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Feature Frank Scoblete

Gambling's Greatest Wins, Runs, Records & Legends
A brief retelling of the stuff that makes us dream

"Daddy, tell me a story," said my little son so many years ago when he was seven. I always told my kids stories at bedtime. "Once upon a time there was a regular guy named Joe and he went to work every day at the local school where he was a teacher. Joe was a good man and…"

"No, Daddy, tell me a story about giants and monsters and how I kill them," said my son.

"…and one day Joe turned into this hideous monster with two heads and giant teeth who ate all the children in the class and spit out their bones…"

"That’s more like it," said my son. "Now, I’ll be able to go to sleep."

My son was no different from the typical kid of any era; he wanted an outsized story that he could mentally put himself into as an outsized hero who did prodigious things. We casino gamblers are no different. Check the look on the faces of your fellow low- to medium-rolling casino players as they watch a whale betting and winning more money on one hand of blackjack than some of them make in a year. They have a dreamy look that says, "That’s really me playing those hands, and that’s my money, and everyone around me is watching me bet all this money, and they are all watching me win all this money. This is really a story that is all about me!" And when our gambler goes to sleep, he will dream those impossible dreams, just as my little son used to.

But some real, flesh-and-blood gamblers, a fraction of a percent of a fraction of a percent mind you, get to experience the outsized, the outlandish, the outer limits of gambling’s good fortune.

You sometimes read about these folks in the papers; such as how on January 26, 2000, Cynthia Jay-Brennan put $27 in a Megabucks machine at the now-defunct Desert Inn in Las Vegas and won $34,959,458; or how on November 15, 1998, a 65-year-old retired flight attendant won $27,582,539 on a Megabucks machine at the Palace Station Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, and how about this very same woman, one month previously, had hit for more than $680,000 on The Wheel of Fortune at that same casino; or, for really low-rollers with big dreams, how that fellow who, on July 24, 2000, put in his nickels in the Nickels Deluxe machine at Harveys Resort Casino in Nevada and won a tidy $1,655,998 and 20 cents!

But giant slot progressives are made for lightning strikes, and strange as it is to say this, there is nothing really "unusual" in winning against those 49,846,031-to-1 odds, since some 120 people have won the coveted Megabucks jackpots nationwide since its creation in 1986.

But how about one- (or two)-of-a-kind stories that aren’t shared with 120 people, but are really from the "once upon a time" school of the fantastic but real? What about stuff that only epic heroes can accomplish only once or twice in a century?

Son, I’ll tell you a story

Roulette naturally lends itself to the fantastic but true realm of casino gaming stories, as it’s the oldest game with the longest tradition, and has had the most written about it worldwide.

Try these stories on for outsize:

Over a seven year period, between 1904 and 1911, William Nelson Darnborough from Bloomington, Illinois, challenged the monstrous Monte Carlo casino at roulette, winning close to a half million dollars (in early 1900’s currency, mind you). He did this after winning untold sums playing roulette in the United States in illegal casinos operated in saloons. Darnborough was a wheel watcher, a man who could anticipate with an unusual degree of accuracy where the ball would land. After winning his fortune, he quit playing to marry a beautiful young woman of noble blood whose family frowned on gambling. He lived happily ever after on a huge estate in England.

In 1971, Dr. Richard Jarecki operated on the casinos in Monte Carlo and San Remo to the tune of $1,280,000. Dr. Jarecki was a biased-wheel player who looked for wheels that were "off." He found them and stitched together quite a winning streak.

In a three-year period, from 1986 to 1989, Billy Walter’s roulette teams won approximately five million dollars from casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, also playing biased-wheels.

But all the above biased-wheel players owe a debt of gratitude to the granddaddy of biased-wheel play, the man who might have "invented" it–one Joseph Jaggers, who won $325,000 in 1873 from Monte Carlo. (How much would that be worth today?) Jaggers staggered Monte Carlo because until that time, no one–and I mean no one–had ever sustained a winning streak of his proportions at the famed casino.

Those are some of the men who performed heroically in the face of Lady Luck by using skill at roulette, but what about weird and wild streaks that were just old-fashioned, once-in-a-lifetime crazy luck?

