One Spin of the Roulette Wheel Is All it Takes

One Spin of the Roulette Wheel Is All it Takes

One of the best things about taking an interest in gambling is the winnings. Everyone loves a good winner’s story, if only to see that it is possible to walk away with hundreds, thousands or millions from casual gambling. There’s also something satisfying about the idea that you could be next, and it’s no doubt what keeps so many gamblers coming back for their chance to win big.

Roulette is one of the all-time classic casino games, and one that has had it’s fair share of massive winnings in the past – both online and offline. In fact, people are winning serious money on roulette every single day, particularly online, with casinos reaching out to all four corners of the globe.

For these lucky winners, one spin is all it takes to change their lives forever. While roulette wins are notionally capped per spin at 35x return on your stake, it’s still possible to win huge amounts of money on winning numbers, and to rack up more substantial aggregate profits across a roulette session. So without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the biggest wins, and the winners who’ve benefited at the pleasure of the gambling gods.

Biggest Roulette Wins

The house always has an edge over the long-term – it’s built into the structure of the roulette wheel. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to win serious money on single spins. In fact, some of the biggest winnings of all time have come from brave (or stupid) roulette bets, like the example of the then 32-year old Ashley Revell.

As part of a TV series for Sky One back in 2004, Revell decided to liquidate his assets, and plow his entire life savings into a single spin of the roulette wheel. He sold his house and his car, cashed in all of his savings, and literally put every single penny he owned on the bet. It was a stark choice for Revell – win big, and he was laughing. Lose, and he would be seriously out of pocket, essentially back to the starting point of his career. The sum was $136,000 – not the most ever won or lost in Vegas, but a huge amount of money to gamble in anyone’s book.

As the TV show culminated in his spin, tense onlookers watched on as he was read the rules by the croupier. With the cameras in place and his chips on the table, Revell was quick to declare his bet for ‘Red’. As the ball spun round the wheel, the cameras perfectly picked up the tension, concern and risk as it weighed on Ashley’s shoulders. The ball bounced around the wheel, almost in slow motion as it came to rest on its result – a red 7.

Cue jubilation. Revell doubled his money, and walked away as the hero. While it was a fairy tale ending for Revell on this spin, it’s hard not to think about the devastation he would have felt if things had gone the other way.

Ashley Revell’s bid has to go down in history as one of the most audacious roulette bets, particularly so given that is was being filmed for TV. While winning six figures is pretty decent, it is by no means the biggest win ever seen at a physical roulette table. In fact, when you consider that high-rollers are notoriously secretive, it’s probably hard to ever truly know the biggest wins. But there are some than make Revell’s red or black bet look like chump change.

Mike Ashley, the controversial and somewhat colourful billionaire owner of Sports Direct and Newcastle United Football Club, amongst others, is a notorious high stakes gambler. No stranger to taking on wild bets, he strolled into a Mayfair casino in 2008 with roulette firmly on his mind. He laid down a bet of £480,000 on a single spin, taking a complex pattern of different bets in the process. He made sure to cover every single bet around the number 17, from single number to the colour, and everything in between.

Obviously Mike Ashley could probably have survived losing this bet. But as his good fortune would have it, the ball came to rest favourably. The result? A cool £820,000 in profit from that single spin, off a £1.3 million total win. Not bad going for an evening’s work.

It’s not just billionaires like Mike Ashley who take big risks on the roulette wheel. A 40-year old programmer from the UK, Chris Boyd, took a journey similar to Ashley Revell, having saved up $220,000 to play roulette in Vegas. After reaching a deal with a Vegas casino to accept such a substantial wager, he stepped up to the roulette wheel and took the plunge.

Fortunately, Lady Luck was also smiling on Mr. Boyd, and legend has it he also paid off with a red 7 – the same winning slot as Ashley Revell.

It’s not just offline where the big roulette wins occur! According to a source – An online roulette player at partycasino won a huge profit of £355,000 after 2 hours of game play. Mr L Sac, as the player was known, made multiple large bets in excess of £10,000 a spin and hit his lucky numbers on a regular occurrence. Even though his winnings were not a result of one spin, winning that amount of money in just 2 hours is no mean feat. Mr L Sac certainly had luck on his side because the more you play, the more likely the house will win, however, on this day the fortunate partycasino player won!

Of course, not everyone who plays roulette will win big, and it’s certainly a risky business to put your life savings on a single spin. However, those that have experienced massive wins on roulette show that it is possible, to change your life for the better.