In 1829, an 18 year-old Mexican scout for the Antonio Armijo Trading Caravan was tasked with finding a new trade route to Los Angeles from Santa Fe, New Mexico. He came onto an oasis in the desert in his search. Brigham Young ordered 30 missionaries to construct a fort in...
"Nick the Greek" is a very famous nickname that has become quite common, but Nikos Dandolas, a famous Greek gambler and known high-roller, was the very first "Nick the Greek". Nick's story, like most true high-rollers, was filled with massive wins, untold wealth, and then basically poverty. That just makes...
There is one guy actually being thought of as having the greatest gaming run in history. He turned $50 to $40000000 during his run which lasted three years. He is the legendary Archie Karas of course. Archie Karas was born 1951 in Antipata, Kefalonia, Greece. Karas had lived an early life...
Lester Ben Binion (November 20, 1904 - December 25, 1989) was an American gambling legend, career criminal, and convicted assassin who set up illegal gambling operations in the Texas city of Dallas-Fort Worth. He would later move to Nevada, where gambling was legal, and in downtown Las Vegas open the...
Las Vegas was halfway through a recession. It was April 1957, and two years earlier the town had still come to terms with the opening of five major resorts. The Dunes, the Riviera, New Frontier, Royal Nevada and Moulin Rouge had all fought through changes of ownership, some falling into...
Frank Lawrence "Lefty" Rosenthal was a sports handicapper, Chicago Outfit partner, and a former Las Vegas casino executive (June 12, 1929-October 13, 2008). He had received the mocking nickname "Lefty" because at a hearing on gambling and organized crime, he had cited the Fifth Amendment thirty-seven times, even invoking his...
Next month, an Atlantic City casino is scheduled to be demolished and city officials are planning to turn the demolition event into a fundraiser, aiming to raise more than $1 million. Trump Plaza, and the bidding winner will be able to press and blow up the button. The demolition of the...
Rothstein was born in New York City on January 17, 1882, and saw his last classroom at age 16. He worked as a traveling salesman for a while, but he became drawn to a life of crime when he started hanging out in the neighborhood pool clubs. Rothstein started out...
Roulette as we know it today seems to have first appeared in Paris in 1796. It was enshrined in Monte Carlo in the nineteenth century and celebrated in story and song as the preferred high-stakes game of the rich and royal. It was a target for those with systems attempting...
Archie Karas, a gambler who started with $50 in 1995 and made it into $40 million in three years, only to lose it all in three weeks. Man with one of the most outstanding streaks in gambling history tells his life story. Article about Karas
Stan Tomchin claims to be "the most powerful gambler in the world," and he may have been. Stan was a chess master, a bridge master, and possibly the best backgammon player in the world. He then progressed to blackjack, horse racing, and, finally, sports betting. Stan, who grew up on Long...
Alan Woods, a huge winner with a massive bankroll, bets millions the way the rest of us gamble dollars. In 1987, he made his first million dollars by shorting the Hong Kong stock exchange. He lost it the next year by shorting the Japanese market. In 1994, he won $8...
Gambling has been around for thousands of years and games of chance are just one of the evolutionary tendencies that we can't shake off. In the 21st century, people are just as divided about gambling as they were in the past. Gambling was against the law in Egypt and gamblers were...
