Winners & Losers

For your enjoyment, below we've compiled a list of some of gambling's biggest winners and losers throughout the years. Read on to see just how much some people have risked, won, and lost. Visit often for the most recent updates on stories of big winners (and, unfortunately, losers too).

Joseph Hobson Jaggers

Known as the 'man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo', Jaggers discovered, during the 1800s, that some of the Roulette wheels at the Monte Carlo casino weren't producing random results but were instead biased towards certain numbers. Taking advantage of this information and his skill with numbers, Jaggers was able to win $70,000 his first day and more than $300,000 over the next few days. As he kept winning and others copied his bets, the casino struck back and changed its wheels; at long last taking away Jaggers 'tell' and sending him home with a nice hefty 'payout'.

Chris Moneymaker

Moneymaker, a relative 'nobody' before 2003, shocked the Poker world and became a household name after winning that year's World Series of Poker and $2.5million. With an initial entry fee of $40, and only 3 years of prior experience (mostly online), Moneymaker went on to beat some of Poker's most distinguished figures and take home one of Poker's biggest prizes.

Pete Rose

Perhaps more well-known in the States than elsewhere, Rose was one of the best baseball players to ever play the game and holds all-time records in several of the sport's major categories. After retiring from baseball, Rose agreed to a lifetime-ban from the game after allegations surfaced that he had bet on (for) his own team. To this day, one of baseball's greatest players is still not in its Hall of Fame and the issue remains extremely contentious (especially considering that in 2004, Rose admitted the allegations were true).

Peter Swan and David Layne

In 1965, footballers Peter Swan and David Layne bet 50 that Ipswich Town would beat Sheffield Wednesday (the team they played for). They did, 2-0. The case went to court. They were found guilty of "conspiracy to defraud", banned from English football for life and sent to jail for 4 months. Once the ban was lifted after 10 years, their best playing days had long expired.

Stuart Wheeler

Multi-millionaire and chairman of the spread betting company, IG Group, won 30,000 in the 1997 General Election by betting on a Tory defeat. He recently donated them 5 million.

Anonymous Slot Winner

The largest slot machine payout is $39,713,982.25, which was won by a 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles after putting in $100 in the Megabucks slot machine at the Excalibur Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas on March 21, 2003. The winner, who has chosen to remain anonymous, was in Las Vegas visiting his family and to watch college basketball's "March Madness" tournament. He said he had put in about $100 when he turned his head away for an instant. When he looked back, he had just won more than $39 million.

Ashley Revell

This 32-year old Brit bet his life savings (~ $135,000) on one single spin of the Roulette wheel in March of 2004 and won! Placing everything on 'red' at the Roulette table in the Plaza Hotel in Vegas, Revell walked away with $270,600.

Joseph Hachem

The most recent World Series of Poker winner (2005), Hachem, from Australia, took home $7.5million for beating the largest field ever at this event.

Kerry Packer

This billionaire businessman is reported to have won over $20 million playing Baccarat in Vegas over a weekend. One report holds that when Packer met a Texas oil man reportedly worth $50million, Packer asked him if he'd 'toss for it'.

Andrew "Jack" Whittaker Jr

In 2002, Whittaker became the largest single lottery winner of all-time by taking in $314.9million from a Powerball lottery. Choosing to take a single lump-sum payment instead of 30 annual installments, Whittaker walked away with 'only' $170million after taxes.