Mind Blown Gambling Facts

[TGD]

This thread was inspired by 9gag fun facts. I hope that you will enjoy reading it!  

Mind Blown Facts

• People have been gambling since early times. The first recorded taxation and regulation of gambling was made up in the 4th century BC. Source
  
  
• Keno was invented in China somewhere in the 2nd century BC. Source
  
  
• Gambling and lotteries have often been used to realize lots of public projects. For example, The Great Wall of China was constructed to a big proportion from money derived from Keno. Source
  
  
• Roulette is the oldest casino game. It’s also called the Devil’s game, since the sum of all the numbers in the wheel is 666, the Number of the Beast. Source
  
  
• In the past, the Catholic and Judaic priests supported gambling. Source
  
  
• The card suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades) came from the French Ancién Régime. Cups stand for the clergy, coins mean merchants, clubs are for peasants, and swords are the nobility. Source
  
  
• Italians and French still have arguments about who invented blackjack. Source
  
  
• Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States, funded his congressional election campaign with money he won while playing cards in the South Pacific during World War II. Source
  
  
• Despite the fact that the Monte Carlo Casino is a major source of income for Monaco, this country’s citizens are not allowed to visit the casino. Source
  
  
• Las Vegas is well-known all around as world’s gambling centre. However, today the world’s biggest gambling city is Macau, which earned in $45.3 billion in 2013. It takes one day for Macau players to wager the same amount that is wagered in a week in Las Vegas. Source
  
  
• The main airport in Las Vegas, McCarran International airport, is the 8th busiest airport in the world.  There are 850 flights a day and over 2.5 million people a month, most of whom are gamblers. Source
  
  
• The first online casino was launched by Microgaming in 1996 in Antigua, and had 18 casino games. Source
  
  
• 68% of players in Las Vegas play slots games. Source
  
  
• The famous MIT team consists of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They played blackjack from 1979 until the beginning of the 21st century. They made millions with some legal techniques such as card counting. Source
  
  
• President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe won 100,000 Zimbabwean dollars (that is US$2,600 at the time) in a lottery in 2000. He is the only modern Head of State who won the lottery. Source
  
  
• The largest slot jackpot win was in Vegas in 2003. A 25-year-old engineer hit a $39,710,826.36 jackpot on the Megabucks machine, beating odds of about 17 million to one. Source
  
  
• You can’t see clock and windows in brick and mortar casinos. Source
  
  
• In 2011, Blackjack player Don Johnson won over $15 million in Atlantic City casinos for half a year. Source
  
  
• The potential for Royal Flush (poker) is 1 in 649,740. Source
  
  
• 2,598,960 unique five-card hands can be made from a standard 52-card deck, with a single pair having a 42.3% likelihood of being in any hand. Source
  
  
• Tesla became a gambling addict, lost all his tuition money, dropped out of school and suffered a nervous breakdown. Source
  
  
• A village in India is addicted to chess after one man taught everyone how to play 50 years ago to stop excessive alcohol use and gambling which has now all declined to almost nothing. Source
  
  
• A wife bought a scratch-off lottery ticket to prove a point to her husband that it was a waste of money, but it ended up winning her $1 million. Source
  
  
• Monkeys can learn to use the money. Capuchins that were taught to exchange silver discs for treats began budgeting for foods they liked, buying more of something when the price dropped and started gambling. Eventually, rich monkeys even figured out they could pay each other for sex. Source
  
  
• In the early days of FedEx, CEO Fred Smith took the company’s last $5,000 to Las Vegas and won $27,000 gambling on blackjack to cover the company’s $24,000 fuel bill. Source
  
  
• Gambling for cash is illegal in Japan. Instead, balls won from games are exchanged for prizes or tokens. These items are then exchanged for cash at a place nominally separate from the parlor. Source
  
  
• The night before the Olympic final, Michael Jordan apparently spent the night drinking and gambling all night, then he went on a long day of press appearances, plus 18 holes of golf in Barcelona before he went on to lead Team USA in a gold-medal winning victory over Croatia. Source
  
  
• In 1992, an Australian gambling syndicate bought almost all the combinations in a Virginia lottery and won, turning a $5M purchase into a $27M winnings. Source
  
  
• All gambling in Finland is controlled by the government, and all of the profits go to charity. Source
  
