Breaking the Bank, winning so much that the table, or even the casino itself, runs out of money, is a favorite daydream of those who head for the big casinos.

10 Menacing Ways Casinos Keep You Gambling

In reality, of course, the house almost always wins, but just occasionally, either by cheating, by skill, or sometimes just by dumb luck, a player comes along who wins really really big.

Far from trying to deter these big winners, many casinos encourage them, because they know that the publicity of a big win, can bring in 10 times more than they have to pay out (and, in any case, some of the big winners don’t know when to stop, and keep on playing till they are right back to being broke).

However, here are 10 gamblers who, even if it was just for a little while, managed to break the bank.

10 Joseph Jagger

Joseph Jagger was a mill worker in Yorkshire, England in 1880. Up to the moment he decided to travel to Monte Carlo he had never traveled more than a few miles from his hometown. He had just been made bankrupt and, fearing that he and his family were destined for the debtors prison, he decided that if he was in for a penny, he might as well be in for a pound.

He borrowed money from members of his family, then took a steam ship to France, and caught a train to Monte Carlo, and its famed casinos. Jagger was not a gambler, but he was something of an engineer, and he observed a very slight tilt in the roulette wheel, which meant that numbers on one side of the wheel were a little more likely to come up than those on the other side.

Although Casino managers watched Jagger carefully during his winning streak, they were unable to detect his ‘system’ because he really didn’t have one. He won £80,000, an incredible amount for his day, and returned to his Yorkshire town where he bought 30 terraced houses and gave them to his family and friends. It is believed that he never gambled again.

Joseph Jagger’s win prompted a complete change in the design of roulette tables throughout the world.

So you may as well put that spirit-level down.^[1]

9 Don Johnson

Don Johnson was well known in gambling circles as a ‘whale’. He had already won a fortune playing at Atlantic City’s casinos. He took $5 million from Borgata, and another $4 million at Caesar’s, so, when he walked into the Tropicana, the casino management were certain to have been nervous.

Sitting at the high-roller table, Johnson started playing his favorite game – blackjack. He continued playing for the next 12 hours, averaging a hand a minute. At $100,000 a hand.

On one turn of the cards alone, Don Johnson won $800,000, after splitting his hand twice.

At the end of his shift at the table, Johnson had taken almost $6 million from the casino.

Casino staff watched Johnson’s game closely to see if he was counting cards, something which, while though not illegal, will get you banned from most casinos (assuming you do it well). They could find no evidence that he was counting cards, and were forced to honor his win.

Johnson’s advantage came from knowing the gaming industry. He understood how the odds were calculated and knew when to bet high. In 2011 the casinos were struggling financially and competed aggressively to entice the big players through their doors. Which is perhaps why the manager of the Tropicana authorised a $100,000 dollar a hand limit. (He was later fired). Not only did they let him play, but they invited him in, negotiating discounts against any losses.

And because they were desperate to attract his business, they made other concessions too, for example about how many times he could split his hands, and how many decks were in the shoe. Each time, Johnson made his own calculations, and the odds shifted a little more in his favor.

And Johnson kept on playing until each Casino pulled out of the deal. At which point, he cashed in his chips and left. Whereupon, the casinos were forced to issue a profits warning.^[2]

8 The MIT students and Las Vegas

If you are a student, you are likely to be on the look out for a job that will work around your studies. For many students, this might be something menial and low-paying. If you are a math genius, at MIT, however, your options are better.

During the 1990s a team of students earned extra money by playing blackjack in Las Vegas.

Led by Bill Kaplan, a professional gambler, the team learned to count card. Kaplan had, in fact, already been banned for this, which prompted him to form a team of the brightest students, who he trained in the art of card-counting.

Membership of the group changed as students graduated, which, no doubt, helped them to go undetected for so long. At their peak, teams were flying into Vegas every weekend, and flying home again with their bags stuffed with cash. In one weekend alone, they won over $400,000.

Despite their elaborate use of disguises, and the strict rotation of the casinos they played at, the team was eventually spotted and, like their mentor before them, they were banned from the casinos.

