The Richest Gamblers in the World [TOP 15]

Everyone knows there is a strong belief that gambling is all about your luck. However, certain games can be won when the player has the approach to win. While rolling the dice of destiny, a small handful of people have taken gambling as an art form. Amassing themselves to enormous riches with shrewd strategies and daring decisions. Those are the world’s richest gamblers who know how to play the accurate odds and walk away with millions. Our Slotozilla team could not pass by this fact and covered these professionals in this article. So, let’s go through the stories of the most successful players.

15 Richest Gamblers in the World [Net Worth A$16.79 billion]

Kerry Packer

Kerry Packer was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1937. He is known as one of the best professional blackjack players. Kerry may not have had the best strategy when it came to gambling. But he is the richest gambler to begin our list. Packer was well known for his risky bets. Being a hyper-high roller, he always placed huge wagers. One of his most memorable moments was 1995 when he won $20 million in a 40-minute blackjack session. During this game, he made an incredibly huge $250,000 wagers. This betting style resulted in some massive wins over the years. But it can’t be forgotten that there were also some significant losses. While Kerry Packer was most notable for his gambling habits, he also made a fortune as a media tycoon. Unfortunately, he passed away from kidney failure in 2005.

Anthony “Tony” Bloom

Anthony Bloom was born in England in 1970. He is acknowledged as one of the best professional poker players in the world. One of his remarkable gambling performances was at the Australian Poker Championship 2024. He also took part in the World Poker Tour and Poker Million IX. It’s estimated that he has won over $2.5 million by being significantly lucky with poker hands. One of his great achievements away from the poker table is Starlizard, one of the biggest betting firms worldwide. Regarding his gameplay style, Tony is known to be cold-blooded. This has earned him the nickname ‘The Lizard.’

William “Bill” Benter

William Benter was born in Pennsylvania, USA, in 1957. Unlike other gamblers on our list, Bill didn’t get rich by making risky bets. He was an expert in mathematics and physics. He used his skills to develop an individual card counting technique for blackjack, and thanks to it, he won millions of dollars. After an impressive 7-year winning streak, Bill was banned from several Las Vegas casinos.

Later, he changed the scope of interest from blackjack to horse racing. Using his mathematical skills, Bill developed a foolproof formula to predict race outcomes accurately. On top of that, he even used this formula to create software for horse racing betting.

Edward Thorp

Edward Thorp was born in Chicago, IL, in 1932. He is best known for being the first to invent the counting cards approach and the wearable computer. On top of becoming a professional gambler, Thorp was also a mathematics professor. He had the right skills and knowledge to turn the house edge in his favour. In 1962, he published a book about his technique called “Beat the Dealer.”

While he is one of the most successful and biggest gamblers in the world, nothing is known about his largest wins and losses utilising his approach. Unfortunately, Edward Thorp died in 2022, so we may never know his secrets.

Andrew Black

Andrew Black was born in 1965. He is most renowned for his contributions to the gambling industry by being a pro player and showing highly skilled game techniques. He began playing poker matches in the 1980s while in college. Andrew competed in the World Series of Poker main event in 2005, winning an incredible $175 million reward. He has won millions of dollars playing poker in tournaments such as the WPT World Classic Poker, the Premier Poker League II, and the EPT Grand Final.

Alan Woods

Alan Woods was born in 1945 in Australia. Like many other wealthy gamblers on our list, Woods had a soaring gambling career based on card counting skills. He was a mathematician who worked alongside Bill Benter and Zeljko Ranogajec during his career. Together with Bill, they were banned from several casinos in Las Vegas. For this reason, later, they travelled to Hong Kong and focused on horse race betting instead of fortunate blackjack card numbers. Alan established a betting syndicate in the Philippines but fled away when his business was suspected of not being legitimate.

Zeljko Ranogajec

Zeljko Ranogajec was born in Tasmania in 1961. He is one of the most notable gamblers on our list today because he started with only a few hundred dollars and ended up with a fortune, with a 90% win rate during his career. His main specialisation was card counting, which eventually got him banned from casinos throughout Australia.

These days, Ranogajec maintains a private lifestyle. However, it is speculated that he owns one of Australia’s largest betting syndicates, which oversees an average of $3 billion in bets annually.