Here is an eyewitness account from Barney Vinson, gaming instructor at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and author of the acclaimed books Casino Secrets and Chip-Wrecked in Las Vegas, of something that has only happened twice in "recorded" roulette history:

"Here’s a true story, and I saw it happen. At Caesars Palace on July 14, 2000, at 1:35 p.m., the number seven came up six times in a row at Roulette Wheel #211. To figure the odds of such an occurrence, multiply 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x 38, or over three billion to one! The dealer said it was the first time he had seen this in his 27-year career. Another sidelight. After the ball landed on seven the fourth time, the floor supervisor told the pit boss, ‘I’ll bet you a million dollars that it won’t come up again.’ Then here it came again, and then again."

During this twice-in-a-century event, with players and pit bosses and dealers all agog at the incredible repeating seven, how much money did Roulette Table #211 lose? Hundreds of millions? Millions? Hundreds of thousands? Thousands? Nope, a mere $300!

Barney Vinson saw also something that has only been recorded one time before. The number 10 appeared six times in a row on July 9th, 1959, at the El San Juan Hotel in Puerto Rico.

Some other wild roulette "eyewitness" accounts aren’t as reliable as Barney Vinson’s, but I give them to you nonetheless, and you be the judge of their veracity. Black was said to have come up 23 times in a row at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas (a dealer told me this in the early 1990s), or was it 22 times in a row at Caesars in Atlantic City (mid-1990s)? Red once came up 21 times but I can’t remember who told me or where it was. I just remember I was in Vegas and someone saying to me: "Here’s another glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, sir, and red once came up 21 times at that roulette wheel over there, no, no, turn your head, sir–that one over there!"

If you’re looking for strange to go along with your odds, try this one: A roulette ball rocketed off the roulette wheel, almost hit a croupier in the eye but he swiped at it just in time, hit it up in the air, where it bounced off a chandelier, came back down, ricocheted off a patron’s cigarette holder, then dropped back into the roulette wheel, where it landed in the four pocket. This happened in England. It was told to me by a flight attendant for American Airlines who claims to have witnessed it.

Craps tales

In the realm of craps, the greatest interest is usually centered around monster rolls, lasting more than 20—30 minutes and making everyone at the table a bundle of money. I have had two monster rolls, one for 45+ minutes on April 2, 1999, at Binion’s Horseshoe in Vegas that I wrote about in Casino Player, and another in July of 2000 at Sunset Station of approximately 30—35 minutes’ duration. Those are my personal bests to this point.

How do my monsters stack up against the greatest rolls of all time? Like gremlins to Godzilla! The greatest "verified" roll of all time was one Stanley Fujitake, the famous "Golden Arm" from Hawaii, who rolled for over three hours at the California Club in Las Vegas in the 1980s. He is said to have had (unconfirmed) one- to two-hour rolls at Caesars Palace in Vegas as well.

There was a report of an even bigger roll at the Horseshoe in Tunica–a four-hour monster in 1999. When I investigated it, my reliable source (Madeliene Bizub who writes for www.scoblete.com about Mississippi matters) told me that the roll was actually only (only!) 2 hours 15 minutes in duration, and was not at the Horseshoe but at the Sheraton, which is next door. How did she know? She was there!

I personally witnessed two back-to-back, hour-long rolls at The Frontier during the summer of 1995, during that awful Culinary Union strike. The table was composed of nothing but red-chip players, but after the two fellows finished two hours later, everyone was betting green, black and purple chips! How much did I make? About $37, because I was playing blackjack at the time, not craps. But I had a great view of the game, if that’s any consolation.

Atlantic City has had its share of great reported rolls. A two-hour roll was said to have occurred at Caesars in the mid-1990s, but I could get no confirmation of it. I do know that the famous "Arm" of Atlantic City has had many 20-minute to one-hour rolls over the past two-dozen years, and that one special night, New Years Eve (1990?), at the Claridge Hotel, she had five or six 20 minute or longer rolls, one after another, because every other player passed up their turn to shoot and let the "Arm" roll the bones exclusively! I did not personally witness this event but several members of the Captain’s Crew verified that they were there when this happened. Literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, were won by those high-rolling players in a single session. (Robert Renneisen, the former Claridge president, obliquely refers to the Captain’s Crew and episodes such as this in his excellent book How to Be Treated Like a High Roller Even Though You’re Not One.) Supposedly, the "Arm" was triumphantly boosted on the shoulders of the winning players and carried out of the casino like Michael Jordan after a championship, with all the attendant whooping and hollering. A happy New Year, indeed!

