The Biggest Casino Wins in History: from Las Vegas ’90s to 2024

by David Patterson
28 Jul 2022

Being seasoned in computer science and having surfed the entire software development stack, David has something to say about how it all works. He’s also well aware of the gambling industry's best practices for turning client-customer concepts into workable models. Additionally, David's zest for cryptos makes him precisely that guy whose comprehensive expertise can save you from unnecessary (and costly!) mistakes.


The Biggest Casino Wins in History: from Las Vegas '90s
The Biggest Casino Wins in History: from Las Vegas ’90s

Gambling has been popular since the immemorial era! It has been evolving through time, but the principles remain. Yes, the risky stakes and anticipation of victory give players a huge adrenaline rush. And technology diversified casino entertainment… And also started giving gamblers vaster rewards for their risks.

Of course, everybody wants to feel the pleasure of being the casino winner — the chosen one who snatches a great win in the best online casino. But how to become a winner when Lady Luck may be kind to dozens but indifferent to thousands? Some real thrilling rags to riches stories can lift the veil of mystery and give some food for thought. And ORDB has gathered the most legendary biggest casino win stories! 

​Las Vegas Biggest Casino Wins

The most famous and world-known gambling wins come from Nevada. The avid gamblers, bold entrepreneurs, and casino table professionals gather in the luxurious halls of Las Vegas.

The biggest casino win came to Kerry Packer, a business magnate and a Wall Street investor who inspired gamblers worldwide for years. Packer is still the hero of stunning stories gamblers tell each other between anticipating another gambling win. 

His legendary biggest blackjack gambling win in known history was $40 million. It happened in 1995 at MGM Grand, where Packer played eight hands simultaneously. He became a record-holder in one night. However, he did not quit gambling and has surprised the world many times since that extraordinary session.

Another notable Las Vegas casino winner, Archie Karas, made a fortune of $40 million playing poker. That was not a one-time gambling win, but in those days, Karas was an immigrant from Greece with nothing but $50 at the beginning of his career. He came to Las Vegas and converted $50 to $40 million by the mid-90s. Despite losing almost everything in the end, Karas remains a gambling icon who inspires hope in all those who want to catch the biggest casino wins. 

​Online Casino Biggest Gambling Wins

The time when people spent hours at brick-and-mortar casinos is running out. Modern players prefer to work and play from their homes. 

The most amazing gambling win stories have already inspired thousands of players across the globe. The Grand View Research forecast says that online gambling revenue will grow from $63.53 billion in 2022 to $153.6 billion in 2030. That means the amount of biggest casino wins online will soon exceed the number of live winning sessions.

​Biggest Online Casino Win recorded on Guinness

Betway Online Casino, where the biggest casino win happened 

As the Guinness World Records states, the largest officially recorded online slot games payout happened in 2015. Jon Heywood, a British soldier, won an astonishing prize of $20 million (£13,209,300, €17,879,645) at the Betway online casino. 

According to the winner’s own words, he started a Mega Moolah game session for mere fun. He was watching a documentary while occasionally keeping an eye on the game. After a 25-minute session, he became another legendary casino winner.

All the newspapers were shouting about the sensation. A young man immediately became a star, but he did not lose his mind and said he would spend the money to help his sick dad get expensive medical care.

​$23.6 Million on Absolootly Mad Mega Moolah

Absolootly Mad Mega Moolah slot

The Mega Moolah game series by Microgaming is the most winning online casino game — at least, the gambling community believes in that. The biggest casino wins are often achievable with the help of different versions of this game. 

Absolootly Mad: Mega Moolah also comes from Microgaming’s Mega Moolah game series. This slot machine game has an Alice in Wonderland fantasy style. Five slot machine reels show the famous tale’s brightly colored card symbols and characters.

Six years have passed since John Heywood’s amazing win revealed a new lucky casino winner. In April 2021, a player who wished to remain anonymous hit a jackpot with a wager of 15EUR at his favorite Napoleon Sports & Casino Online. This unknown player from Belgium did not register his record, but he became the luckiest online casino winner today.

