Top ten gambling stories

18/02/2008 by Alex.

Read a great little article in the Short-list magazine they hand out in London which listed the top ten gambling highs and lows - here are a few:

1. A load of bells
King Henry VIII actually lost the bells of old St Pauls Cathedral as well as money which was to pay for the construction of Westminster Abbey from dice playing.

2. Largest Debt
Chinese-Mexican “alleged” drug smuggler Zhenli Ye Gon has reported debts of over £60 million in Vegas!!

3. Worlds Biggest Gambler
Often accused as the worlds biggest gambler Akio Kashiwagi a Japanese real-estate magnate once bet an average of £7m an hour at the baccarat table even losing £5m in 5 days, the biggest baccarat loss in casino history.

4.Whale is extinct
Fouad al-Zayat a syrian billionaire staked £91m and lost well over £23m at London casino Aspinalls during a 12 year period but after a cheque bounced by mistake al-Zayat swore he’d never gamble again in London - He has never been seen since in a London casino.

5. Londoner doubles up
London gambler Ashley Revell unbelievably sold all his possessions and raised £76,840 - He then took all this money to Vegas and amazingly bet on a roulette wheel but even more amazing walked out with £153,680.

6. Everything comes in threes
Media mogel Robert Maxwell once lost over £1.5m playing three roulette wheels at the same time. Now that is brave.

7. Biggest ever Super Bowl bet
The biggest ever Super Bowl bet was placed by an anonymous gambler in the Mirage in Vegas back in 1995 where he bet $3m on San Francisco 49ers would beat the San Diego Chargers however as the odds were so bad he only won $300,000. I say only!

8. £50,000 tits!
Back in 1996 Brian Zembic had a £50,000 bet with his mate that he would get breast implants - He ended up with a beautiful set of 38C implants but as of 2006 he still had the implants in!!! He said he’d “grown too attached to them.”

9. Biggest lottery win
The largest single win in the lottery was won by a Sue Dooley of West Virginia who won £157m in 2002 in the US Powerball Lottery

10. Biggest ever slot machine win
Back in 1998 the bandit jackpot machine in Vegas was hit for $14m by a Californian man on a weekend trip.

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