Of course, there are famous craps players as well; that is, players who are known for running up big wins with small investments, not necessarily on their own individual rolls. Because craps is a game with many long-shot bets, some paying as high as 30 to 1, a craps player can catch a "lucky streak" and ride small buy-ins to big wins. It’s rare, but it happens. Michael Konik, in his excellent book The Man with the $100,000 Breasts and Other Gambling Stories, tells of one character known as Fast Eddie, "an octogenarian jockey who has on four separate occasions run $100 up to more than $250,000." That ain’t hay!

Blackjack lore

Would you rather be lucky or skillful? Many gamblers have asked themselves that question. Even Santiago, Ernest Hemingway’s ancient fisherman from his classic The Old Man and the Sea, wondered about this. His conclusion was that it was better to be skillful so that when luck came you were ready for it. Blackjack is a game of skill, but some people have ridden lucky streaks to incredible wins.

In the spring of 1995, an old man found treasure at Treasure Island in Las Vegas. This was a rags to riches to rags story that has now taken on the aura of legend. While some writers think this tale is mere fiction, I can tell you it did happen. I personally interviewed dozens of eyewitnesses from Treasure Island for my book Best Blackjack, which has the complete story of the man sometimes referred to as "the million dollar bum." These interviews were done only weeks after the events.

In a nutshell, here is the most amazing blackjack streak of all time, as I wrote about it for Casino Player’s "100 Greatest Events in Casino Gaming" issue:

"A smelly bum, whose wife has just kicked him out of the house, cashes in his $400 social security check and proceeds to win between $1.3 and $1.6 million dollars in a weeklong orgy of good luck at the blackjack tables. The folks who deal to him and the folks who serve him say he is the rudest, crudest, but luckiest bastard they ever saw–with the emphasis on the "b" word. At the height of his winning he alienates just about everyone he comes into contact with at Treasure Island. When he finally blows his incredible bundle (oh, yes, he loses just about all of it back to the casino), Steve Wynn steps in and has him escorted out into the neon night and into the dawn of a new Las Vegas legend."

The "million dollar bum" might have had the greatest sustained rags-to-riches streak–over a week of winning–by a player who did not play basic strategy, but did play the gods of chance–that is, until they turned on him. However, a shorter but equally improbable streak took place at the Maxim Casino in Las Vegas in July of 1995 (just weeks after the bum’s rush), when a $5 player won 23 straight hands–some with doubles, splits (wins on both!), and splits with doubles (wins on them all!) playing heads-up against a dealer in a six-deck game. This player was playing perfect basic strategy but, still, 23 straight hands is an amazing run. On the fourth hand, he started to increase his bets and he won several thousand dollars in that streak.

But luck comes and goes–mostly goes, since casino gaming for most folks is a negative-expectation endeavor–but skill lasts. In the early and late 1970s, the most exciting blackjack player in history, Ken Uston, beat the casinos in Vegas and Atlantic City out of over $5 million (some say $10 million) utilizing a concept called "team play."

Here is a sample of how team play worked: Relatively small-stakes players took seats at various blackjack tables throughout the casino where they counted cards and used basic strategy to play their hands. When the shoe became positive for the player (many big cards were left), a small-stakes player signaled a "big player" (Uston) to enter the game, make large bets, sometimes table maximum bets of $500 to $2,000, and depart once the shoe went negative. It was a remarkably effective system that some teams still utilize to this day. It got Uston fame, fortune and the boot from just about every casino he played in.

Larger than life

Like Uston, there are many legendary gamblers and events in the gambling world. To list them all would take several books. But here are four of the most famous "legends" in the last 20 or so years.

In the early 1980s, the "suitcase man" arrived at Binion’s to make a big bet. The story of the "suitcase man" has become another modern legend of Las Vegas and it has lost nothing in the telling over a period of almost 20 years. In fact, there are at least six different versions of the story, the following being the most accurate:

William Lee Bergstrom, from Austin, Texas, decided to test the Binion claim that Binion would book any bet, no matter how large, as long as you make it your first. Bergstrom arrived with a suitcase filled with $777,000, which he bet on the Don’t Pass line at craps. The shooter established a point of six and then sevened out two rolls later. Bergstrom took his original $777,000 and his win of $777,000 and departed.

