Top 10 Richest Gamblers in the World

Who is the richest gambler in the world?

The top 10 richest gamblers, ranked

1. 1Kerry PackerAustralia · media fortune
   A$6.9 billionBRW Rich 200, 2005; about US$5bnDied 2005, aged 68Confidence: high
2. 2Tony BloomEngland · betting syndicate
   £779 millionSunday Times Rich List 2026, 199thActive, 56; Brighton chairmanConfidence: high
3. 3Bill BenterUS · computer racing model, Hong Kong
   Close to US$1 billionCareer winnings with partners, Bloomberg Businessweek 2018Active, about 69; still betsConfidence: high (winnings)
4. 4Edward ThorpUS · card counting, hedge funds
   About US$800 millionWealth-tracker estimate, Celebrity Net Worth, 2026Alive, 94; last book 2017Confidence: low
5. 5Alan WoodsAustralia · card counting, Hong Kong racing
   A$939 millionEstate in his will, 2008; about US$800mDied 2008, aged 62Confidence: high
6. 6Zeljko RanogajecAustralia · betting syndicate, rebates
   A$610 millionAustralian Financial Review Rich List 2021, the last he madeActive, 65; Colossus Bets backerConfidence: medium
7. 7Billy WaltersUS · sports betting
   US$100 million to US$200 million+Estimates: press 2011–2016, gambling-site lists 202380; sentence commuted January 2021Confidence: low to medium
8. 8David WalshAustralia · betting systems, odds firm
   UndisclosedOver A$695m in dividends to his company, 2019–25Active, 65; Mona founderConfidence: medium (dividends)
9. 9Phil IveyUS · poker
   More than US$54 millionLive tournament winnings, Hendon Mob count, 2026Active, 49; 11 WSOP braceletsConfidence: high
10. 10Dan BilzerianUS · poker claims, vape shares
    Over US$100 millionSelf-declared assets, House filing, July 202645; lost Florida House primary, 2026Confidence: low

Figures keep the source’s currency; the bars are rough US-dollar equivalents. Striped bars are ranges (at the midpoint) or unverified numbers. High confidence: a rich list, a will, a court or an official results database. Medium means a dated press report or a stale list entry, and low means a wealth tracker such as Celebrity Net Worth or the person’s own word.

How we count, and why other lists disagree

Old numbers travel. In 2017 The Economist still put Woods’s estate at A$670 million, The Australian’s 2008 figure, though his will lists A$939,172,372.51 in assets.

• Biggest fortune

  Measured by everything a gambler owned, wherever it came from, Packer wins with A$6.9 billion in 2005.

• Career winnings

  Count money won instead of money owned, and Benter comes first. His own share, after partners, is undisclosed.

• The 2026 snapshot

  On the latest valuation Bloom leads: 199th on the 2026 Sunday Times Rich List, up from 213th a year earlier.

We count people famous as gamblers, who bet against a casino, a bookmaker, a tote or other players. Owners of the house are out, and so are one-off lottery winners such as Edwin Castro. That’s a judgment call. Packer is in, though his money came from media, because his wins and losses were reported in the tens of millions.

Each figure carries a date, a source and a confidence level, and an estimate is called an estimate. Places one to eight follow the size of the fortune on record, wherever it was made (much of Thorp’s on Wall Street), and Walsh sits below Walters because his wealth, in the ABC’s word, is “unknown.” Nine and ten follow how well the money is documented, so Ivey’s public results outrank Bilzerian’s self-declared millions.

Why casino and bookmaker billionaires are not on this list

The house pays better. Miriam Adelson and family ranked 56th on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list in March 2026 with US$37.5 billion, a casino fortune; Forbes had her late husband, Sheldon, at about US$37 billion at the end of 2013. Denise Coates of bet365 took at least £280 million in dividends and pay in the year to March 2025 (Racing Post, 23 December 2025), more than a third of Bloom’s fortune.

