Las Vegas Biggest Wins
Huge gambling wins are always a point of discussion; they live on as tales and legends long after they had taken place. And it’s not just the size of these wins but also the fashion in which they were attained.
That, perhaps, is even more important.
As you can imagine, Las Vegas was the home of many such momentous “triumphs” (and more than just a few crushing “defeats”). Conjuring up, therefore, any kind of Top 5 list feels like an impossible endeavor, what with there being so many incredible gambling wins to choose from.
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Be that as it may, we’ve tried our hardest to showcase a few truly spectacular moments — gambling wins that are more than worthy of your time and attention!
Archie Karas — From Rags to Riches… And Back Again
Anargyros Nicholas Karabourniotis (more often known as Archie Karas), is a Greek-American gambler and one of the most peculiar figures you’ll ever hear about. After relocating to Las Vegas with no more than $50 in his pocket, he was able to accrue and generate a truly mind-blowing amount of money at various different poker tables and casino resorts.
Heck, he even went up against legends like Stu Ungar! That alone speaks volumes, and so does the fact that he actually came out on top.
Archie was able to amass a $40 million fortune and then lose it all in a matter of months. As you can imagine, his gambling wins (and losses) are the stuff of legend. It is said that Archie Karas gambled with more money than any man who came before him.
Let that sink in.
No list of largest gambling wins could ever be complete without a mention of this enigmatic Greek.
$40 Million on a $100 Bet
Back in 2003, a twenty-five-year-old software engineer happened to have waged a meager $100 on a Megabucks slot machine.
THE RESULT?
A mind-boggling $39.7 million payday.
Talk about a return of investment! It is still, to this day, one of the most lucrative gambling wins in Las Vegas history.
Kerry Packer’s $26 Million
Kerry Packer is known for two vastly different things: being an incredibly deft businessman and a gambler who had often had “lady luck” by his side.
His 1995 streak (which took place at the MGM Grand) is the stuff of legend: he had won more than $26 million in a matter of hours.
Interestingly enough, he was later banned from all MGM casino resorts. Turns out having “too much” luck can lead to unwanted repercussions.
Whodathunkit?
Elmer Sherwin, As Luck as it Gets
As far as gambling wins go, Elmer Sherwin stands out in all the right ways. He had won his first Megabucks jackpot ($4.6 million) at the age of 76.
His second win came a whopping sixteen years later, although that time his saldo grew by another $21 million. That’s $25 million in total across a sixteen-year period. And they say lightning doesn’t strike twice!
As far as gambling wins go, it’s fair to say that Elmer Sherwin was amongst the luckiest human beings in the history of our species.
Fortune Favors the… Persistent?
Speaking of lucky human beings who had “struck gold” on multiple different occasions, an anonymous sixty-seven-year-old woman had first won a slick $680,000 at the Palace Station Hotel (on The Wheel of Fortune, no less).
A mere few months later, she, too, had landed a spectacular win in the Megabucks jackpot. How spectacular, you might ask? A whopping $27 million. It seems that perseverance really does pay off — for some, at least!
Online gambling sure does have its own unique allure, but it pales in comparison to sitting down at a casino and testing out your luck “in the flesh!” And that’s precisely what all of these winners had in common.