![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.oddee.com\/_media\/imgs\/oddee\/top1.gif\")
\u00a0The Gambler Who Blew $127 Million<\/h2>\n\u00a0The Gambler Who Blew $127 Million<\/h2>\n![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.oddee.com\/_media\/imgs\/articles2\/a98616_casino8.jpg\")
<\/center>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\u00a0private equity firm. From this sale, Terry amassed a huge fortune that would later propel a drinking and\u00a0gambling\u00a0problem into astronomical losses at various Harrah’s owned\u00a0casinos.<\/p>\nIt started in 2007 when Mr. Watanabe took a\u00a0trip to Las Vegas, but then never left. Enjoying the various comps and perks of being a high roller, the\u00a0casinos\u00a0slowly drained his fortune for an entire year. It was a\u00a0gambling\u00a0binge that ended up costing him over $200 million.<\/p>\n
During that year, 6% of Harrah’s total Las Vegas\u00a0gambling\u00a0revenue came from Terry Watanabe. He gambled so much that Harrah’s invented a new tier in their Total Rewards program just for him called \u201cChairman.\u201d It came with various perks such as $12,500 a month for airfare, free concert tickets, and $500,000 in credit at the gift stores. That’s a nice little bonus for losing $200 million!<\/p>\n
Mr. Watanabe finally ended his\u00a0gambling\u00a0binge after opening up to his sister about his problems during a Thanksgiving visit. She brought him back to Omaha and he entered a treatment facility for addiction. He hasn’t entered another casino since then, but unfortunately that’s not where his problems ended.<\/p>\n
Harrah’s eventually had to file criminal charges against Terry after he refused to repay all his losses. He agreed to pay $112 million of it, but says that Harrah’s irresponsibly fueled his addiction by supplying him with alcohol and encouraging his\u00a0gambling\u00a0habits. Employees at Harrah’s say that Mr. Watanabe would sometimes lose $5 million a day, gamble for 24 hours straight, and was allowed to play three hands of\u00a0blackjack\u00a0at once. Reports also indicate that managers routinely dismissed his obvious signs of intoxication while playing and did whatever they could to keep him\u00a0gambling\u00a0in the casino.<\/p>\n
Mr. Watanabe plead not guilty to the charges, filed his own civil suit against Harrah’s, and was scheduled to appear in court in 2010. However, a\u00a0confidential\u00a0agreement was met two weeks before the trial and all claims from both parties were dropped.<\/p>\n
Terry Watanabe’s year long\u00a0gambling\u00a0run is believed to be the single biggest losing streak by an individual in Las Vegas history.\u00a0(Link<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n Demauro declined to reveal how much money she won, but\u00a0gambling\u00a0experts estimate that if she made good bets, her winnings were probably in the hundreds of thousands; expert bets would have put them in the millions. Demauro spent the rest of their holiday weekend in Atlantic City, and even returned to the same craps table two nights later \u2014 but only as spectators. “The expectations were too high,” she says. “I wasn’t ready to be the shooter again.”\u00a0(Link<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Photo<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n Revell placed his bet on red; the ball ended up on 7 red, and Revell had doubled his money to $270,600. Everybody waited for new bets from him, but he gave $600 to a dealer as a tip, said, “thank you!” and left the casino.<\/p>\n Revell used his winnings to set up his own online poker company called Poker UTD. According to TV producer Simon Cowell, he’s the inspiration behind his new game show called “Red or Black?”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.oddee.com\/_media\/imgs\/oddee\/top2.gif\")
\u00a0The Grandma who had a 154-roll lucky streak<\/h2>\n![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.oddee.com\/_media\/imgs\/articles2\/a98616_casino1.jpg\")
<\/center>What are the chances of rolling a pair of dice 154 times continuously at a craps table without throwing a seven? The answer is roughly 1 in 1.56 trillion, and on May 23 Patricia Demauro, a New Jersey grandmother, beat those odds at Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa. Demauro’s 154-roll lucky streak, which lasted four hours and 18 minutes, broke the world records for the longest craps roll and the most successive dice rolls without “sevening out.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.oddee.com\/_media\/imgs\/oddee\/top3.gif\")
\u00a0The Man who gambled ALL he had on a SINGLE spin of roulette… and WON!<\/h2>\n![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.oddee.com\/_media\/imgs\/articles2\/a98616_betandrew.jpg\")
<\/center>In 2004, as part of the reality mini-series “Double or Nothing,” British professional gambler Ashley Revell sold all his possessions, including his clothes, and gambled $135,300 on a SINGLE spin of a\u00a0roulette wheel\u00a0in the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/p>\n