Top 10 Historic Gambling Moments: Milestones That Changed the Game

The history of gambling dates back thousands of years. With so many years behind the activity, it’s only natural that it has witnessed many historic events.

Modern-day gambling has also witnessed decades of unforgettable gambling moments that have been imprinted on our memory and will remain there for years to come. Millions and billions being won by people who took on the odds are still fascinating events to date.

From humble beginnings in some saloons to the establishment of the Las Vegas strip, there have been numerous events that we can look back on to find out the 10 moments that influenced how we gamble forever.

10. The MIT Blackjack Team in the 90s

In the early 1990s, the MIT Blackjack team was everywhere. Casinos across the US were the target, and these mathematicians would go around winning significant sums of money. The team was made up of professors and students from prestigious American universities, and they would go global in the 1990s.

Using the Hi-Lo method of card counting, the team would know the likelihood of favorable hands and bet accordingly. Using these tricks, they managed to win $400,000 from casinos in Vegas in just a weekend and even managed to earn $4 million in a few months of gambling in 1994.

They were so famous that two movies were made about them in 2004 and 2008.

A few players from the team also released books on their escapades, like Bringing Down the House, written by Ben Mezrich. In total, they would go on to play until 2000 and inspire many other groups to form and try to beat the casinos in their own game.

9. A $2 Billion Lottery Win

[Source: themirror.com]

Recently, on February 14th, the biggest lottery win of $2.4 billion was announced by the Powerball lottery in the US. The winning combination was won by Edwin Castro back in November of last year, but now that he finally got his prize, he is getting more and more media attention.

This $2 billion jackpot is the biggest win in US lottery history, and the odds of winning for Castro were as low as one in 292.2 million people.

The California Lottery, the organizer of this huge sum, will also be donating $156 million to California’s public schools, as they have done previously.

As it is the biggest lottery win in not just USA but world history, this might mark a historical shift from small localized lotteries to multi-state or country-wide lotteries.

8. The Beginning of Online Gambling

Nowadays, online casinos and gambling are everywhere, and more and more people are getting into them. Gambling from the comfort of one’s own home might feel like a very recent addition, but these ideas had their inception as far back as the 1990s.

The first online gambling event was the Liechtenstein International Lottery, which let people buy tickets online way back in 1994. The first completely online casino was also launched in the same year under the name InterCasino.

Although basic in their appearance, these casinos would give rise to the formation of 888 Casino in 1997.

Fast forward to 2022, and the global online gambling market is worth $63.53 billion and is projected to grow rapidly. Online platforms have given people all over the world an easy portal to access their favorite games and have changed the face of gambling from brick-and-mortar casinos to the online ecosystem.

7. $40 Million in 40 Minutes

[Source: insidestory.org.au]

Australian billionaire Kerry Packer needs no introduction, but his exploits definitely deserve praise and recognition from the entire gambling community.

Before his historic blackjack winning streak, people viewed the game more as a safe betting option with limited wins and losses. He was set to change that perception in May 1995.

Packer went into the MGM Grand Casino as a hobbyist and came out as a pro. He played eight hands of blackjack simultaneously, each of which was worth more than $30,000.

Wagering over $250,000 each round isn’t for the faint-hearted, but Packer wasn’t the average gambler. After 40 minutes of play, he was $40 million richer, and we would imagine him smiling ear to ear.

He would break the highest win record in blackjack not once but twice and cement his legacy as one of the greatest in the game. The 1995 record still holds to this day and is a benchmark for aspiring blackjack enthusiasts to break.

6. The First Wsop $1 Million Buy-in Tournament

[Source: Youtube.com]

High-stakes poker has always been a thrilling activity, but the prestigious WSOP getting its first $1 million buy-in tournament was on another level. Disregarding the ridiculously high buy-in and the sheer scope of it, this televised event was a game-changer in terms of the perception of poker.

The tournament was held in July 2012 amidst enormous fanfare and media coverage, with a limited pool of seats. This 48-man free-for-all featured big names like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, and many others.

Esfandiari won the finals against Sam Trickett and took home a whopping $18.3 million in prize money.

With hundreds of thousands watching from home, the tournament inspired many people to take up poker professionally, and the respect for the sport, which was growing steadily, took a massive leap.

5. The Megabucks Slot Pays Almost $40 Million

Slot games have been the bread and butter of casinos and players alike due to their low barrier to entry and the potential for huge jackpots. Just how big could these jackpots be, though? You already had a hint when you read the title, but let’s dig deeper.

