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Funny and Unbelievable Gambling Stories

As awesome as online casinos can be, thanks to their free bets, welcome bonuses, and other incentives, sometimes you can’t beat the hustle and bustle of a bricks and mortar casino. Casinos see people from all walks of life, with all kinds of weird and wonderful stories to tell. From the ultimate free bets, to tales of corruption and deceit, here are some funny and unbelievable gambling stories that are sure to keep you entertained.

African Cup of Nations Disaster

Back in January 2010, a British student travelling the world, was fortunate enough to be able to enjoy the African Cup of Nations in person. Presumably after a few too many pints, he decided to wager all of his savings – a whopping £4,400, which for a British student, was an enormous sum of money, on Angola to win in-play. Angola were winning 4-0, with just over 11 minutes left to play. This was the safest bet ever, surely? Well, no. In an amazing comeback, Mali, Angola’s opponents, scored 4 goals in just over 10 minutes, levelling the score to 4-4. The story also goes that he thought he would have won £440, when in reality he would only have won £44. So, for the sake of an extra £44, he basically blew more than four thousand pounds.

Counting cards is not illegal

Want to annoy a casino? If so, the master the art of counting cards. They hate it, but it is not illegal, merely frowned upon. Proof of this comes from the story of two gamblers back in 2000, who were detained by a well-known casino and were blacklisted and added to the Griffins’ Book, which is a database of people banned from casinos. The two men did not take kindly to this, and so they sued the casino. Amazingly they won, as they were not technically cheating or breaking the law by counting cards. Counting cards is still an enormous grey area however, so the best advice here would be not to bother.

Don’t drink and gamble

Some upmarket casinos have been known to offer customers complimentary beverages and food, when they notice that they have been there a long time. The reason for this is to encourage them to stick around and spend even more money. This is a similar incentive to free bets offered online. One day however, a Nebraska businessman claimed that he lost $127 Million while betting at a casino in Vegas. He claims that they loaded him up with free food, booze, and even painkillers, so that he’d have no clue where he was or what he was doing. He took the casino to court, but his case was thrown out. Why? It emerged that he had previously been banned from a well-known casino for excessive drinking while gambling.

An act of kindness

Back in a casino in Ontario, Canada, a woman and her mother were playing a game of high or low. They were playing for fun and were being very conservative. An elderly couple sat at the next machine were encouraging them to take more chances and to play more aggressively, and the strategy did seem to be working. An hour later, the elderly man thanked the mother and daughter team for making his gambling experience so fun, and so he insisted that they take his two buckets of quarters, as he was now heading home with his wife. When the mother and daughter got home, they counted the money and found that there was nearly $400 in quarters!