Gambling Losses – The Winners & Their Stories
To gamble means to know how to lose or, most importantly, when to quit. If you can’t control your betting urges, you might end up being like the people in the article – committing one of the biggest gambling losses known. In this article, you will find the top 7 gambling losses in the world. You will also learn the names and the stories of the punters who lost most to gambling.
Top 7 Biggest Gambling Losses
Right now, you will have the chance to explore the list of the biggest gambling losses in the world. Gambling has always been the sin of the rich people and the obsession of the poor. Be advised that there are no gambling losses in the UK in our chart. Many gamblers who cannot control themselves hit rock bottom. Millionaires can quickly become beggars or dive into the sea of debts to get eaten by big loan sharks waiting for an easy prayer. Don’t lose more time, learn which are the top seven gambling stories losses:
- Terrance Watanabe – $127 Million
- Zhenli Ye Gon – $80Million
- Umar Siddiqui – $65 Million
- Archie Karas – $40 Million
- Charles Barkley – $30 Million
- Harry Kakavas – $20.5 Million
- Michael Vick – $20 Million
Keep in mind that nowadays there are many top-notch online casinos. Because of that, you may encounter even bigger gambling losses. Still, one of the biggest benefits of digital gambling is the incognito factor and the significance that you can be famous with your nickname only and nothing else. There are many unknown gambling millionaires in our modern age, about which we don’t know much. Thie first gambling winners of this type appeared in the distant 2000-2005 when online poker tournaments became the most popular type of online gambling.
Terrance Watanabe – Biggest Gambling Loss
| 📛 Name: | Terrance Watanabe |
| 👵 Age: | 60 |
| 💸 Gambling Losses: | $127 Million |
| 💲 Still in Debt: | Yes |
| 🎲 Preferred Game: | Blackjack & Baccarat |
Terrance Watanabe is a famous American businessman. His family owned the Oriental Trading Company, which Terrance sold in 2000. While his father, the company founder – Henry Watanabe, was famous for his business and management skills, Terry became known for his gambling losses and alcohol addiction. After his father passed away, he inherited the corporation, which was not good for the company assets.
Seven years after he sold it, he became famous for one of the biggest gambling losses in Las Vegas – $127 million at Caesars Palace Las Vegas. He got banned from Wynn and other casinos because of his alcohol abuse, cocaine and weed usage and his rude and sexually offensive attitude toward staff members. If we calculate all of Terry’s gambling losses, we can state that he gambled in total over $800 million and lost over $200 million.
Zhenli Ye Gon – Crime Money Gambling
| 📛 Name: | Zhenli Ye Gon |
| 👵 Age: | 58 |
| 💸 Gambling Losses: | $85 Million |
| 💲 Still in Debt: | Unknown |
| 🎲 Preferred Game: | Unknown |
Zhenli Ye Gon appeared to be the perfect link between Asia crime syndicates and the Mexican cartels. Zhenli became famous after the combined operation between the FBI and the Mexican police, which found over $200 million in cash at his house. He is also a suspect in drug trafficking of enormous amounts of ephedrine, the main ingredient for the production of amphetamines and methamphetamines, which are some of the worst drugs sold on the streets.
However, we won’t concentrate on his rap sheet now, but we will pay more attention to the period between 2004 and 2007. At that time, Zhenli spent over $85 million only in Venetian Las Vegas. Records are pointing that he lost another $40 million in other famous Las Vegas casinos.
Umar Siddiqui – Illegal Kickback Scheme
| 📛 Name: | Ausaf Umar Siddiqui |
| 👵 Age: | 56 |
| 💸 Gambling Losses: | $65 Million |
| 💲 Still in Debt: | $137 Million(in 2011) |
| 🎲 Preferred Game: | Blackjack |
Known among its friends as Omar, Umar Siddiqui suffered one of the biggest gambling losses of the previous decade. The casino staff members of Las Vegas casinos know him as the “blackjack machine”. It is proven that he gambled over $162 million in Vegas for only three years. After a series of devastating losses, in 2011 has was still in debt with $137 million. His biggest gambling loss is $65 million in a single hand.
He became famous not for gambling stories losses but for his career as a vice president of Fly’s Electronics. His salary comes to over $200,000 per month. In addition, he was able to skyrocket the company’s value and hide another $65 million. Unfortunate for him, he was charged by the FBI for an illegal kickback scheme.
