Famous Gambler In The World
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Slim was a professional poker player from Texas and became the most famous gambler in the world. But while he always stayed in touch with poker, it was away from the felt that he really made a name for himself. Slim famously said he could beat a racehorse in a 100-yard dash. Poker could easily be considered one of most popular forms of gambling in the world. It has many appealing characteristics, and it strikes a good balance between luck and skill. Players with no skill at all can get lucky and beat much better players on occasion, but the truly skilled players almost always make money in the long run.
Life itself is a gamble, but only a few people turn gambling into a career. Well, taking gambling as a career is a serious and dangerous decision as most people don’t make it. You have to be prepared for big losses, some, too big to recover from. However, if lady luck looks nicely on you, you may just become the next billionaire. Some people take these big risks, but out of the thousands that win and lose big in casinos every year, only a few become popular because they just don’t seem to care about their losses. Here is a look at 10 people that changed the gambling industry forever.
Bill Benter
Benter is considered the richest Gambler in the world with an estimated net worth of $1 billion, although there are claims that he may be worth way more than that. He studied physics in Pennsylvania, but instead of pursuing conventional physics-related careers, he decided to use mathematics to beat the house in poker.
He became a Blackjack Hall of Famer and won almost every blackjack table in Vegas, which led to his being banned from Vegas Casinos. He switched to horse racing in Hong Kong and even created software used in predicting the result of horse races. His software is rated one of the best analytical software in the world, and it has since earned him billions in winnings. He now focuses on his foundation, which is focused on charity.
Kerry Packer
Most Australians knew Packer as the media mogul and the father of the World Cricket Series, but Packer was a very different man when you ask London Casino owners. He expanded his $100 million inheritance by investing and gambling, although he tried hard to keep the media off his gambling affairs.
He is reported to have lost an estimated $25 million in a week in London casinos, making it the biggest loss ever made in London. He also won $7 and $33 million in the same week in London, crippling casino profits by a huge margin. The most famous loss he made was $15 million on consecutive bets at Roulette tables.
King Henry VII
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Yes, this ancient name also went into history as England’s Number One Gambler. It is said that Henry preferred staying his nights with gamblers in the casinos rather than the royal palace. He liked playing dice, some form of checkers gambling, and Bragg, which later evolved into poker. The only problem with Henry’s gambling is that he became addicted, and it was the crown’s money he was using to bet.
The crown soon accumulated gambling debts, and the taxpayers had to pay, meaning his gambling hurt the whole nation. The cool thing about this king is that he didn’t discriminate against his opponents as he gambled with royals and commoners equally.
Phil Ivey
Now to the king of poker tournaments, casino gaming, and online gambling. He still holds the record of being the youngest person to win a WSOP bracelet, of which he currently holds 10. His winning streaks have earned him over $100 million in net worth, although not much is known about his revenue since he stepped back from the limelight in 2012 after he lost $11 million winnings after a casino accused him of edge sorting.
He started playing poker at age 8 and went pro before he even became an adult using a fake ID in Atlantic city. He held the record for the biggest winnings ever in online casinos at $19 million, although someone has since beat him to that. He is still believed to be the best online poker player in the world.
Edward Thorp
Mathematicians are some of the toughest opponents to go against when gambling and Edward Throp happens to be one of them. He wrote the book Beating The Dealer, still considered the bible of card counting. He took to gambling after leaving his career as a professor of mathematics and focused on using computers to tilt the odds in card counting against the house in the gambler’s favour. His speciality in gaining an advantage over the house has won him nearly $1B in net worth at age 87. His books and techniques continue to earn him money as he is now consulted by many gamblers and casinos on laying odds and investment banking.
Terrance Wanatabe
Gambling big doesn’t mean you always win; sometimes, you lose everything you have and become forgotten. Wanatabe was a millionaire from Omaha Neb, who contributed to nearly 6% of a casino company’s profits in 2009 after losing nearly $130 million. He is allegedly still battling in court with the same casino over an alleged $14 million debt, which the casino loaned him to continue gambling. His history with gambling is not very clear, but his losses point to addiction rather than being a good gambler. He is still known as the biggest loser ever in Vegas history. His gambling career also seems to have died with his losses since he is not linked to any big bets afterwards.