1. Miriam Adelson and family, 2026
   US$37.5bn
2. Our ten, combined
   US$9.6bn
3. Kerry Packer, 2005
   US$5bn

“Our ten, combined” adds up the ten leaderboard bars, which mix net worth, an estate, career winnings and claims from 2005 to 2026. Adelson’s figure is nearly four times the total.

1. Kerry Packer net worth: A$6.9 billion (about US$5 billion)

Fortune

A$6.9 billion (about US$5 billion), BRW Rich 200, 2005; Forbes 2005: US$5.0 billion, world no. 94 Confidence: high

Source of wealth

Media (Australian Consolidated Press, the Nine Network), inherited in 1974; later Crown Melbourne casino

Born / died

17 December 1937, Sydney; died 26 December 2005 at home in Sydney, aged 68

Signature moment

May 1995, MGM Grand, Las Vegas: about US$20 million won in 40 minutes of blackjack

Status 2026

Died 2005; his heirs James and Gretel Packer are on the AFR Rich List 2025

• US$250,000a hand at blackjack, MGM Grand, 1995
• 18 listsAustralia’s richest, BRW, 1988–2005
• US$20m+reported Bellagio loss, July 2000
• £7–11mreported Crockfords loss, September 1999

In May 1995 Packer sat down at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to play blackjack at US$250,000 a hand. About 40 minutes later he was roughly US$20 million ahead, according to the South China Morning Post of 27 May 1995. Eight tables were cleared. Every member of staff on duty got a tip of A$3,200.

Reuters called him a “hit-and-run gambler,” one who left after a win. He played several hands at once, a few hours at a time. His credit line, US$20 million, was the largest in Las Vegas (Los Angeles Times, 29 September 2000).

We rank Packer first on wealth, though gambling did not make it. He inherited Australian Consolidated Press and the Nine Network from his father in 1974. Nine’s Sydney and Melbourne stations went to Alan Bond in 1987 for just over A$1 billion; three years later Packer bought the network back for a fifth of the price (Reuters, 27 December 2005). BRW named him Australia’s richest person on 18 consecutive lists, 1988 to 2005, with a peak of A$8.2 billion in 2000.

The Goanna allegation

Draft findings of the Costigan Royal Commission, leaked in 1984, linked a businessman code-named “Goanna” to tax evasion and organized crime. Packer named himself as Goanna and denied everything. The Attorney-General, Lionel Bowen, formally dismissed the allegations on 27 March 1987. No charges were laid.

From Crockfords to the Bellagio

Three weeks of blackjack at Crockfords, London, in September 1999 cost Packer £7 million by The Independent’s count (26 March 2001), £11 million by the New Zealand Herald’s (1 September 2000). Reuters put it at US$16 million on 30 August 2000, “believed to be the biggest single loss in British gambling history.”

Ten months later came the Bellagio: at least US$20 million lost at baccarat between 14 and 16 July 2000, US$17 million or more of it on Friday 14 July, by the same Reuters report. The Australian put the loss at A$34 million. Packer called the figures “absolutely ludicrous” and said he had lost less than A$10 million.

Mark Latham, then in opposition, took the A$34 million to parliament in August and September 2000. Packer told The Australian on 2 September: “This is not someone else’s money, this is mine, and I am entitled to spend it in any way I choose.”

Sources: BRW Rich 200 (Financial Review Rich List), 2005 · Mail & Guardian (citing Forbes 2005), 27 December 2005 · Reuters (via Al Jazeera), 27 December 2005 · South China Morning Post, 27 May 1995 · Los Angeles Times (via Seattle Times), 29 September 2000 · Reuters (via ABC News), 30 August 2000 · The Independent (via New Zealand Herald), 26 March 2001 · New Zealand Herald (Greg Ansley), 1 September 2000 · The Courier-Mail (via David G. Schwartz), 27 December 2005 · The Australian, 2 September 2000 · The Canberra Times (via Wikipedia, Costigan Commission), 27 March 1987 · Cigar Aficionado (Michael Kaplan), March/April 2006 · Australian Financial Review Rich List, 30 May 2025