Archie Karas – The Longest Winning Streak
| 📛 Name: | Archie Karas |
| 👵 Age: | 71 |
| 💸 Gambling Losses: | $40 Million |
| 💲 Still in Debt: | No |
| 🎲 Preferred Game: | Poker, Dice & Baccarat |
Archie Karas is also known as Nick the Greek or only the Greek. He became famous after one of the longest winning streaks in the history of casino gambling. His story is quite inspiring because he went to Las Vegas with only $50, and with a $10,000 loan, he was able to make $40 million for only three years.
He was a great high-stake poker player who also liked betting on dice or Baccarat. He lost the $40 million in less than three weeks in 1995. Archie Karas is a classic example of a compulsive gambling disorder. Less than six months later, he made $4 million with a loan of $40,000, but he lost them too on the following day. A few years later, he was caught cheating and sentenced to three years of probation.
Charles Barkley – From NBA to Gambling
| 📛 Name: | Charles Wade Barkley |
| 👵 Age: | 58 |
| 💸 Gambling Losses: | $30 Million |
| 💲 Still in Debt: | No |
| 🎲 Preferred Game: | Roulette, Blackjack & Others |
Charles Barkley is a famous American pro basket player who had 16 seasons in the NBA. He had a long, successful and well-paid career, but he also developed an impulsive gambling disorder which became evident in 2007. Numerous times he told in public about his gambling stories losses on different events.
It is estimated that he lost over $30 million on gambling in Las Vegas and in general. After all, he repaid all his debts and moved forward and quit gambling. You can find several interviews where he says what pushed him through the process and how he could move on. We hope he is not playing secretly at the best roulette sites.
Harry Kakavas – The Real Estate Tycoon
| 📛 Name: | Harry Kakavas |
| 👵 Age: | Unknown |
| 💸 Gambling Losses: | 20.5 Million |
| 💲 Still in Debt: | No |
| 🎲 Preferred Game: | Baccarat |
Harry Kakavas is an Australian tycoon that shaped the real-estate market on the continent’s east coast. He is one of the richest people in the country but is also suffering from gambling addiction. From all the biggest gambling losses displayed today, he is the person who lost most from an overall perspective – over $1.4 billion.
One of his most considerable gambling losses is over $20 million in one hand. All croupiers know him from Melbourn to Las Vegas for his big bets and poor luck. Up to this date, he has no debts, but the truth is that there is not much publically disclosed information about him.
Michael Vick – From American Football To Illegal Betting
| 📛 Name: | Michael Vick |
| 👵 Age: | 41 |
| 💸 Gambling Losses: | $20 Million |
| 💲 Still in Debt: | No |
| 🎲 Preferred Game: | Unknown |
You probably know Michael Vick as a professional American football player with his NFL career. He spent over 13 years as a pro player and became a sports icon in Atlanta. Later on, it became evident that he was organising illegal dog fights, while being an NFL player. He even got sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2008. After that, he came back to football and retired in 2017.
However, his gambling losses are the many expenses and reimbursements he had to do after his illegal betting scheme was disclosed. The Atlanta Falcons demanded $20 or $37 million to be returned to the club because they were supposed to be used for funding an illegal gambling scheme.
Are Gambling Losses Deductible?
We will give you the long and the short version of that question. First of all, we want to clarify the question a bit. If you want to retrieve your gambling losses because you have gambling issues, know that you can’t do it, but there are other ways to help yourself, which we will discuss in a minute.
If you want to get your gambling losses tax, this is possible. As you may know, the gambling taxes in the UK vary between 1% and 25%, depending on the type of gambling. All you need to do to claim your gambling losses tax in the UK is fill the official tax return form on the government website.
Now for those of you who can’t control themselves well. You cannot ask for your money to be returned to you, but you can restrict yourself from gambling. In most online casinos, you can set up personal limits, you can ban yourself for a particular time, or you can limit the options for reversed withdrawals. In addition, they offer contact with professional problem gambling associations like Gambler Anonymous. Don’t forget that escape the grip of addiction; you need first to realise it and ask for help.
FAQ
We mentioned many specific details today, so it is normal to have additional questions. For your convenience, we gathered the most frequently asked ones so that you can check them right away. You will find a jump link in every answer leading to one more complete and extensive explanation available in the article.
