There’s something about high stakes gambling that fascinates us. The risk and reward of making huge bets is what draws the most daring of players to casinos.
Some of these players have gone on to win large sums, while others have lost colossal amounts. These are some of the best and worst casino stories of all time.
Archie Karas
Archie Karas was a man of many talents and abilities. He was smart, strong, and possessed the ability to handle huge swings of luck and fortune. He was able to keep his cool and stay focused, even when his bankroll was going up and down in huge swings.
Karas was born in a small village in Greece and had an adventurous childhood. He grew up shooting marbles and playing other gambling games. He was able to make some decent pocket money and was always on the lookout for new games to try out.
He decided to take his game up a notch and head to Las Vegas. He arrived with only $50 in his pocket and managed to turn it into $40 million in two years. His amazing winning streak is etched in Vegas gambling history as “The Run.” He was a high-roller at heart and loved to play poker, baccarat, blackjack, and craps. He was a fearless player and would put some of the biggest names to shame.
Charles Barkley
Famous basketball player Charles Barkley had a serious gambling habit and was known to bet millions of dollars in casinos. He once even lost $5 million in a single day, and was unable to pay his debts to some casinos.
Despite his massive losses, he was still a huge fan of casino games and loved to play baccarat, blackjack, and dice. He once bet $100,000 on a hand of baccarat, and often visited high-stakes tables.
Archie Karas, born Anargyros Karabourniotis, is one of the biggest casino high rollers of all time. He turned $50 into $40 million in just a few years, and was known to bet up to $100k per hand. He also walked away with a number of large wins from poker tournaments. His high rolling adventures eventually ended when he was caught cheating and fixing chips at a casino. Afterwards, he was banned from all Las Vegas and California casinos.
Don Johnson
It seems almost impossible that someone could win $15 million fair and square at blackjack over a six-month period, but Johnson did just that. Everyone thought he was counting cards or executing some elaborate scheme, but Johnson actually developed his own system to beat the house at its own game.
The 2008 financial crisis made casinos desperate for high rollers, and they started offering very beneficial deals to players like Johnson. This was exactly what he wanted as he had the funds to place large bets and a decade of gambling experience.
He negotiated better terms before even stepping up to the tables, a common tactic for upper-tier gamblers and high rollers. He demanded to play in the high-roller pit, and he took advantage of all the freebies casinos offered to their patrons. This included bottles of expensive champagne and shots of Louis XIII cognac. It’s important to note that Johnson was not a naive newcomer when it comes to mathematics and was capable of calculating probabilities on the fly.
MIT Blackjack Team
One of the most famous blackjack teams ever was the MIT Team. The group of MIT students and Harvard alumni made millions of dollars by using card counting techniques to beat Las Vegas casinos.
Members of the MIT team would count cards and signal other members when they had an advantage by changing their betting patterns. The members would also use advanced shuffle tracking and ace counting techniques. This division of labor and strategic collaboration allowed them to increase their profits and reduce the chance of being caught by casino security.
While they accumulated millions of dollars, the MIT Team was eventually caught and banned from casinos around the world. In an attempt to avoid detection, many of the members began playing under aliases. The team’s co-founders were Bill Kaplan and J.P. Massar, both of whom are now lawyers. Kaplan later founded the company Strategic Investments, while Massar now works as a lawyer in California.