2. Tony Bloom net worth: £779 million

Fortune

£779 million, Sunday Times Rich List 2026 (199th), published 15 May 2026 Confidence: high

Source of wealth

Football betting by his syndicate, priced by his firm Starlizard; earlier, poker and the sale of online poker rooms

Born

20 March 1970, Brighton, England

Signature business

Star Lizard Consulting Ltd, incorporated 24 January 2006 (Companies House): odds models for Asian handicap markets

Status 2026

Age 56; Brighton & Hove Albion chairman since May 2009; 29% non-voting stake in Hearts; defending a High Court claim, no ruling by 28 October 2026

• £779mSunday Times Rich List 2026, 199th
• A$426,500won, Aussie Millions main event, 2004
• US$3.9mlive poker winnings, Hendon Mob, 2026
• £600m a yearalleged in 2025 filing; Bloom disputes

Crown Casino, Melbourne, 15 January 2004: Bloom beat the American Jesse Jones heads-up to win the Aussie Millions main event and A$426,500.

In 2005 he lost US$500,000 heads-up to Daniel Negreanu, his biggest documented loss. The Hendon Mob counts about US$3.9 million in live tournament winnings, the latest in April 2026.

He had left Ernst & Young in 1993 with a £20,000 betting bankroll. Business Insider reported in 2016 that two online poker rooms he co-founded, Tribeca Tables and St Minver, sold in deals worth up to US$204 million combined. The Sunday Times Rich List of 15 May 2026 put him at £779 million, £58 million more than a year earlier; The Sun’s £1.3 billion (2024) is a tabloid estimate.

Bloom has chaired Brighton & Hove Albion since May 2009; the Premier League table of 25 October 2026 had the club third. In June 2025 he paid £9.86 million for a 29% non-voting stake in Hearts. Hearts led the Scottish Premiership for 250 days, then lost the title 3–1 at Celtic Park on the final day, 16 May 2026. He told Sky Sports on 18 October 2026: “I’d be really disappointed if Hearts have not won the Scottish Premiership within the 10 years.”

What Starlizard does

Starlizard, founded in 2006, builds odds models, mainly for Asian handicap markets. It takes no bets itself. Its main client is Bloom’s syndicate, the Racing Post wrote on 4 December 2025. It quoted the professional punter Harry Findlay’s book Gambling For Life: “Even as the cleaners were mopping up at night, they were winning, and they were always getting on at the right price.”

The High Court claim

In November 2025 Ryan Dudfield, a Starlizard employee from 2008 to 2017, filed a High Court claim for US$17.5 million (about £13.1 million). That, he says, is his 7% share of profits from bets placed through accounts held by George Cottrell. The filing alleges the syndicate wins “in the region of £600 million” a year.

Casino.org reported on 26 January 2026 that Bloom’s defense admits the syndicate used Cottrell’s accounts and that a profit-share existed. The defense denies he owes anything. It says Dudfield settled in 2023. The £600 million, it says, is an exaggeration, and Bloom “strongly denies” betting on Brighton matches.

Sources: Sussex Express (Sunday Times Rich List 2026), 15 May 2026 · Brighton & Hove News (citing The Sun, 2024), 17 May 2024 · PokerNews, 10 January 2012 · The Hendon Mob, accessed 28 October 2026 · Business Insider (via TheJournal.ie), 14 February 2016 · Companies House, accessed 28 October 2026 · Racing Post (quoting Harry Findlay, Gambling For Life), 4 December 2025 · Casino.org, 26 January 2026 · The Scotsman, 25 June 2025 · Wikipedia (Premier League table), 25 October 2026 · Sky Sports, 18 October 2026

3. Bill Benter net worth: undisclosed; close to US$1 billion in winnings

Fortune

His operations probably made close to US$1 billion (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2018); personal net worth undisclosed Confidence: high (winnings)