​Mega Fortune $21 million prize

Mega Fortune Slot

Of course, not only Mega Moolah players have the biggest casino wins. The other games cases are no less famed. A player from Finland won a $21 million prize on Mega Fortune, a progressive slot game from Net Entertainment. He bet only 25 cents on PAF, a Scandinavian gambling website. That is one of many unbelievable examples of a gambler who got lucky even with a minimum bet.

​Biggest Cryptocurrency Casino Wins

As the new technologies rise, online gambling gets a fresh new perspective to evolve in the future. Best crypto betting sites are breaking records of popularity today. And crypto casinos are a new trend, but there are plenty of platforms to wager bitcoins. For example, Analytics Insight lists as many as ten top crypto casinos. With so many gambling platforms, the number of lucky casino winners rises. However, since anonymity is the main principle of blockchain, a crypto gambling win is a highly anonymous event. Compared to Las Vegas events with photos, smiling people, and a giant check, a crypto casino win is always a mystery.

​The Biggest BTC Payout Ever

JustDice website interface

The first and the biggest crypto win in history occurred at Just-Dice.com. The dice game high-roller named Nakowa won an unbelievable 11.000 BTC reward, snatching the biggest casino win. Even in 2013, this amount was close to $100 million. 

Nakowa was playing professionally. The Just-Dice users noticed Nakowa’s surprisingly high bets and multiple game rounds. Of course, everyone also noted how the gambler played aggressively and riskily. After losing streaks, he started to win round by round. Later Nakowa explained on gambling forums that he had a gaming addiction. The casino winner merely could not quit the game. 

Nakowa also underwent an accusation of being a cheater or a Just-Dice employee trying to attract attention to the website. Many suggested that Nakowa was trying to hide the real cause of his unbelievable luck. The real identity of the gambler remains unknown. But the blockchain transparency principle proved that the amount above money went to Nakowa’s wallet. 

Nakowa’s record has not yet been beaten, as this amount of money is unbelievably incredible, even in Las Vegas. All other crypto casino winners seem to be beggars against Nakowa, but that is still an impressive gambling win. 

​216 BTC on Troll Hunters

216 BTC on Troll Hunters

In 2017, an anonymous player got 216 BTC while playing a game named Troll Hunters on the Cloudbet crypto casino. Troll Hunters is a nordic mythology-inspired slot game from Play’n GO. The website user placed a 0.16 BTC bet and got a 160 BTC prize in a single round. The fortunate casino winner continued playing and increased the reward to 216 BTC in the same session.

​The Highest BTC Winning Multiplier

Bitcoin is an expensive and exclusive currency, so few players can afford to wager a single BTC. Top crypto gambling websites provide the possibility to bet with smaller bitcoin parts. It is possible to wager 0.1 BTC, 0.01 BTC, or even less. 

An anonymous player found the bluebird of happiness when they got 3 BTC instead of the initial bet of 0.0006 BTC. In other words, the small investment got multiplied by 5000. Earlier the same gambler had played The Dog House Megaways slot game with a resulting multiplier of x13780.

​Biggest Wins in Live Crypto Casino Games

Cloudbet crypto casino, where the biggest live casino win occurred 

Not only do slot games bring fortune to the players. Various single-player table games and live casino sessions are popular with crypto-enthusiasts. A good example is Lightning Roulette, which once made two players rich simultaneously. It resembles a classical roulette game but with a feature of the other five lucky numbers. This game became popular among smaller-stakes players and especially bitcoin owners. 

The first big win on a Lightning Roulette session happened at the Cloudbet casino, where a player took a 49 BTC prize with him in 2018. Another Cloudbet player moved on to an incredible 87 BTC profit while playing Lightning Roulette. Cloudbet crypto betting platform stated they were proud to see two players at once celebrating a great gambling win in a week of the website’s fifth anniversary.

Conclusion

Gambling came a long way to become what it is today. Several years ago, few could imagine playing at a casino table using new technologies to get a life-changing reward. And new incredible changes and trends come into people’s lives! The future might bring even more new victories and new records of the biggest casino win ever.

Indicator of online casino popularity trends among regular players. Casino visit data is analyzed monthly using Similarweb and Semrush, with trends compared across the last two quarters. The central number shows the average number of players who visited the casino last month.

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