Casino Stories Turned Legendary

by Bodog Casino | Jan 30 2009

Every game has amazing, legendary stories.

Basketball has Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game, Football has Joe Montana’s “The Catch”, we’re sure even a sleep-inducing game like Curling has an amazing tale that the marble tossers reminisce about.

So you best believe that casino gaming, with hundreds of years of history, has its share of legendary stories.

Clueless about casino history? We’ve got some cool money-making tales you can pass along to your gaming buddies.

Charles Wells – The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo

Born in 1841, Charles Wells was a notorious, high-rolling gambler for most of his life. But he didn’t truly put himself into gaming lore until 1881. Story is Wells walked into the Monte Carlo casino with £4000 (about $7500 in US funds) he defrauded from investors with claims of fake inventions, and worked the Roulette wheel like he was Nostradamus.

Wells turned the “loan” into 1 million francs on the big wheel, breaking the bank 12 times. We’re not sure what a million francs adds up to today, but we’re pretty sure it’s still a stinking load of cash. After that, clubs would play a song called “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo” whenever he walked in. Private detectives were hired to figure out what angle he discovered on the game but the investigation was inconclusive. No word on whether he gave back £4000 he stole from investors.

William Lee Bergstrom – He has Huge… Dice

There are risk takers and there is William Lee Bergstrom.

In 1980, Bergstrom decided having $777,000 wasn’t enough, so he decided to risk it all on Craps in order to double his money. We’re not kidding.

Bergstrom walked into Binion’s Horseshoe, in Las Vegas, NV with a suitcase filled with money to wager. And he was so confident, he carried another case for the money he planned on winning. Once the casino agreed to his large, one time wager, Bergstrom proceeded to put everything on the “Don’t Pass” line. Three “seven outs” later and Bergstrom left the casino a millionaire. His dicey move has garnered him the nickname “The Suitcase Man”.

Jessica Agbunag – Slot Dog Millionaire

We don’t have enough fingers to count how many times we’ve gone to Vegas and come back with an empty bank account. That’s why it kind of irks us that Jessica Agbunag of Waipahu, Hawaii went there once in 2008 and returned home recession proof.

The only reason the 24-year-old housewife and babysitter even went was to maintain the tradition of her late grandmother, who was a Vegas regular. And when she decided to test her luck on a Wheel of Fortune machine she hit the jackpot. At first she thought it was $2,000, but it was a little bit more than that; about $2,434,465 more.

“I was like shaking, crying. I still couldn't believe it. I was still asking everybody, ‘Are you serious, are you serious?’” Agbunag said.

Although we’re sure there are tons of Vegas stories about people winning stimulus money, this one sticks out because it’s rare that players just walk up to a machines and make millions.