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon makes it in this list because he is the only man that played his way into becoming the leader of the free world. Donald Trump owns the houses, which helped him raise funds for his campaign but not Nixon. The US’s most controversial president literally gambled his way into the white house. His winning streak is not exactly a public record, but he probably had some huge wins. One of his biggest winnings was an expensive sports car from President Ronald Reagan after he beat him in a poker game. He used his networks and winnings from gambling to fund his campaign.
Chris Moneymaker
Online poker is now the largest gambling industry in the world, which is why we can’t forget the father of the online poker boom Chris Moneymaker. He hasn’t exactly become a billionaire yet, but he is still the name every online casino doesn’t enjoy hosting. He became famous after signing up for the WSOP with $40 in 2003 and going ahead to win the bracelet and $2.5 million. He was probably the first poker amateur to win the bracelet. His win inspired millions of people to flood the online poker industry, although no one has ever become a legend like him.
Billy Walters
Billy’s story doesn’t end so well at the moment, but it is impossible to talk about sports betting without mentioning his name. His story now sounds more like, from rags to Las Vegas, to riches, then currently, to prison for insider trading. He developed his interest in sports betting at a young age as a boy growing up with his grandmother in Kentucky. He proceeded to bet at age 9 and open an illegal gambling business, from where he moved to Las Vegas after the authorities ordered him to close.
When he took up gambling as a career, he went on a nearly three-decades-long winning streak betting on different kinds of sports in Las Vegas, becoming a millionaire while at it. He was, however, arrested for insider trading after winning $40 million and sentenced to five years in prison, which he is yet to complete.
Zeljko Ranogajec
We close the list with one of Australia’s most secretive and equally controversial gamblers. His net worth is not really known, but some people say he may well be richer than Billy Benter. His gambling career started when he dropped out of college to pursue a career at blackjack tables. He had two great advantages that have seen him become the best; A photographic memory and a deep understanding of mathematics that always helps him find an edge against the house. His winnings got scary in the casinos leading to his being banned. He also resorted to horse racing and Keno, setting a world record of winning $7.5 million in Keno. He is still a big name in gambling, although he prefers a low profile.
How does a gambler become famous, anyway?
After all, aren’t gamblers mostly just a bunch of degenerates wasting their money on games of chance when they should be working hard building corporations or something?
I don’t really believe that, and neither should you.
The truth is, people who become famous for gambling all have different stories. I’ll cover the stories of 7 of the most famous gamblers in history below – along with some anecdotes about how they got to be so famous.
1- John Montagu
You might be more familiar with John Montagu if I refer to him by his title:
The Earl of Sandwich.
He’s not famous for his gambling, per se, but for how he invented a popular food item so that he could stay in action.
Montagu was famous for spending inordinate amounts of time at the gambling tables, and one night he didn’t want to take a break from his session. So he asked that someone bring him some meat between some bread slices.
The other gamblers noticed and started asking for “the same as sandwich.”
And that eventually got shortened to “sandwich,” which is what we still call it.
Other sources claim that the sandwich was probably invented because of his devotion to working at his desk, but that’s not nearly as interesting for our purposes.
And what kind of sandwich did he invent?
The meat was salted beef.
2- Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon was a notoriously good poker player. It would be too easy to point out that his ability to lie might have aided him in becoming such a good card player.
Of course, Nixon is more famous for being a President who had to resign in disgrace. His poker career, in comparison, seems trivial.
Nixon learned to play poker when he was in the military and stationed to Green Island. He won thousands of dollars and used the money to run for Congress as a Californian in 1946.
His fellow sailors in the Navy swore that he was the best poker player they’d ever seen. At least one of them said he never saw Nixon lose.
The surprising thing about Nixon’s success as a gambler has a lot to do with his background. He was raised as a devout Quaker, and they’re not known for their skills at gambling.
3- Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth is a pro poker player with 15 WSOP bracelets to his credit. He won the main event in 1989, and he won the main even in the European WSOP in 2012. He’s also a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.
He’s not just famous for his success at the table, though – he’s also a wildy emotional player prone to temper tantrums.
Hellmuth has won over $23 million in poker tournaments, putting him in the top 20 for all-time money winners. He’s cashed in more WSOP events than any other poker player. He’s also been to the final table at the main event more often than anyone else.
His fame has more to do with his personality than anything else. Among other things, he likes to get to the table much later than the other players.
4- Billy Walters
Billy Walters is one of the most famous and successful sports bettors in history. He started gambling at the tender age of 9 when he used money he earned delivering papers to bet on the World Series in 1955. (He lost.)
By the time Walters was 22, he’d lost over $50,000. He even lost a house pitching nickels. He worked it out so that he could keep possession of the house, though, and he paid it offer over 18 months.
Eventually, he was such a successful bettor that he was putting millions of dollars into action every week. He hired mathematicians and pro handicappers to help him get an edge over the bookmakers.
Walters was, at one time, also one of the most active bettors in sports betting, placing thousands of wagers annually. He was betting so much money that the books would move the lines just in response to his action.
He didn’t stick exclusively to sports betting, although he eventually gave up his other gambling activities. In the 1980s he lost millions playing blackjack. He also won millions playing roulette on a game with a biased wheel.
Walter was also a poker player who won the 1986 Super Bowl of Poker.
But he’s best-known for his 30-year winning streak betting on sports. He bet on basketball and football. He was doing so much action that he had to disguise his action by using proxies (“runners”) to place his bets for him.
In a good year, Walters might win over $50 million.
5- Doyle Brunson
If there’s a poker player on this list more famous than Phil Hellmuth, it’s Doyle Brunson, who’s now retired but has a great reputation. He’s won the main event of the World Series of Poker twice. He’s also in the Poker Hall of Fame, and he’s written multiple poker books.
Among his other claims to fame, Brunson is the first person to win $1 million playing poker tournaments. He has 10 WSOP bracelets.
Bluff Magazine once said that Doyle Brunson was the most influential figure in poker.
Brunson announced his retirement from poker in 2018.
6- Archie Karas
Archie Karas is a Greek-American gambler who’s also well-known as a pool shark.
He drove to Las Vegas in 1992 and embarked upon “The Run” – the longest winning streak in the history of casino gambling. He had $50 and borrowed $10,000.
By 1995, he’d turned that into $40 million.
Of course, he lost it all again, and that only took a year to do.
Archie Karas shouldn’t be confused with Nick the Greek, another famous gambler.
7- Nick the Greek
Nick the Greek was born to money, but he’s more famous for his legendary gambling career. He moved to the United States from Greece when he was 18 years old. It wasn’t long before he was betting on horses in Chicago.
He won over $500,000 betting the ponies early in his career, but he almost immediately lost it all playing cards and shooting dice.
The world of poker owes him a great debt, too, because his heads-up poker match with Johnny Moss was the inspiration for the World Series of Poker.
They played for 5 months, and Nick lost over $2 million before telling Moss, “I have to let you go.”
In his dotage, Nick was almost broke, and the only action he could afford was the $5 draw poker games in Gardena, California. He was one of the first members of the Poker Hall of Fame.
He was said to have won and lost over $500 million over the course of his life.
And he died on Christmas Day, 1966.
Conclusion
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That’s my list of the 7 most famous gamblers of all time, but you could probably come up with your own list of most famous gamblers that might be just as valid as mine. What makes these gamblers famous is up for debate.
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Feel free to leave a comment in the comments section with your argument for including someone else.
Famous Gambler In The World
Also, I don’t recommend trying to become a famous gambler. With few exceptions, the gamblers on this list came to ignominious ends. Who wants to leave a legacy like Nixon’s? Or spend their old age in prison for insider trading?
On the other hand, if you can win the World Series of Poker, more power to you.