Man Sells Everything, Wagers it All on One Spin of Roulette Wheel
Thanks to movies and television we've all seen dramatic interpretations of what might happen if someone actually decided to make a huge change in their financial lives by betting everything they own at the casinos of Las Vegas. Chances are almost every one of us who has entered a casino to play a game has thought about what it would be like to wager it all and win it all.
You notice how none of us plays the tape all the way to the end where the other option in this "bet all strategy" could unfold. You know the option where we lose everything when our wager doesn't pan out. The fact is most of us don't walk into a casino with the idea in mind that we are going to make or break our financial future. Most of us just go for a good time, a chance to win a little money, and maybe slam a huge buffet dinner.
Then again, most of us aren't Ashley Revell.
Ashley actually had the bright idea to sell all of his possessions and see if he could double his money at the roulette wheel. So, he sold all of his clothes, his car, his house, and then he gathered his money from his bank account and flew to Las Vegas.
His plan was to take his entire personal net worth and bet it on one spin of the roulette wheel. The amount of money that Ashely was going to risk was $135,300 in American currency.
When the story broke of Revell's plans to bet it all on one spin it was picked up by the television network Sky One from the U.K. Revell, a Londoner, agreed to let the television network film his experience and he even let the network's viewers help him choose what his bet would be.
The entire experience was turned into a television series called Double or Nothing. And you can see exactly what happened when Revell decided to bet it all on red at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
The events we've just chronicled for you actually happened back in 2004. Revell was back in Las Vegas to commemorate the anniversary of his big win and to help promote a new single zero roulette table at the casino. He even placed a wager on the new table but it wasn't nearly as large as the wager he made all those years sooner.
Revell's adventure also spawned a television game show that was created and produced by Simon Cowell of American Idol fame. That show was called Red or Black?
For his trouble, Revell earned just over $270,600 bucks. He used his financial windfall to invest in an online poker company. That didn't pay off as well as his single bet on roulette did though. He also used some of the prize money to travel across Europe where he met his future wife. So, I guess you could call him a big winner in more ways than one.