10 Crazy Bets That Actually Paid Off

Crazy bets can pay off and these players all struck it lucky in the most surprising ways.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.