Billy Walters

Billy Walters is an American who was born in 1946 in Kentucky. He made a fortune through sports betting and is one of the biggest gamblers in the world. Unlike casino games, sports bets have no house edges. The results all stem down to which team or player wins. Knowing how to play the odds can help strike it rich. That’s precisely what Billy Walters was an expert at.

While Billy Walters had a lucky run, things came crashing down for him in 2017 when he was found guilty of insider trading and was sentenced to five years in prison. However, former president Donald Trump granted him a pardon in 2021.

Terry Ramsden

Terry Ramsden is one of the biggest gamblers, with an estimated net worth of $225 million. Although, during the peak of his betting days, he made up to ￡3.5 billion. Terry was self-employed, earning money through the stock market and betting on horse race outcomes. In his first year of gambling, he won ￡18,000 of prize money.

Unfortunately for Ramsden, his lucky streak didn’t last long. In 1988, he lost nearly ￡58 million at the race track and another ￡100 million in capital losses. His luck did turn bad. By 1991, he was arrested for fraud and guilt of nearly ￡100 million in debt. He declared bankruptcy and started fresh.

Dan Bilzerian

Dan Bilzerian is one of the youngest gamblers on our list, an American born in 1980. He’s a well-known figure on social media who flaunts a lavish lifestyle. This lifestyle is something he has earned through gambling. It’s believed that he’s earned around $200 million through poker. However, he is known to only play against wealthy gamblers. This could give him an advantage in those big wins. While Bilzerian claims that he has earned his fortune through gambling, there is also a rumour that he inherited this fortune from his father.

David Walsh

David Walsh was born in Australia in 1961 and is considered a professional blackjack player at the top Australian casino and global tournaments. Like many others from the list, he started earning money with blackjack but later focused on horse races. He is an expert at complex mathematics and applied this knowledge to his advantage. Besides that, he even created the software for horse race predictions used in Ranogajec’s syndicate.

One of the most notable things about Walsh’s gambling style is his ability to blend risk and expertise. For example, he once purchased $11 million of lottery tickets and won the $60 million jackpot. We can say that he is definitely one of the biggest gamblers in the world who applied their scientific skills in the industry!

Phil Ivey

Phil Ivey is an American professional gambler who was born in 1977. He is also arguably one of the best poker players in the world. This World Poker Champion is believed to have earned over USD 26 million from poker tournaments alone. One of his best matches was in 2009 when he beat 147 players in the No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Event at WSOP.

Chris Ferguson

Chris Ferguson is an American poker player who was born in 1963. As a kid, he started playing for fun but advanced his skills to playing professionally in the 1990s. Since then, he has become one of the most successful gamblers. Throughout his career, he won 6 WSOP events. He had a lot of unique skills when it came to card games, but the key skill people were fascinated with was how he could throw cards fast enough to slice through fruits.

Despite his popularity as a poker player, Ferguson was involved in controversy. He launched a poker site called Full Tilt Poker in 2004. In 2011, a civil complaint was filed against this site for being a Ponzi scheme that scammed people out for millions.

Doyle Brunson

Doyle Brunson is an American poker player from Texas. He was born in 1933 and is one of the pioneers of our list. When Brunson first started playing card games, he could only participate in illegal matches. Eventually, he went on to become one of the best. He published a book in 1979 called ‘Super/System’ which is still recognized as an expert poker guide for today’s standards. Another fun fact about Brunson is that he was the first poker player to win $1 million through a single gameplay. Unfortunately, Brunson passed away in 2023.

Daniel Negreanu

Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian poker player. This professional gambler was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1974. During his poker career, he has won six WSOP bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championships. It’s believed that he’s earned over $42 million from playing in these major tournaments. While Negreanu hasn’t earned as much as Phil Ivey, he is still considered one of today’s most famous poker players.

Final Thoughts

That wraps up our list of the 15 world’s richest gamblers. Each professional player mentioned throughout this article had unique skills that they combined with experience to play the odds in their favour. Some had made a fortune by playing several games, and some focused on specific types. From poker games to sports betting (and everything in between)- these players prove that a good strategy and persistence can take anyone far in the gambling world.