  
• Loot Boxes are regulated in some countries under gambling laws. Source
  
  
• Pinball was banned in NYC as a gambling device until 1976 when Roger Sharpe testified by playing pinball in the courtroom while calling out precisely what he was going to shoot for and scoring showing that it’s a game of skill and not chance. Source
  
  
• After Russia outlawed virtually all gambling in 2009. A Russian engineer learned how to cheat slot machines. He took his knowledge to the U.S. and won $21,000. Casinos still have no fix for it. Source
  
  
• Canadians who win sweepstakes have to answer a math question to claim the winnings to keep it from being considered gambling or a game of chance. Source
  
  
• The most successful pirate in history was a Chinese prostitute. Cheng I Sao commanded 80,000 sailors & a fleet bigger than most country’s navies, which is why the government had to give up and offer her a truce. She retired with her loot & opened a gambling house before passing away peacefully. Source
  
  
• A gambler named Archie Karas went to Las Vegas with $50, gambled it up to $40 million over the next two years, only to lose it all in three weeks. Source
  
  
• Two boys tried to sue Nintendo in 1999 alleging that Pokémon caused their gambling addictions. Source
  
  
• Australians lose more money per capita to gambling than any other nation. Source
  
  
• The sandwich was supposedly invented by the Earl of Sandwich, who was so addicted to gambling that he refused to leave the table for meals and demanded something he could eat with one hand. It caught on amongst other players, who ordered “the same as sandwich” thus, “the sandwich”. Source
  
  
• Kowloon Walled City once existed in Hong Kong with an estimated population density of 3,250,000 people per square mile. No laws or rules governed the city and had the highest rates of gambling, prostitution, and drug use. Source
  
  
• In a case study patients were given an experimental drug to treat their Parkinsons disease, 11 of the patients experienced intense urges to gamble their money despite little interest in gambling before. Even losing large sums of money. All the patients stopped gambling when tapered off the meds. Source
  
  
• In the 1800s, one of the most popular sports in the world was distance walking which attracted huge crowds and gambling. Thousands of spectators would turn up to watch challenges such as walking 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours.Source
  
  
• In 2014, Singapore’s anti-gambling agency, in a bid to leverage the world cup fever, published an advert that showed a worried kid telling his friend that his father had bet all their savings on Germany winning the world cup. Germany won.Source
  
  
• Medieval university students had a reputation for drunken debauchery and were criticized for neglecting their studies in favor of gambling, drinking, and sleeping with prostitutes.Source
  
  
• A male gambler called Brian Zembic is known for doing anything to win a bet and agreed to have breast implants and keep them for one year in return for $100,000. He won the bet and 20 years later still has 38C breasts.Source
  
  
• Gambling sites and betting odds are better at predicting election results than polls.Source
  
  
• In 1841, the State of Connecticut outlawed nine pin bowling in an attempt to curb gambling. Ten-pin bowling was created as a loophole to get around the law. Source
  
  
• The MGM Grand in Las Vegas had to reconfigure it’s original entrance, a large gold walk-through lion, as Chinese high rollers were avoiding it, believing walking through beasts to be unlucky before gambling.Source
  
  
• “Hell on Wheels” was originally used to describe the itinerant collection of flimsily assembled gambling houses, dance halls, saloons, and brothels that followed the army of Union Pacific railroad workers westward as they constructed the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1860s North America. Source
  
  
• A British gambler sold all of his possessions, including all of his clothes, and bet $135,300 on red for a single spin of a roulette wheel in Las Vegas and won. Source
  
  
• In 2015, Tayla Polia, better, got paid out for one of the biggest long shots in gambling history after she hit on a 20,000-to-1 NFL parlay. At 20,000-to-1 odds, Polia’s $5 became $100,005. Source
  
  
• Iranian tennis showman Mansour Bahrami fled to France where he tried to meet the higher living costs by gambling all his savings in a casino. He lost everything on the first night. Source ^NEW!
  
  
  

Read Here the Complete list of facts 21-50

More crazy facts

I will try to post some additional gambling fact here daily just like 9gag fun facts . You can share gambling facts that still not listed above.

[AbuBhakar]

Long and informative thread, 23 and 49 is quite hilarious this show really that gambling is for lucky one's mostly those who didn't expect it, they have higher chance of winning lol. It is a interesting topic found myself reading it all.

[AniviaBtc]

I enjoyed reading this thread that you've made and I learned a lot from this and it somehow changes my perception towards gambling.

• In the past, the Catholic and Judaic priests supported gambling. Source
  

Hopefully until now, Catholics are not against about gambling and they still support it.

