Biggest Gambling Stories
Big Zingers and a big finish. Jason Sobel detailed a series of gambling stories for the Action Network, including one on a night he’d spent at a party Mickelson was hosting. 1 The Gambler Who Blew $127 Million Harry Watanabe founded a gift shop, the Oriental Trading Company, in 1932 and made it grow until it became one of the largest players in its market, until 1977 when his son, Terry Watanabe, became its CEO. Later, in 2000, Terry sold his entire stake in the company to a private equity firm. Known as the man who turned $50 into $40 million, Archie Karas is one of the most famous high rolling casino winners of all time, which also makes his one of our best casino stories. Born Anargyros Karabourniotis, this poor Greek immigrant came to America while working on a cruise ship, discovered how to play poker, and never looked back. With stories of excessive drinking, 24-hour gambling and even sleepwalking doing the rounds, Terry’s story quickly spun from a win to a loss and became a tragic cautionary tale. Cynthia Jay was a cocktail waitress at the Monte Carlo casino in Las Vegas. On January 26, 2000, while celebrating her future mother-in-law’s birthday, Jay took a shot at the Megabucks slot machine, a state-wide lottery jackpot that had rolled over for quite a while. On her ninth pull, she won $34,959,458.56—at the time the largest Megabucks jackpot in history.