Source: studybreaks.com

5 Most Famous Gamblers in History

Gambling can be a lot of fun when you know what are you doing and how to do it. Gambling is often associated with addictions and bad things but to those that know to utilize it for good and to have fun with the gamer, this is never an issue.

As you can see today, we will dab into the most famous gamblers throughout the short history and show you some successful individuals that made it to the top thanks to gambling. They had nerves of steel, knowledge, patience, self-control, and many other perks that allowed them to climb on top of the mountain, and enter the gambling hall of fame.

We have already written about this so many times, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat that only strong individuals with a clear goal and a sense of awareness can reach these heights. Gambling is not for those that lack self-control and a clear plan of what they want and how they want it. There is so much more to gambling than pure strategy and skill, and with some of those things you are born with or you aren’t. This is why only a small percentage of gambler makes it to the top and become one of the most famous or richest ones out there.

Without further ado, we will now tell you about the gamblers from our list and for a place to practice and start somewhere please read more here.

1. Andy Beal

Source: pokernews.com

There are just a few people that are well-known in the gaming industry, and Andy Beal is one of them. This individual is a businessman who made the most of his fortune in banking and real estate. During his high school years, he was a little entrepreneur who acquired and repaired TVs to resale for a profit. Later in life, he discovered real estate to be great interest, and he was able to acquire homes inexpensively, patch them up here and there, and resell them for a profit.

Andy Beal’s net worth is expected to be over $7.9 billion as of 2024, making him one of the world’s wealthiest people. In terms of gambling, it is believed that Beal has lost more than $70 million in poker alone during his lifetime. This individual also played other gambling games, but he will be famous for winning the largest pot ever, $11.7 million, against The Corporation in 2004. They were the group of gamblers assembled to take on this person and won.

2. Haralabos Voulgaris

Source: superdeporte.es

To be quite honest, he also gambles at casinos and is quite excellent at it, but sports betting has garnered him the most of his fame and fortune. He is regarded as one of the top sports bettors in the world, and his betting is mostly focused on the NBA, which was and continues to be his primary profit generator. His father enjoyed casinos, and he and Bob went there frequently, but because he wasn’t of legal drinking age, Bob spent his time watching NBA games in the sportsbook section of Caesar’s Palace.

This is where he put his first wager, which he obviously lost, but that didn’t stop him. Over the years, he honed his craft, finding huge faults that bookmakers missed and milking them for everything he could. After college, gaming became his major focus, and he amassed a sizable fortune. As we discovered, during the height of his gambling career, he was allegedly betting $1 million each day, which is a substantial sum of money.

3. Phil Ivey

Source: sportingnews.com

We can’t have a list of notable gamblers without including one of the finest, if not the best, poker players in the world. Phil Ivey was also a part of The Corporation, a squad formed to defeat Andy Beal. Phil was the one who ultimately bought Andy for $16 million in three days. He began playing poker at an early age and spent most of his time with his grandfather. When he reached the legal gambling age, he began frequenting Atlantic City, earning the moniker “No Home Jerome.”

He wasn’t very successful at first, and he typically managed to lose all of his money, but he extracted something positive from it. He learned, gained experience, and adapted to become the man he is today. His first significant triumph came in the year 2000 when he won his first-ever World Series of Poker bracelets; two years later, he added three more bracelets in the same year, and he now has a total of ten WSOP bracelets. In his career, which wasn’t all that lengthy, he earned almost $26 million in tournament victories alone.

4. Billy Walters

Source: bloomberg.com

Billy is the man to go to if you want someone who has been through hell and back. Billy began gambling at the age of nine, thanks to his father and uncle, both of whom were avid gamblers. His career started off rough, and by the age of 22, he had lost $50,000 and had even lost his house at one point. Billy began rebounding and performing better after that period.

He got the hang of it all, acquired critical lessons from his previous failures, and went on to make millions of dollars betting on basketball and football. Yes, sports betting is what saved him and brought him to where he is now. According to some figures, Billy’s gambling revenues averaged $15 million each year. Consider this: some profitable firms barely break that mark per year.

5. Zeljko Ranogajec

Source: bestuscasinos.org

This Australian is well-known for his gaming winnings as well as his bans. Zeljko’s narrative begins in college, while he was working part-time in a casino. When no one else was present, Zeljko practiced his blackjack hands, seeking the greatest and strongest ones. He eventually abandoned his job to pursue his gambling profession, which took off spectacularly. Every table he sat at suggested he was going to win big.

He went to Las Vegas after being barred from casinos in Australia, but the same thing happened. His winning was too unobtrusive, and he was banned there as well following massive and continuous winning runs. He then sought more games and methods to wager and came upon Keno, believe it or not. Yes, Zeljko won the largest Keno prize, which was the world’s largest keno jackpot. Back in 1994, it was worth $7.5 million. Later on, he moved on to internet betting and horse betting, and it has been rumored, but strongly denied by Zeljko, that he amassed an astonishing 600 million Australian dollars over his career.

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