• The potential for Royal Flush (poker) is 1 in 649,740. Source
  

So it means that you are very lucky enough to have this card in your hand during your poker game, that's really a super small chance.

• Tesla became a gambling addict, lost all his tuition money, dropped out of school and suffered a nervous breakdown. Source
  

But still he succeeded in life, that's the most important thing.

He was dropped out due to gambling addiction and not because he is dumb, so that doesn't mean that you don't have any opportunity to change.

• A wife bought a scratch-off lottery ticket to prove a point to her husband that it was a waste of money, but it ended up winning her $1 million. Source
  

This is the unique and embarrassing, yet lucky accident that they had, it ended up making them rich in just a snap.

[johhnyUA]

• Roulette is the oldest casino game. It’s also called the Devil’s game, since the sum of all the numbers in the wheel is 666, the Number of the Beast. Source
  
  
• The largest slot jackpot win was in Vegas in 2003. A 25-year-old engineer hit a $39,710,826.36 jackpot on the Megabucks machine, beating odds of about 17 million to one. Source
  
  
  
• Gambling for cash is illegal in Japan. Instead, balls won from games are exchanged for prizes or tokens. These items are then exchanged for cash at a place nominally separate from the parlor. Source
  
  
• All gambling in Finland is controlled by the government, and all of the profits go to charity. Source
  

This four are interesting enough, at least i don't know about roulette, for example. I will give to you one more highly interesting fact:

• "Gambling addiction affects men much more often than women" proof
  
   
  
  You can add this to your post 

[Latviand]

Long and informative thread, 23 and 49 is quite hilarious this show really that gambling is for lucky one's mostly those who didn't expect it, they have higher chance of winning lol. It is a interesting topic found myself reading it all.

You can't even tell who are the most lucky person in this world, it is possible to everyone.

If you are lucky enough in gambling, then i'm sure that it will change your life permanently when you use your winnings in the right way.

These facts can be our inspiration to be come courageous when we try to gamble. This really means a lot that we should not be greedy when it comes to spending money, instead, we should wait for the right time where we will also win huge winnings in gambling.

[Renampun]

21. Tesla became a gambling addict, lost all his tuition money, dropped out of school and suffered a nervous breakdown.

I've read about Tesla briefly, and I think even though he's a gambling addict, his services to create AC power will continue to be remembered.

23. A wife bought a scratch-off lottery ticket to prove a point to her husband that it was a waste of money, but it ended up winning her $1 million. Source

This is really ridiculous, I can not imagine if this happened to me, it is certain that I will be very ashamed of my husband + very happy. 

[akram143]

All of there were really nice facts about gambling hope everyone read all the point to get knowledge of these. Especially the tesla one is a shocking fact to know and I guess many of us doesn't know about it.

[mindrust]

• Despite the fact that the Monte Carlo Casino is a major source of income for Monaco, this country’s citizens are not allowed to visit the casino. Source
  
  

This one was pretty interesting. Why though? Maybe they don't want their citizens to become poor? Or maybe the casinos in Monaco are cheating and they don't want their citizens to be the victims? That actually makes sense to me.
Poor Tesla. Shouldn't have wagered more than he could afford to lose.

[target]

21. Tesla became a gambling addict, lost all his tuition money, dropped out of school and suffered a nervous breakdown.

I've read about Tesla briefly, and I think even though he's a gambling addict, his services to create AC power will continue to be remembered.

23. A wife bought a scratch-off lottery ticket to prove a point to her husband that it was a waste of money, but it ended up winning her $1 million. Source

This is really ridiculous, I can not imagine if this happened to me, it is certain that I will be very ashamed of my husband + very happy.  

She's lucky. She only bought once, some people spend their life time wasting their change to buy tickets.

48. “Hell on Wheels” was originally used to describe the itinerant collection of flimsily assembled gambling houses, dance halls, saloons, and brothels that followed the army of Union Pacific railroad workers westward as they constructed the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1860s North America. Source

I was awake when our professor told the stories about hell on wheels. Its usually brothels for the workers of the railroads which the brother houses has red ligts so that its easy to be located by town visitors. This is where the "red light district" label was derived. Most of the workers are Chinese including the gambling house owners because this is the time where there are rebellions on China and they are lured to the land of milk and butter.

[DarkDays]

Some interesting facts there, surprising to see that gambling has been taxed for thousands of years now.

