10 Crazy Bets That Actually Paid Off
Crazy bets can pay off and these players all struck it lucky in the most surprising ways.
- In the United Kingdom in 2004, Ashley Revell emptied his bank account, sold his car and his clothes. He took his money to a Roulette table at the Plaza Hotel and Casino and put it all on red. Within seconds, his $135,300 became $270,600.
- Patricia Demauro had only tried Craps once before playing Atlantic City’s Borgata in 2009. Demauro bought in for $10, threw the dice, and won. That night, Demauro won an incredible 154 consecutive throws. The amount won was never disclosed.
- In the early 70s, rising fuel costs left FedEx almost bankrupt. So founder Fred Smith took $5,000 to Vegas. He played Blackjack and won more than $30,000, with which he paid off the company’s debts.
- In 1996, Brian Zembic accepted a $100,000 bet from a friend who said that Zembic would not get breast implants and keep them for a year. Zembic went for a size 38C, and won the bet a year later.
- Cynthia Jay was at Las Vegas’ Monte Carlo casino on 26 January 2000, when she had a go at the Megabucks slot. With her ninth pull on the lever, the machine paid out $34,959,458.56.
- Peter Edwards bet £50 that his three-year-old grandson Harry Wilson would one day play for the Welsh national football team. In October 2013, 16-year-old Harry Wilson made his debut, and his grandfather won £125,000.
- In 1964, David Threlfall bet £10 that a man would walk on the moon before January 1971. In a television studio a few years later, Threlfall watched Neil Armstrong take that small step, and received his cheque for £10,000.
- Vegas resident John Hennigan accepted a $100,000 bet from friends that he couldn’t live in Des Moines, Iowa, for six months. Two days after leaving town, Hennigan was back to pay off the bet.
- Phil Hellmuth accepted a $20,000 bet from Huck Seed, where Seed claimed he could stand shoulder-deep in the ocean for 24 hours. Three hours later, Seed emerged from the water, and Hellmuth paid up.
- In 1992, Archie Karas went to Vegas with $50, borrowed $10,000 from a friend to play Poker, and hit a lucky streak that lasted three years and won him $40 million.