Source of wealth

Computer-model betting on Hong Kong horse racing; blackjack card counting before that

Born

1957, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (exact date unpublished)

Signature moment

6 November 2001, Hong Kong: a winning Triple Trio ticket worth about US$16 million (HK$118 million), never cashed

Status 2026

About 69; still bets on racing worldwide (Guinness World Records, 2025) and funds the Benter Foundation in Pittsburgh

• 51,381combinations bet on 6 November 2001
• HK$118mTriple Trio prize never collected, 2001
• US$50m+team’s profit in the 1996–97 season
• US$45.95mpaid out by his foundation, FY2011–25

On the evening of 6 November 2001, Bill Benter’s team had HK$1.6 million on 51,381 combinations of one Hong Kong Triple Trio. After six rollovers the jackpot was at least HK$100 million. One ticket named all nine horses.

Nobody collected it.

Benter had decided before the race that he wouldn’t. “It would be unsporting. We’d feel bad about ourselves,” he told his associate Paul Coladonato. The tickets went into a safe, and Jockey Club policy sent the prize to a charitable trust.

Out of Las Vegas

Benter left college for Las Vegas in 1979 with Edward Thorp’s Beat the Dealer. He joined Alan Woods’s Australian card-counting team in 1980 and made about US$80,000 a year until the team landed in the Griffin Book, a casino blacklist, around 1984.

Hong Kong started badly. Benter arrived in September 1985 with three IBM computers, and by the next summer he and Woods had lost US$120,000 of their US$150,000 stake. Woods then demanded 90%. “That’s unacceptable,” Benter said, and they split. After two years running card counters in Atlantic City he went back in September 1988. He started from the Jockey Club’s public odds and refined them with his model, a method he published in 1994. He won US$600,000 in his first year back and about US$3 million in 1990–91.

His team was up more than US$50 million in the 1996–97 season. A month before the 1997 handover to China it won a Triple Trio jackpot, and on 14 June the Jockey Club suspended Benter’s Telebet phone account “to protect the interests of the general betting public.” He bet from a North Point hotel room, and runners carried his slips to an off-track shop across the road.

Back in Pittsburgh

The Benter Foundation paid out US$45.95 million in fiscal 2011–2025 (IRS filings), US$3.66 million of it in fiscal 2025. Benter funds it year by year, with no endowment, and in 2026 it made a five-year, US$1.8 million grant to Reading Ready Pittsburgh.

His personal wealth is not public: Benter has never been on a rich list, and we rank him on what his betting made. He told Bloomberg Businessweek in 2018 that some of it went to partners in Hong Kong and the US. “Unfortunately,” he said, “I’m not a billionaire.”

Sources: Bloomberg Businessweek, 3 May 2018 · Efficiency of Racetrack Betting Markets (Academic Press), 1994 · Guinness World Records, 15 August 2025 · ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, accessed 28 October 2026 · The Benter Foundation, accessed 28 October 2026

4. Edward Thorp net worth: about US$800 million, an unconfirmed estimate

Fortune

About US$800 million, a Celebrity Net Worth estimate (page re-dated 31 August 2026) with no stated method Confidence: low

Source of wealth

Hedge funds and statistical arbitrage, after blackjack card counting

Born

14 August 1932, Chicago, Illinois

Signature business

Princeton/Newport Partners (1969–1988): about US$250 million made for its partners

Status 2026

Alive, 94; last book A Man for All Markets (2017)

• US$11,000won in 20 hours at full stakes, 1961
• 44%roulette computer’s expected gain, 1961
• US$350mstatistical arbitrage profit, 1992–2002
• 1991the year he spotted Madoff’s fake trades

Edward Thorp’s two backers offered him US$100,000 for his first trip to the Nevada blackjack tables, in April 1961. He took US$10,000, a tenth, “as a personal safety measure.” After 20 full-stakes hours he was US$11,000 ahead.