An anonymous player from Los Angeles happened to be playing at the Excalibur Casino in Vegas in 2003. Trying his hand at the Megabucks slot, the player had just $100 in his bankroll. Imagine his surprise when all the stars aligned and the player made out like a bandit with a jackpot worth $39.7 million!

This was the biggest jackpot ever won in one round of slots, and the title holds to this day. This historic moment was the single biggest piece of publicity Megabucks ever needed, but many more insane wins are attributed to the slot game.

4. Rags to Riches: Archie Karas

[Source: i.ytimg.com]

After falling out with his father at just 15 years old, Archie Karas had few opportunities in his home country of Greece. In search of better opportunities, he bet everything on a job as a waiter on a ship. Soon that ship reached the shores of the US, and Karas started life in LA as a waiter.

The story of struggle and hardship took a massive turn when he started winning regularly in poker tournaments and made $2 million in roughly 20 years. At the age of 42, he once again left everything and moved to Vegas, where his run began. From 1992 to 1995, he would have an incredibly successful run in poker circles, amassing $40 million in three short years.

"The Greek," as he was known among the high rollers, became an inspiration for many migrants who found themselves in a similar situation. His story lives on as a testament to the famous SAS saying: Who dares wins.

3. The Oriental Challenge to Vegas

The origins of gambling in Macau go as far back as the 1850s, when the Portuguese legalized it for the Chinese migrants working in the far-flung colony. After much deliberation and political unrest in the 1990s in Portugal, the colony was handed over to China to be a special administrative region, and that’s how the story of Macau begins.

The oldest casino in Macau is the Lisboa Casino, which opened in the 1970s but went through a massive expansion in the 1990s. The reason behind the expansion was the arrival of US casinos in the region, with the Wynn Macau taking flight right next door to it.

The list of casinos started growing, and gamblers from all over China and then the world would come over to take their chances against the house.

Thus started the rivalry between Vegas and Macau as to who had the best casinos, and the people voted with their money. As early as 2010, Macau’s gambling receipts were greater than those of the state of Nevada. The war isn’t over, though, as Vegas is making a comeback after the pandemic, but the fact that Macau challenged Vegas in such a short period of time was a historic moment in itself.

2. The First-Ever Wsop Tournament

When we look at the World Series of Poker today, we see a multi-million-dollar competition with people from all walks of life coming together to participate and win.

However, its humble beginnings in the 1970s are poetic in the truest sense of the word. Held in an alcove with fewer than 30 people, these gamblers would change the course of poker history.

Benny Binion, the man behind Horseshoe Casino, came up with the idea at a time when poker wasn’t a big sport in Nevada, with just 70 tables in the whole state. The game attracted names like Doyle Brunson, Jimmy Snyder, and Johnny Moss, who went on to win the championship after all players voted on who the best was back in 1970.

Today, the WSOP has over a hundred events and attracts hundreds of thousands of people to come and showcase their prowess in poker. Last year alone, 182,662 people came in to test their skills, and 8663 entries went on to the final event. All of this can be credited to those thirty-odd men in the 1970s who had a dream to push their favorite sport to new heights.

1. Establishment of the Las Vegas Strip

The Las Vegas Strip stands out as a beacon in the middle of the Nevada desert. Founded in 1905, Las Vegas was mostly known for farming and the Hoover Dam until the 1930s. However, that was all set to change with the formation of the Pair-o-Dice Club, which was the first casino opened on the Strip back in 1931.

The monolith of gambling started out with just small casinos and resorts until the opening of The Mirage. With luxurious suites, five-star restaurants, and an all-around classy appearance for wealthy gamblers, The Mirage made headlines in 1989. Casinos like the Bellagio Hotel Casino, MGM Grand, and many others would follow suit in the 1990s and make the strip what it is today.

The strip aside, many casinos in Vegas are even older, with the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino opening in 1906, Caesars Palace opening in 1966, and Circus Circus Casino opening in 1968, just to name a few. Thus, Vegas began its early journey into becoming synonymous with gambling, and that moniker holds true to this very day.

The fascinating world of gambling has been shaped by many events throughout history, and these are just some of the important examples of ways gambling has evolved in the modern world.

From a group of men huddled around a campfire to some of the biggest establishments in the world, gambling has seen everything as time has passed.

Although the future is never certain, we can say these moments will always be fondly remembered by gambling enthusiasts, as they shaped the landscape and gave rise to gambling as we know it today!