The film 21 (trailer above) is loosely based on their story.^[3]

7 Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab was a noted industrialist of flamboyant habits. The American steel magnate made a significant contribution of the allied success in World War I, and his reputation should have been assured, but he was often impulsive, and not always scrupulous in his business dealings.

In 1902, this impulsive and flamboyant Schwab went to Monte Carlo, and played roulette. The roulette wheel no longer listed to one side, and Schwab had nothing on his side, except luck. He played for several days, always the same game, and despite some runs of bad luck, he kept on playing. Eventually, his wins began to overtake his losses, and often won the table maximum, winning up to 75,000 francs a hand.

After playing at the tables for several days, Schwab was declared to have broken the bank, although no one would say exactly how much he had won. His win didn’t do him much good, however. By the time of his death, his fortune, once estimated at $40 million dollars, was gone. He died insolvent, even owing $25,000 to a Catholic college, having borrowed the money on the promise of leaving them $2 million in his will.

They never got a cent.^[4]

6 Paul Newey

Paul Newey is a businessman, and high stakes gambler. In 2005, he was responsible for a casino in Birmingham, England, having to issue a profits warning, after he won £3 million pounds in a single night.

Newey, who made his money from offering high-interest loans to poor people, is happy to win, or lose, big. In January 2005, his preferred game was roulette, where he bet as much as £300,000 on a single spin of the roulette wheel.

His strategy, known as ‘Full and Complete’, covered all possible permutations of a single number, which gave him odds of around 3-1, turning his £300,000 bet into nearly a million pounds.

However, it was not all bad news for the casinos. Newey was said to have lost the whole of his £3 million win over the course of the following month, although Newey himself was unperturbed. In 2012, he changed his game from roulette to poker, and was eliminated from the world series on the 2nd day.^[5]

10 Tricks Casinos Use On You

5 Archie Karas

Anargyros Karabourniotis, better known as Archie Karas, is a legend in casino history. Having grown up poor, Karas knew the value of money. And of luck. For a while, Karas had both, being credited with the longest winning streak in casino history.

In 2 years, Karas managed to turn his initial $50-dollar stake, into an incredible $40 million.

He began to make money as a pool-hall hustler, and then moved on to poker. At one point, he is said to have sat at a poker table with $7 million in chips in front of him, waiting for people to come and play him. He played, and beat, a 3-time World Series poker champion, taking $1.2 million from him.

The top players in the world began to refuse to play, because the stakes were too high, and so, Karas switched games again, and began to throw dice, a pure game of chance. On one evening at Binion’s Horseshoe, he held every single $5,000 chip in the place (their highest denomination), with a value of around $18,000,000. The chips were stacked in racks of $500,000. The casino was forced to ask Karas to sell back some of the chips in order that other players had something to gamble with.

After 2 years of winning, however, Karas’ winning streak came to an abrupt end. Karas lost $20 million playing dice. Then he switched games to baccarat, and lost another $17 million, before going back to the dice. Within 3 weeks, Karas lost $39 of his entire $40 million fortune.

Down to his last million, he made a brief comeback at poker, doubled his money, then blew every last dollar when he returned to shooting dice.

The Run was over.^[6]

4 Charles De Ville Wells

In 1891, Charles De Ville Wells arrived at Monte Carlo with $4000, a not inconsiderable sum, (which would now be worth 10 times that). He sat at a roulette table, and stayed there all evening, only leaving when the casino closed. He did not even stop to eat or drink. The following day, he returned, and for 3 days after that. Each time he sat in the same spot, at the same table, and played.

His winning streak was so marked that onlookers stood 8-deep around the table watching him, and those who were lucky enough to get a spot at the table, tried to copy his bets. By the end of his weeks’ vacation, Charles De Ville Wells had won $4 million, and had broken the bank.

All the casino’s reserves of money were spent, and play had to be suspended 10 times at his table while more money was brought up from the casino vaults (the poker chip had not yet been invented).

It is believed that Wells is the inspiration for the music hall song, ‘The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo’. Wells claimed to have developed a system to beat the roulette wheel, but it is thought that he was probably cheating, given his previous history as a con man. No one is quite sure how he did it, but it has been suggested that it may have been a set up by the casino owner to generate publicity.

