimes, lightning really can strike twice.
So there you have three fantastic stories of big casino busters that walked away with millions. Of course, we don’t recommend that you sell everything you own and head to a roulette table! Instead, you can still enjoy all the excitement and fun by betting much smaller at a trusted online casino.
Even then, with jackpot King in the mix, some of the progressive jackpots are worth millions. So who knows, maybe you will become a millionaire!
Other Notable Winners
One famous example is Archie Karas, a Greek-American gambler who famously turned a $50 stake into over $40 million by playing high-stakes poker and other casino games in Las Vegas during the 1990s. However, Karas later lost most of his winnings, and his story serves as a cautionary tale about the risks of gambling.
Another well-known casino winner is Cynthia Jay-Brennan, who won $34.9 million playing Megabucks, a progressive slot machine game, at the Desert Inn casino in Las Vegas in 2000. Unfortunately, her luck was short-lived, as she was involved in a serious car accident just weeks later that left her paralyzed and killed her sister.
Other big casino winners include Johanna Huendl, who won $22.6 million playing a Megabucks slot machine in Las Vegas in 2002.
It’s worth noting that while these are some of the biggest casino winners in history, most people who gamble do not win large sums of money and may even lose money over time. It’s important to gamble responsibly and within your means.
