Gamblers Who Have Risked It All On A Bet

Ashley Revell

When it comes to stories about a person that bet everything, few are as famous as that of Ashley Revell. Born in Kent in 1971, he spent 2004 selling all of his belongings with the aim of getting as much money as he could so that he could bet it all on the spin of a roulette wheel. The then-32-year-old raised cash by selling his stuff at car boot sales, auctions and anywhere else he could think of, until he eventually had to sell the car too. With only a few clothes left, he jetted off to Las Vegas to try his luck.

Given he was in Las Vegas, Revell was playing on an America roulette wheel. As a result, he knew that the odds of it hitting either colour were 47.3%, as opposed to the 48.6% odds he’d have been facing on a European roulette wheel. He left for Vegas with £76,840 in his pocket, having sold everything he owned on the back of a drunken conversation with friends. Being unmarried and without kids at the time, he thought it would be ‘an amazing experience’ to bet it all on the spin of a ball.

Unsurprisingly, his parents weren’t exactly thrilled at the idea. As he sold off things like his Rolex watch, his golf clubs and his BMW, they slowly began to come around to the idea that he was doing it with or without their support. As the planned date grew closer, Sky One got involved and filmed a mini-series about his exploits entitled ‘Double or Nothing’. He even made money by changing his name to ‘Ashley Blue Square Revell’ when a bookmaker agreed to sponsor him.

His initial plans were to place the bet at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, but an agreement with them broke down and so he switched to the Plaza Hotel & Casino instead. When it came to the night before, he slept well, saying, “Thinking back it seems crazy but I was so convinced I was going to win. I was literally going down there to collect my winnings.” The big question that he hadn’t answered, even as he walked up to the table, was whether to bet on black or red, eventually deciding to go with black.

As he placed the money on the table, he changed his mind and bet on red because a poll in England had voted for it. The roulette ball span, the world hung in the balance and it eventually came down and landed on the number seven – red. In one spin he had doubled his money, ending up with £153,680. Afterwards, thinking about what would have happened if he’d lost, he said, “I’d have had nothing to go back to, nothing to wear. But I’d still have my friends, my family, and they’d always be there for me. So they gave me the security to be able to do this.”

Jake Cody

There’s definitely an argument that those that like to gamble will always be willing to put it all on the line. That’s certainly the situation that Jake Cody found himself in, winning a four-way split-pot at the UK Poker Championships in 2018, earning himself winnings of £42,670. He managed his win at the Dusk Til Dawn Casino in Nottingham, but decided that more than £40,000 in winnings wasn’t quite enough for him to be happy with his lot and walk away from the table content with life.

Instead, he believed that finishing top in the £2,200 high roller poker event meant that his luck was very much in, so he took his trophy and his winnings and headed to the roulette table on the casino floor. With a massive crowd behind him, he placed his money on black. The owner of the casino, Rob Yong, asked him who he would like to spin the ball and Jake chose Yong himself. He readily walked around, picked up the ball, span the wheel and gave the ball a flick to send it on its way.

Moments later, the ball landed on 22 black, causing absolute bedlam. He had won himself £85,340 from a single spin of the ball on the European roulette wheel. It might well have been small-fry compared to Ashley Revell’s bet, but there’s no doubt that Cody’s heart was pumping when the ball made its way around the wheel and he had no idea if he’d walk away with double his money or end up with nothing. They both doubled their money, but things could have been so very different.

William Lee Bergstrom

If you want to talk about someone putting everything on the line then think about the story of William Lee Bergstrom, who did it not once, not twice but three times. The first time he did it was in September of 1980, walking into Binion’s Horseshoe casino with two suitcases. One had $777,000 on it, the other was empty and he planned to use it to carry his winnings. He was there to take advantage of Benny Binion’s promise to honour any sized bet as long as it was the first one the person had placed in the casino.

Bergstrom walked up to the craps table and wagered the full amount on the Don’t Pass line, planning to kill himself if he lost the bet because of the fact that he’d borrowed most of the money to place it. He won his bet, doubling his $777,000 and walking away with both suitcases full of cash. He disappeared for more than three years, with the next time anyone heard from him being when he returned to Binion’s with $538,000 to bet on the craps table, once more opting for the Don’t Pass line.

Again he won his bet, doubling his wager for the second time in less than four years and apparently using his winnings to take his mum to see Willie Nelson in concert. He then disappeared again, this time travelling the world and living the high life for a time. He returned to the casino in November of 1984, this time carrying a suitcase filled with different currencies that amounted to $1 million. Unfortunately his luck didn’t hold, with the thrower landing a seven on his first roll. Bergstrom committed suicide in February 1985.

Anargyros Nicholas Karabourniotis

Better known as Archie Karas, Anargyros Nicholas Karabourniotis was a man who knew the ups and down of gambling. A poker player, pool shark and general gambler, he enjoyed a winning streak that became so famous that if you simply mention ‘The Run’ to people in the world of gambling then they’ll know what you’re talking about. He drove to Las Vegas with $50 to his name, taking out a $10,000 loan and spending a couple of years turning that into more than $40,000,000.