However, the win did not bring him much luck, and when he died in 1922, he was buried in a pauper’s grave, still owing 2 weeks rent.^[7]

3 Ed Thorp

Professor Ed Thorp took a trip to Las Vegas with his wife in the 1950s, and had a game of blackjack. Being a professor, of probability and statistical analysis, he began to wonder about the game, and realized that it could be beaten. In 1962, he published his findings in a now famous book, Beat the Dealer, which demonstrated, with mathematical certainty, just how players could win.

Which was very sporting of Thorp. The casinos, however, were not quite so sporting. They changed the rules of the game overnight, so that his system would no longer work. This backfired, however, when occupancy rates at the blackjack tables fell almost to zero, and the casinos were forced to return to the original rules.

Thorp’s system was back on.

This was, ultimately, good for the casinos since everyone who walked in fancied their chances at the tables, and were usually found wanting. Visitor numbers to the casinos soared. In practice, very few players are skilled, or smart enough to Beat the Dealer.

Not surprisingly, Thorp, himself, was a very successful blackjack player, and also developed a system for beating the stock market which saw his returns far outstrip expected revenues.

He published a book about that, too.^[8]

2 Akio Kashiwagi

In 1990, Akio Kashiwagi was a billionaire and 1 of the 5 biggest gamblers in the world, regularly betting $10 million in a single night’s play. It was then that he crossed paths with Donald Trump.

Trump had recently purchased three casinos in Atlantic City and was anxious to attract some high-rollers in order to generate publicity. Kashiwagi seemed the ideal person. He played baccarat, and often bet $250,000 per hand. Although he was advised against it, Trump insisted on inviting Kashiwagi to play at his casino.

Donald Trump was initially thrilled as Kashiwagi sat at a specially roped off table, and hundreds of people poured into the casino to watch him play. Within 30 minutes, however, Trump began to worry, as Kashiwagi won $500,000. By the end of the first night, he was up $4 million.

When he was $6 million up, Kashiwagi decided that he had had enough of the onlookers, cashed in his chips, and went home to Japan. Donald Trump was furious.

So he invited him back.

This time he secured an agreement that Kashiwagi would bring $2 million and would not leave until he had either doubled his money, or lost the lot.
Kashiwagi played, and after 5 days was $10 million down. At which point, Trump stopped the game. Kashiwagi claimed that this was bad faith, and was furious at the insult. However, Kashiwagi left a cheque for $6 million, to cover his losses.

It bounced.

So, bad faith on both sides.

The episode ended unhappily for both parties.

All three of Trump’s casinos went bankrupt, while Kashiwagi was found brutally murdered at his home soon after, having been stabbed 150 times with a Samurai sword.

And Trump never got his money.^[9]

1 Nick Leeson

The world’s biggest gambler didn’t need to set foot in a casino, in order to break the bank. Nick Leeson was a fund manager for Baring’s Bank, the second oldest bank in the world, and one of the most exclusive.

At just 27 years old, Leeson was one of the bank’s star traders in derivatives, initially making huge profits for the bank. However, the bank’s systems were rather, shall we say, lax, meaning that Leeson was given the responsibility of checking his own trades. Which, in effect, meant that no one was checking at all.

When his trades were unsuccessful, instead of reporting the losses, he created a secret account to hide his losses, and tried to make up the difference with riskier trades.

And no one checked.

In 1995, he made a short-term gamble on the Nikkei index, in effect, gambling that its value would remain stable overnight. Unfortunately for Leeson, an earthquake hit Japan that night, and the Nikkei dropped significantly.

Leeson made a few more desperate trades, and then, realising that the game was up, he fled, leaving a note which simply said, ‘I’m sorry.’

By the time he was arrested in Germany, his losses had been calculated at over $1 billion, and the second oldest bank in the world was bankrupt.

Leeson was sentenced to 4 years in prison, and now makes a living as an after-dinner speaker, advising people on how not to break the bank. The trailer for the excellent film Rogue Trader based on the story of Leeson is above.^[10]

10 People Who Successfully Gamed The Lottery

The Middle Ages spanned from roughly AD 500 to AD 1500. It was a period filled with famine, plague, and war. Ruled by the king, the people of medieval England lived under a feudal system heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church.