Nowadays, pretty much every reasonable country has abolished taxes on gambling though, because more people lose than win, hence they would end up paying out more in tax relief than they could claim in revenue.

Also, for somebody to take everything they own and bet it on roulette is a god damn stupid move. I understand he won, but that could have absolutely destroyed him if he lost.

Remember guys, never invest more than you can afford to lose—and certainly not everything you fricken own.

[acroman08]

a very nice thread and a lot of interesting articles to read but the most intriguing one is #40, I never thought that compulsive gambling can be caused by medication. the drug is still being used today and I wonder if the doctors monitor their patient's behavior with PD(Parkinson's disease) because the compulsive gambling side effect could be potentially devastating if left unchecked.

• Despite the fact that the Monte Carlo Casino is a major source of income for Monaco, this country’s citizens are not allowed to visit the casino. Source
  
  

This one was pretty interesting. Why though? Maybe they don't want their citizens to become poor? Or maybe the casinos in Monaco are cheating and they don't want their citizens to be the victims? That actually makes sense to me.

according to this article(quoted below), it was because of the potential ill-effects of commercial gambling it might have to their community/citizen and in exchange for not being allowed to gamble, citizens do not have to pay income tax(which I think is a pretty nice deal). also in other countries, it's because of their religious beliefs

The potential ill-effects of commercial gambling on a community’s own citizens cannot be ignored. It was for this reason that in Monaco, home to the infamous Monte Carlo Casino, gambling has always been illegal for its own residents. When Princess Caroline developed Monte Carlo Casino in the mid-1800s, she was adamant that Monegasques should not be allowed inside, and that gambling revenue should come only from foreigners. In exchange, citizens of Monaco do not have to pay income taxes.

[Tipstar]

Great collection here.
I really loved

Gambling sites and betting odds are better at predicting election results than polls.

Every opinion polls happen in a biased environment while gambling is a place which unites every people.
For some history, https://www.gambling.net/history/ it provides a basic timeline of gambling development.

And also, According to a legend here, the deck of card also represents the four seasons and 52 weeks of the year.

[dothebeats]

36 is just one of those many scenarios wherein some opportunists would try to make an issue on almost everything against a company and try to get money from them. I know some cases like this as well and those cases are easily trashed by the courts since they don't really present a case that can work against the companies that they are trying to sue. Imagine blaming others for your lack of self-control. Now that's something really insane IMO.

21 is just sad. Tesla has no real friends at that time and only took the gambling route to alleviate his loneliness. Nonetheless, he made huge difference in the world still despite him being an outcast on many people's books at that time thinking that he's crazy.

[k@suy]

Daebak! I don't know this things before , thank you for providing some details and trivial things like these. Can I request for some top 10 most useful strategy for a beginner gambler? Or some tips to improve playing poker, or does thing is already in this forum? Anyways, thanks again for providing list it such a useful thread.

[mindrust]

according to this article(quoted below), it was because of the potential ill-effects of commercial gambling it might have to their community/citizen and in exchange for not being allowed to gamble, citizens do not have to pay income tax(which I think is a pretty nice deal). also in other countries, it's because of their religious beliefs

The potential ill-effects of commercial gambling on a community’s own citizens cannot be ignored. It was for this reason that in Monaco, home to the infamous Monte Carlo Casino, gambling has always been illegal for its own residents. When Princess Caroline developed Monte Carlo Casino in the mid-1800s, she was adamant that Monegasques should not be allowed inside, and that gambling revenue should come only from foreigners. In exchange, citizens of Monaco do not have to pay income taxes.

Wtf no-income tax in Monaco? I heard it before there are many people live in Monaco but somewhat I missed this no-tax stuff. Why don't every rich people in the US move to Monaco then? Or... they already did?

[milewilda]

• Despite the fact that the Monte Carlo Casino is a major source of income for Monaco, this country’s citizens are not allowed to visit the casino. Source
  
  

This one was pretty interesting. Why though? Maybe they don't want their citizens to become poor? Or maybe the casinos in Monaco are cheating and they don't want their citizens to be the victims? That actually makes sense to me.
Poor Tesla. Shouldn't have wagered more than he could afford to lose.

Not really on the house is cheating but government doesnt really want for it citizens to get involved with gambling.If they do get some revenue out of their casino then we know that it would really be a big impact when it comes to economic matters plus providing more jobs or shall we say that there would be a domino effect which would really be a good benefit for those people who live there.They've just been thinking that gambling will
really such be a waste of money thats why they dont allow locals to play but rather focusing on outsider or neighboring countries.