There was a point at which Karas was so successful that he had all of Binion’s $5,000 chips in his possession, which were the highest denomination offered by the venue. Whilst the manner in which he lost his money wasn’t as spectacular as how others have won theirs, it was nevertheless a cruel period of time when his money slipped away from him. His first port of call was the craps table, where he lost $11 million plus another $2 million to a man he’d won that much from in the first place.

Next up he tried his hand at baccarat, losing $17 million playing that. $30 million down, he decided to head to Greece for a time to try to get his head together. Eventually, however, the draw of Las Vegas proved too much and he was back paying $300,000 a go at baccarat and craps. In less than a month he’d taken his fortune from $40 million to just $1 million, which he used to play a freeze out match against Johnny Chan at the Bicycle Club. Karas won, but failed to learn his lesson, losing it on craps and baccarat within days.

Patrick Foster

Can you really be said to have lost it all if your starting point is being £250,000 in debt? That’s the situation that former first-class cricketer Patrick Foster found himself in, having moved to England from Kenya when he was young. He’d studied social sciences at Durham University, finding work in the City of London when he graduated. The move to London might have been a dream for him, but it quickly turned into a nightmare when he developed a gambling addiction.

Soon he was lying to his parents and friends, borrowing money from them to place a bet. Having taken a job as a teacher, he was using his pay checks to gamble and even turned to payday lenders for money. Indeed, by the time he was in extreme amounts of debt he had borrowed money from 23 different lenders, had 76 online betting accounts and owed money to more than 100 of his friends and family members. He needed a plan to win a lot of money quickly, so obviously he thought he’d gamble even more.

His plan was to bet £50,000 on Might Bite to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which is run during the week of the Cheltenham Festival. It went off as the 4/1 favourite, so he knew that if it won then he’d be able to clear his debts. It lost by a single length, coming in behind 5/1 Native River. He got into his car and drove around for three hours, planning to kill himself. In the end, a message from his brother begging him not to saved him, with family, friends and the Professional Cricketers’ Association getting him to rehab and helping him to manage his debts.

Terrance Watanabe

At the age of 15, Terrance Watanabe had become the President and co-owner of the Oriental Trading Company. In 2000, he sold his stake in the company to a Los Angeles-based private equity firm. Soon, he became known for being a lavish gambler, often turning to the tables when he got bored. In the years that followed, it is believed that he gambled away more than $825 million, earning himself a ban from Wynn in Las Vegas for his compulsive gambling.

He went on an extreme losing run, reportedly losing $127 million at The Rio and Caesar’s Palace. His story is not just one of someone who lost it all, having to pay off debts and facing felony charges in the process, but also of the dangers of VIP programmes. Caesars Entertainment Corporation was given a fine of $225,000 by the New Jersey Gambling Commission for allowing him to place bets when clearly intoxicated, whilst also facing criticism for inducing him to gamble.

They actually created a new level on the Caesars Rewards VIP scheme specifically for him, giving him tickets to see the Rolling Stones live, paying $12,500 a month for his airfare and also offering him $500,000 in credit in their gift stores. He was also offered inducements by Harrah’s, proving that the casinos probably don’t have the best interests of losing gamblers at heart. By 2020, Watanabe still had $15 million in debt to repay, with a failure to do so meaning he could end up in prison for 28 years.

Michael Vick

It’s fair to say that American football stars get paid a fair amount of money. For some, the money alone isn’t enough and they want more, whether that come in the form of money or an additional buzz. In the case of Michael Vick, he was one of the best quarterbacks that the Philadelphia Eagles ever had, but he was struggling with a gambling addiction. His form of gambling wasn’t a legal one either, given that he ran an illegal interstate dog fighting group that went by the name of Bad Newz Kennels.

The story of Vick’s involvement in the gambling is not a pleasant one to read. He not only provided most of the money for the gambling, including as much as $20 million of a $37 million bonus he was paid by the Atlanta Falcons, but he was also involved in how the dogs were treated. In addition to putting family pets in the ring with his trained pitbulls and watching them get severely injured, he also killed a number of dogs that didn’t perform to his standards. This includes drowning and lynching the dogs.

He was eventually sentenced to 23 months in prison of which he served 17, which is, frankly, not long enough. Unfortunately, famous, rich sportspeople will always find a way to get back into the public eye and things were no different in the case of Michael Vick. After leaving prison, he was taken on by Fox as a studio analyst for NFL games, putting him back in the public eye and allowing him to earn money that he scarcely deserves. He lost $30 million, but also the respect of most right-thinking people the world over.

Of course, people that are willing to kill dogs in the pursuit of money are unlikely to change their ways at any point. Vick proved as much during his stint in prison, where he offered insider information on the National Football League to his inmates for their fantasy football games. This is in spite of the fact that betting on fantasy sports is not allowed in federal prisons because it is viewed as gambling. The NFL still took him back when his prison stint was over, showing that sporting ability will always reign supreme for some.