During the Middle Ages, both laws and the penalties for breaking them were very different from the ones we are familiar with today. From football being outlawed to the practice of witchcraft being punishable by death, here are ten ludicrous laws from the Middle Ages that, thankfully, are no longer in place.

Related: Top 10 Ridiculous Laws That Are Still Enforced Across The World

10 Playing Football Was Forbidden

While football players today have a reputation of being dramatic over the smallest of injuries, their predecessors were the exact opposite. Medieval football was a violent game. While there were not as many rules, there was a lot more bloodshed. Rather than a ball, an inflated pig’s bladder was kicked up and down the entire length of a village, with the goals sometimes miles apart. Players could kick and punch both the bladder and their opponents, resulting in many injuries and the occasional death.

Football was banned in 1349 by Edward III, not because he was concerned about public health but rather about national security. Not only was England at war with France in 1349, but the country was also suffering the loss of many lives due to the Black Death, a global epidemic of the bubonic plague. Edward III wanted his remaining, healthy men to be focused on their archery practice rather than getting distracted by football. The punishment for playing football was six days imprisonment.^[1]

9 Blowing One’s Nose Was Illegal

Newmarket, a town in the English county of Suffolk, is known as the birthplace of horse racing. The practice dates back to the 12th century, but James I popularized it after building a palace there in 1606, which drew in a lot of people.

Over time horse racing in Newmarket grew into a large business, and the town was forced to establish laws to protect the horses, including one that made it illegal for people to blow their noses in the street. This was to reduce the risk of the horses getting sick. What a nightmare it must have been for people with hay fever!

Blowing one’s nose wasn’t the only thing that could get a person in trouble. Anyone walking around with a head cold or temperature had to pay a fine. Obviously, Horse racing was a serious business.^[2]

8 You Had to Have Your Master’s Permission to Get Married

Today, it’s daunting enough having to ask the father of your partner for their child’s hand in marriage. While this practice is done out of respect, the answer given does not decide your future, and you can still get married—even if the father does not give his blessing. This, however, was not the case in the Middle Ages.

Societal rank played a large role in medieval life, especially for those at the bottom of the pyramid. Peasants and serfs working and living under landowners essentially had no freedom. A man wanting to get married not only had to get the father”s permission but also their landowner’s.

For a woman, the situation was even worse. If her husband died, the landowner could force them to marry another man in a relatively short amount of time. If they refused, they could receive punishment. ^[3]

7 Wearing Long, Pointy Footwear Was Forbidden

Fifteenth-century Britain was a time of flamboyance. Along with short shirts, long, pointy-ended shoes known as crackows, or pikes, had become the height of men’s fashion. It was believed that the longer the toe, the more masculine and rich the wearer, so much so that shoes sometimes extended up to five inches beyond the toe. This led to the ends occasionally having to be tied around the wearer’s ankles.

As the fashion continued growing and peasants began wearing more extravagant clothing, the English crown finally decided to step in. They wished to preserve the feudal hierarchy and stop people from dressing above their social rank. Between 1463 and 1604, a law passed that said that “No knight under the rank of a lord, esquire, or gentleman, nor any other person, shall wear any shoes or boots having spikes or points which exceed the length of two inches.” The punishment was a fine of three shillings and four pence, which is just over US$136.^[4]

6 People Could No Longer Eat More Than Two Courses

In the Middle Ages, there were many sumptuary laws that restricted what people could eat and drink. They were intended to reduce excessive eating and prevent people of lower social status from matching the lifestyles of those above them.

In 1336, a law banned that people, no matter their rank, shall be served a meal with no more than two courses. Soup, it made sure to specify, counted as a full course meal and wasn’t just a sauce. The exception to the law was on certain festivals, such as Christmas, where three courses were allowed.^[5]

5 Commit a Crime, Go through an Ordeal

In medieval England, the peasants had strength in their numbers. To stay in power and prevent revolts, the upper-class authorities made it so that even the smallest of crimes committed had harsh penalties. The idea of this was to make the poor fear stepping out of line. Even petty crimes (theft, disturbing the peace—which often meant the king—or vagrancy) sometimes resulted in harsh punishments, from flogging to having some part of the body cut off (hands were quite common). Until 1215, even being accused of a crime resulted in the punishment of enduring an ordeal that revealed a person’s innocence or guilt.