I didnt expect for Tesla to have that kind of past but at least he do able to get out and we know on how great and popular this man become.

[cabron]

according to this article(quoted below), it was because of the potential ill-effects of commercial gambling it might have to their community/citizen and in exchange for not being allowed to gamble, citizens do not have to pay income tax(which I think is a pretty nice deal). also in other countries, it's because of their religious beliefs

The potential ill-effects of commercial gambling on a community’s own citizens cannot be ignored. It was for this reason that in Monaco, home to the infamous Monte Carlo Casino, gambling has always been illegal for its own residents. When Princess Caroline developed Monte Carlo Casino in the mid-1800s, she was adamant that Monegasques should not be allowed inside, and that gambling revenue should come only from foreigners. In exchange, citizens of Monaco do not have to pay income taxes.

Wtf no-income tax in Monaco? I heard it before there are many people live in Monaco but somewhat I missed this no-tax stuff. Why don't every rich people in the US move to Monaco then? Or... they already did?

You would have to be a citizen first. Mostly it takes years before you become one but it would really be good to be part of it. No income tax means you get the biggest pie of your income. There must be a catch like the health system or education will be compromized being a citizen.

I can only assume Monaco citizens will gamble every payday, they probably have allocated funds for their gambling.

[acroman08]

according to this article(quoted below), it was because of the potential ill-effects of commercial gambling it might have to their community/citizen and in exchange for not being allowed to gamble, citizens do not have to pay income tax(which I think is a pretty nice deal). also in other countries, it's because of their religious beliefs

The potential ill-effects of commercial gambling on a community’s own citizens cannot be ignored. It was for this reason that in Monaco, home to the infamous Monte Carlo Casino, gambling has always been illegal for its own residents. When Princess Caroline developed Monte Carlo Casino in the mid-1800s, she was adamant that Monegasques should not be allowed inside, and that gambling revenue should come only from foreigners. In exchange, citizens of Monaco do not have to pay income taxes.

Wtf no-income tax in Monaco? I heard it before there are many people live in Monaco but somewhat I missed this no-tax stuff. Why don't every rich people in the US move to Monaco then? Or... they already did?

I don't know. maybe there are conditions. like you have to be a natural-born citizen in order to be included in the no-income-tax just like in UAE(not the same as no-income-tax) where the government provide allowance(not sure if it is monthly or how much. I don;t know the full detail) to their local citizen/natural-born citizen.

[mindrust]

I didnt expect for Tesla to have that kind of past but at least he do able to get out and we know on how great and popular this man become.

Tesla lived a very miserable life. Died poor too. I believe many people didn't even know his name before Elon made him famous. Now almost everybody at least knows the name.

I don't know. maybe there are conditions. like you have to be a natural-born citizen in order to be included in the no-income-tax just like in UAE(not the same as no-income-tax) where the government provide allowance(not sure if it is monthly or how much. I don;t know the full detail) to their local citizen/natural-born citizen.

Found this:

To become a Monaco permanent resident (and ultimately a citizen), you must meet multiple requirements. First, you are required to invest a minimum of 1,000,000 euros of which 500,000 euros must be deposited and kept in a Monaco bank. The other 500,000 euros must be put towards the purchase of a deed of the property in Monaco. Additionally, we will need to prove to the Monaco government that you have sufficient bank funds to provide for your residence in Monaco (verified by references from your bank) and that you will have the means to procure adequate accommodations within Monaco assuming your investment property will not be your place of residence.

To become a citizen of Monaco you must meet the following requirements. First, you must have continuously resided in Monaco for ten years. Second, you must no longer be subject to conscription or military service in another country. Third, you must renounce any foreign nationality you currently possess. Monaco does not recognise any dual nationality.

https://sterlingmigration.com/monaco-residency-by-investment/#:~:text=To%20become%20a%20citizen%20of,foreign%20nationality%20you%20currently%20possess.

Cheaper than what I thought tbh.

[robelneo]

All of these are mind-blowing and very interesting to read probably the best compilation of gambling facts we still donot know so many facts about gambling and this one is quite interesting

Roulette is the oldest casino game. It’s also called the Devil’s game, since the sum of all the numbers in the wheel is 666, the Number of the Beast

I don't know if this is just coincidence or there is some association on that, have bookmarked many of the sources and would like to go back and read them from time to time thanks for posting something very interesting and really mind blowing.