However, Bergstrom couldn’t stay away for long. He came back and won a single $590,000 bet, then he came back some time later and won a $190,000 bet; then he appeared again and won $90,000. Finally, he came back to make his famous $1,000,000 bet (circa 1984), which he lost. Three months later Bergstrom killed himself at a Strip hotel. Bergstrom died $647,000 ahead–at casino gambling–but he was obviously down at the game of life.

Perhaps the most extraordinary of recent legendary streaks is possessed by Mr. Archie Karas, a Greek immigrant who in 1992-1993 had one of the greatest runs in Vegas history. Starting with a borrowed stake of ten thousand dollars, Archie went on a rampage of poker at Binion’s Horseshoe, defeating 15 of the world’s greatest poker players in head-to-head competition, including World Champions Chip Reese, Stu Unger, Puggy Pearson and Johnny Chan. When he ran out of poker competitors, Archie headed to the Horseshoe’s craps tables where he won millions more. At one point in his run, Archie possessed all of the Horseshoe’s $5,000 chips–over $11 million worth. When the run was over, Archie was up over $17 million between poker and craps, all at the Horseshoe. You can find his story in Konik’s book, too.

The most written about, most admired, and, to some of the casinos he’s crippled, the most feared modern gambler is Australian billionaire Kerry Packer. When it comes to Packer, it’s hard to get the facts of his prodigious wins and equally prodigious losses straight. He’s either won $20 million, $30 million or $40 million dollars over several days at MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 1997 and caused several casino executives to get the axe for reeling in this big whale who sunk their quarterly earnings report. The myth of Australia’s gambling media tycoon just gets bigger and bigger, with a capital "B" as in baccarat and blackjack, his preferred games. You want an outsized man with some outsized deeds? Kerry is said to have tipped one cocktail waitress a house!

How about some fightin’ words? Savor this tall tale about Packer: A loud, obnoxious Texas high roller is playing at the same table as Packer. This man is being as obnoxious as, well, the stereotypical obnoxious Texan in countless obnoxious Texan stories. [Why aren’t there any obnoxious Rhode Islander stories?] Finally, Kerry asks the man to ease up. The man gets louder: "Do you know who I am? I am worth $60 million, pardner!" He pauses to let this sink in, then says, "Sixty million dollars, pardner. That’s what I’m worth."

Packer eyes him and says, "I’ll flip you for it!"

The fourth and final of the modern legends is none other than the Captain, the man who has beaten craps for 22 years, and about whom I’ve written three books. The Captain, like the "million dollar bum," is thought by some to be a myth, in this case a myth made up by me. But the Captain is real, and what he has done is just as real, as a handful of casino executives know; but because craps is a negative-expectation game, what the Captain has done whets the desires of craps players worldwide, that perhaps someday they can be in his shoes.

Oh, yes, there are many, many more high rollers that I could name, Sultans and Princes, Chinese, Japanese and American jet-setters, Mexican businessmen with a taste for glamour and daring. They are all out there playing the games we all play but for stakes that can make our hearts palpitate with envy. And there are probably many more streaks and wild strokes of luck that I have not named that could have easily been included in this article had anyone known about them. Perhaps, in the future, some enterprising young writer will decide to create a book of records so that the great achievements and extraordinary happenings will be saved for all time, so that the rest of us can read and wonder.

So, let me tell you a story: Once upon a time, you walked into the casino and the crowds parted for you. The other players knew there was something very special about you this night. It must have been that look you had that said, "Tonight belongs to me." And tonight did belong to you, as you won bet after bet at game after game. And the story of that night became a legend and was told over and over and over again. It was the night that you brought the mighty casino monster to its knees and plucked out its golden teeth.

Frank Scoblete is the number one best-selling author of gaming books and tapes in the world. He has his own quarterly magazine, The New Chance and Circumstance, and his own website www.scoblete.com on the games pages of RGT Online. For a free catalog call: 1-800-944-0406 or write to: Paone Press, Box 610, Lynbrook, NY 11563.

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