There were three ordeals:

Ordeal by fire: The accused held a red-hot iron bar in their hands and walked three meters. After three days of being bandaged up, the wound on the hand would be looked at to determine the accused’s fate. If it was healing, they were innocent; if it wasn’t, they were guilty.

Ordeal by water: The accused was tied up and thrown into a body of water. If they sank, they were innocent. If they floated, it was seen that the river had not accepted them, and, therefore, they were guilty.

Ordeal by combat: This was combat between the accused and accuser. It was believed that God would give strength to the innocent. It must be noted that the fight often ended in the loser’s death.

The practice of ordeals was declared over by the Pope in 1215 and was replaced by a jury process.^[6]

4 No Sex on Certain Days of the Week

Throughout the Middle Ages, there were a number of religious laws that tried to restrict when a person could have sex. In an average seven-day week, a married couple could only have sex on four of the days. Days in which sex was prohibited included Thursday and Friday because people were supposed to prepare for Holy Communion and Sunday—because it was the Lord’s day.

And that wasn’t all. Throughout the year, there were many other periods where sex was banned, including 47 to 62 days during Lent, the 35 days before Christmas, and the time around the Feast of Pentecost, which could be anywhere from 40 to 60 days.

Medieval people believed that eye contact was an important part of sexual attraction. It was said that “the eye was not a passive receiver but was instead active in sending out rays of sight toward the object of vision. The very act of looking could stimulate desire in the observer and the observed.” Women were advised to be careful about when they looked at men—so as to not tempt them at the wrong time.^[7]

8 Playing Tennis Was Forbidden

Football wasn’t the only sport banned in the Middle Ages. In 1485, it became illegal for young men who weren’t nobles to play tennis, with the only exception being on Christmas day. Medieval tennis was believed to disrupt labor and encourage gambling in workers because participants were left in unsupervised situations without their masters around.

The banning of tennis in the lower classes helped to maintain the feudal hierarchy. Tennis began to be seen as an exclusively upper-class sport because it needed expensive equipment and required an understanding of complex rules and social etiquette.

Tennis eventually became known as “the sport of kings,” with Henry VII and Henry VIII both apparently very into the game. A Venetian Ambassador who watched Henry VIII play in his youth said, “It was the prettiest thing in the world to see him play; his fair skin glowing through a shirt of the finest texture.” Thankfully today, tennis can be played by all.^[8]

2 Blasphemy Resulted in the Loss of One’s Tongue

In the Middle Ages, people had to watch their tongues, both physically and metaphorically, to avoid breaking the religious law regarding blasphemy, the action of speaking ill about God or sacred things. The law was put in place by the medieval Catholic Church to maintain control and order.

The church viewed blasphemy as a severe crime and gave it an equally severe punishment. The penalty for blasphemers was harsh. Often a person would be bound and tied while their tongue was removed with hot pliers, leaving them mute for the rest of their lives. Other punishments included stoning and hangings.^[9]

1 Practicing Witchcraft Was Punishable by Death

In the Middle Ages, people did not understand how many things worked around them, especially natural phenomena, as much was unknown to the scientific world. Humans, in general, do not like uncertainty, and the people of the Middle Ages were no different. Usually, God was their answer for things that could not be explained. However, when it came to naturally occurring ill-fortunes such as sickness, bad harvests, and the deaths of animals, they blamed witches because God, in their eyes, could not do evil.

Witches were believed to be able to summon evil spirits and demons, but in reality, they were usually just poor, elderly women who owned a cat. While widespread witch trials throughout Europe didn’t reach their peak until the late fifteenth century, certain women were ostracized and punished when seen as different.

In 1542, the Witchcraft Act was passed by parliament and established that witchcraft was a crime punishable by death. Witch-hunting became huge after that, especially in southeast England, and it is believed that over 500 people were put to death between the 15th and 18th centuries.^[10]