The Grandma with the longest lucky streak
Demauro declined to reveal how much money she won, but gambling experts 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 — but only as spectators. "The expectations were too high," she says. "I wasn't ready to be the shooter again."
Bet everything in just one spin
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 roulette wheel in the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.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.
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?"
Betting the company
In 1971, Frederick W. Smith, founder and current CEO of the company, took his personal fortune of around $4 million and raised an additional $90 million to found a delivery company structured so that it could potentially deliver packages overnight to anywhere in the world. This is something that, at that time, had never been done.
Unfortunately, three years after the company began, thanks largely to rapidly rising fuel costs, Federal Express was on the verge of bankruptcy. They were losing over $1 million a month, with no one willing to give them any additional loans or any investors interested in contributing capital.
At its low point, all the company had was $5000 to its name, leaving FedEx more or less dead on the ground when they were not be able to fuel their planes the following Monday. Not to be dissuaded, instead of taking a flight home to Memphis, Smith took the $5000 and flew to Las Vegas and played Black Jack that weekend with the remaining company funds. By Monday, to the shock of other higher-ups in the company, FedEx had $32,000 in its bank account, which was just enough to cover the fuel for their planes and to continue operating a few days more. When asked what he'd been thinking by taking a chance like that with company funds, he stated, “What difference does it make? Without the funds for the fuel companies, we couldn't have flown anyway.”
It turns out that a few days more was all he needed. Shortly thereafter, Smith successfully managed to raise $11 million to keep the company afloat and, by 1976, Federal Express made its first profit of $3.6 million. Four years after that, the company's profits were up to nearly $40 million with a gross revenue of nearly half a billion dollars. Today, FedEx is estimated to be worth $25-$35 billion, with Smith himself currently worth around $2 billion.
The newbie who won $2.4 million
At first, the Wheel of Fortune machines were good to Agbunag. Twice, she won much smaller amounts earlier that week at the same casino. But one day, she inserted $16 into a Mega-Jackpot machine from the California Hotel and Casino and it hit the big prize; she won $2.4 million on her very first trip to Las Vegas.
115 straight hours of Poker
In what can only be described as an amazing display of endurance and charity, Phil Laak's Guinness World Record attempt for continuous Poker play finally came to an end 115 hours after it began. Playing for the record and for the charitable organization Camp Sunshine, Laak originally intended to stay at the Bellagio poker room table for 80 hours. Almost a day and a half after hitting the 80-hour mark, the "Unabomber," with his girlfriend Jennifer Tilly at his side, decided to cash in his chips.Amazingly, Laak pulled off the poker marathon with absolutely no stimulants of any kind. He consumed no coffee, no caffeine, or anything illegal. He credits his fitness for this challenge to his nutritionist, who kept the "Unabomber" fed, healthy and alert throughout the challenge.
Laak remained remarkably fit and alert during the World Record try, and at one point he dropped to the ground to perform 30 push-ups in exchange for a $1000 donation to Camp Sunshine. With only 5-minute breaks every hour (which were allowed to be accumulated), Laak did experience some minor physical discomfort as the hours and days ground on, at one point complaining, “I've got itchy-ass syndrome a little bit, but I got some talcum powder on my last break.”