His card-counting system took about two hours of IBM 704 time at MIT to work out. Claude Shannon presented Thorp’s 1961 paper to the National Academy of Sciences and changed its title from “A Winning Strategy for Blackjack” to “A Favorable Strategy for Twenty-One.” Beat the Dealer followed in 1962; its publisher, Penguin Random House, says over a million copies are in print.

Roulette by toe switch

Thorp and Shannon built a roulette computer in Shannon’s basement between November 1960 and June 1961: a twelve-transistor machine the size of a pack of cigarettes, run by toe switches. Thorp put its expected gain at 44% on the most favored octant. The Las Vegas test that summer used 10-cent chips. The earpiece wires kept breaking. Thorp wrote in 1998: “The descendants of the first wearable computer were formidable enough to be outlawed.”

The Princeton/Newport trial

Thorp and Jay Regan started Convertible Hedge Associates in November 1969, renamed Princeton/Newport Partners in 1974. It returned about 20% a year and broke even on 19 October 1987, the day the market fell 23%. Five Princeton/Newport men, Regan among them, were tried with Drexel Burnham Lambert bond trader Bruce Newberg on 64 counts, racketeering (RICO) and tax fraud through stock “parking” among them. The cost of the case helped close the partnership at the end of 1988, and a jury convicted all six in 1989. The Second Circuit vacated the tax and RICO convictions on 28 June 1991. Thorp, in the California office, was never charged.

In 1991 Thorp found that half the trades in a client’s statements from Bernard Madoff’s operation had never happened and called it a fraud 17 years before Madoff’s arrest. His statistical arbitrage program made about US$350 million between August 1992 and October 2002. That’s a fund total; Thorp’s own share isn’t public, and our ranking uses Celebrity Net Worth’s estimate.

At 93, in March 2026, Thorp went back to the Regeneron Science Talent Search in Washington, where he had won US$100 as a 1949 finalist. The Society for Science quoted him on blackjack: “I knew how to beat this game.”

Sources: Quantitative Finance Review (reprinted in The Best of Wilmott), 2003 · Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Wearable Computers, October 1998 · United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 28 June 1991 · The Tim Ferriss Show, 28 May 2022 · Society for Science, 16 June 2026 · Penguin Random House, accessed 28 October 2026 · Celebrity Net Worth, 31 August 2026

5. Alan Woods net worth: A$939 million (his will, 2008)

Fortune

A$939 million in assets listed in his will at his death in 2008, as quoted by Bloomberg Businessweek (3 May 2018); about US$800 million at the time Confidence: high

Source of wealth

Blackjack card counting (1979–82), then computer betting on Hong Kong horse racing from 1984

Born / died

Born 1945, Murwillumbah, New South Wales; died 26 January 2008, Hong Kong, aged 62

Signature business

A computer model for the Hong Kong Jockey Club pools; the South China Morning Post (30 January 2008) said his bets made up as much as 2% of the club’s turnover each season

Status 2026

Deceased; appendiceal cancer had been diagnosed only weeks before his death

• A$939mAssets listed in his will, 2008
• A$15.93Liabilities in the same will
• US$10mWon in the 1994–95 Hong Kong season
• US$100mDown on a Nasdaq short, late 1990s

Alan Woods wrote to Business Review Weekly about its rich list in December 2007: “I had planned to delay my hope for inclusion until I could make it into the top 10. However, as of today, it does not appear I will live long enough.” He died the following month in a Happy Valley hospital within sight of the racetrack.

A former actuarial trainee, Woods turned professional at blackjack in 1979, the year his wife left him, and soon made US$4,000 a week in Las Vegas. Bill Benter joined his Australian team there in 1980. Woods quit counting in 1982. His mug shot reached the Griffin Book two years later.

The Hong Kong model

He moved to Hong Kong in autumn 1984 for the size of the Jockey Club pools. Benter followed a year later. By mid-1986 they were down US$120,000.

The partnership broke.

