If you don’t believe in gambling, then these 10 biggest wins of all time will make you believe it;
- $14.5 million
This was the biggest online gambling payout ever made and it was given to Peter, a Norwegian player whose second name is unknown in 2011. Peter, unknown to him, gave a spin on a progressive jackpot slot known as Arabian Knights. This happened at Betsson online casino. Surprisingly it was the fruit slot machine that gave him the win. He trained his skills, playing eye of horus demo.
He netted a cool $14,487,759 in total winnings translating to 38million Norwegian Krone. It is said that the casino’s slogan, “Anything can happen”, truly did come true for Peter as he became an instant millionaire at a mere 20 years.
- $15.1 million
In the wake of the recession in 2011, One smart man, a blackjack master become a winner of about $15.1 million in a period of 6 months but from 3 different casinos. Don Johnson took full advantage of the discounts and incentives that were being offered by the Casino. It was a tough economic time due to the recession and the casino was trying to find ways to entice gamblers. Unluckily, the recession hit even harder after losing to Don.
Don did not require any special mastery or tricks; he just negotiated the special rules in casinos to get an advantage. That way he would win more the more he played.
- $21.1 million
Elmer Sherwin, a world war 2 veteran, was lucky to be a gambler winner of a grand prize twice in his lifetime. He won his first megabucks at 76 years old which was $4.6 million dollars. He used his first winnings to travel the world.
Sherwin’s dream was to win the megabucks twice and his dream came true when 16 years later he won $21,147,947 in September of 2005 at the Cannery Casino, Las Vegas. Given his age, he remains to be the luckiest old man in the world of gambling. Sherwin donated most of his money to charity and some to the Hurricane Katrina’s victims.
- $21.3 million
In June of 1999, a business consultant in Illinois deposited $10 into the Megabucks machine and with just one lucky spin, he won a jackpot of $21,346,952.22.
Being a bachelor, it was obvious that he preferred to keep his identity unknown after such a win.
- $22.6 million
In March of 2002 an old grandma, Johanna Heundi, from California walked into Bally’s for her usual breakfast. She then decided to play on the Megabucks machine just before having her breakfast. With just one spin, having place about $170, she took her breakfast a multi-millionaire having bagged a cool $22,618,156.67.
- $27.6 million
Some people are just plain lucky. This is very true of a 67-year-old flight attendant who won $27,580,879.60 having put just $300 although she had intended to put it only $200. Luck was really pushing it for her. This happened in Las Vegas at the Palace Station hotel in November of 1998. This was actually the first time megabucks surpassed the $20 million limit.
This was her second time winning, her first win was $680,000 which she won on the Wheel of Fortune slot machine months before her mega win.
- $35 million
The story of Cynthia Jay is perhaps the saddest post-winning story in history. Cynthia started her day with no intentions of being a millionaire but just to celebrate her future mother-in-law’s birthday. Her wedding was coming up in two weeks to her boyfriend Terry Brennan.
While at the celebrations, at the now Desert Inn Hotel-casino, Cynthia decided to take a spin at the Megabucks machine. It was not until the ninth spin that Cynthia won $39,959,458.50!
Unfortunately two weeks after her dream wedding, she was involved in a grisly accident that left her paralyzed from the chest downwards. She was left unable to ever walk again and had to depend on her husband fully to help her move around.
- $39.7 million
In March 2003, an unidentified 25-year old who was a software engineer from Los Angeles decided to try his luck at the Excalibur Casino as he waited for the Basketball game to start.
He deposited $100 at the video slots which turned him into an instant multi-millionaire. He beat the odds to win $39,710,826.36, making it the largest Vegas payout of all time. He opted for an annual payout of $1.5 million dollars for 25 years.
- $40 million
Archie Karas was one of the finest high-stake gamblers in the world. His was not a onetime $40million win but money amassed in several of his wins in the course of three years. Of course, he had losses and wins in the 3 years. His biggest losses being losing $11 million in just 3 weeks, losing another 17 million then 2 million soon after. After his series of losses, he fled to Greece for a long vacation but came back to Las Vegas to try gambling. He was finally banned for life from all Casinos in Nevada and Las Vegas for cheating.
- $590.5 million
The biggest win of all time goes to Gloria McKenzie, a grandmother from Florida. She is the largest single winner of the Powerball lottery in May 2013 having beaten the 1 out of 175million odds.
Hers was a case of luck forcing itself on her. In a local supermarket in Zephyrhills town in Florida, the person in front her chose to excuse her and let her go first in the queue not knowing the ticket Gloria had might have been hers. And there and then Gloria’s status was changed to a multi-millionaire.
Given her age, she chose to receive a lump sum amount as opposed to the annual payment for 30 years. She was 84 years old at the time of her winning.
Lessons learned. Gambling may not so much depend on your mastery skills or winning tricks. Winning big is just but luck and comes to the least expected people at the least expected time.