Benter told Bloomberg Businessweek that Woods had demanded 90%; Woods, in The Monthly, dated the split to 1987, when his model first paid about US$100,000. Then came seasons of HK$3 million, HK$7 million, HK$11 million and HK$19 million. Woods made US$10 million in 1994–95 and bought a Rolls-Royce he never drove.

The model stopped working for a month or two in November 1995, until Woods found that the last turn at Happy Valley had been re-cambered. On one Sha Tin card in 2005 The Monthly counted 708,000 wagers and a HK$14 million outlay. The Triple Trio alone paid him HK$8,364,000.

A Nasdaq short, then Manila

Woods shorted the Nasdaq a year too early in the late 1990s; at one point he was down US$100 million. When Hong Kong’s Inland Revenue Department asked whether the syndicates had become businesses and wanted his investor list, he left for the Philippines. In Manila he called himself Momu (“master of my universe”). His own estimate, given to The Monthly in 2005, was between A$200 million and A$500 million.

The Australian put his fortune at A$670 million in 2008. We rank him on the will, the one figure that is not an estimate. Mike Smith, a former Hong Kong policeman who knew Woods, quoted it in In the Shadow of the Noonday Gun (2012): “He left a very simple will that pretty much summed up his lifestyle. Assets: A$939,172,372.51. Liabilities: A$15.93.”

Sources: Bloomberg Businessweek, 3 May 2018 · The Monthly, December 2005 · South China Morning Post, 30 January 2008 · The Australian, 1 February 2008 · Guinness World Records, 15 August 2025 · Cigar Aficionado, November/December 2003

6. Zeljko Ranogajec net worth: A$610 million (AFR, 2021)

Fortune

A$610 million, Australian Financial Review Rich List 2021 (188th), the last year he made the list Confidence: medium

Source of wealth

Card counting, then high-volume betting on tote pools and Betfair, with turnover rebates; The Australian reported in 2011 that his betting made up about a third of Betfair’s Australian operations

Born

22 May 1961, Hobart, Tasmania, to Croatian immigrants

Signature moment

Lotto Texas, 22 April 2023: by his own account (The Sydney Morning Herald, March 2026) a financier of Rook TX, which won the US$95 million jackpot

Status 2026

Active, 65; Colossus Bets backer; owns a property at One Hyde Park, London; off the AFR Rich List since 2022 as its entry bar rose (A$747 million in 2025)

• A$3bn+Yearly turnover (SMH, 2018)
• A$45mTote Tasmania rebates, FY2011 (AFR est.)
• 99%Lotto Texas combinations covered, 2023
• US$57.8mTexas cash payout, June 2023

A strip-mall storefront in Colleyville, Texas, normally ran one lottery terminal. The day before sales opened for the Lotto Texas draw of 22 April 2023, it got 12 more, then sold about 11 million tickets in three days. Rook TX, a Delaware partnership, spent roughly US$26 million in 72 hours to cover about 99% of the 25,827,165 combinations, and took the US$95 million jackpot as US$57.8 million in cash.

In March 2026 Ranogajec told The Sydney Morning Herald he had helped finance the play with about 30 associates. LotteryUSA, citing the Herald, puts the profit near US$20 million. Bernard Marantelli, the organizer, says through a lawyer that “all applicable laws, rules and regulations were followed.” No one behind Rook TX has been charged.

A Travis County grand jury indicted Gary Grief, the lottery’s former executive director, on 14 April 2026 for felony abuse of official capacity over the draw Rook TX won. The charge was dismissed three days later, and he was re-indicted in mid-May. Grief denies wrongdoing; the case was still pending in late October 2026.

A card counter from Hobart

Ranogajec counted cards at Wrest Point in Hobart, where he met Shelley Wilson, later his wife and business partner. Wrest Point and Jupiters banned him, then American casinos. Telegraph Sport (2024) calls him “The Joker” and, because he is so rarely seen, “the Loch Ness Monster.”

A$3 billion a year

The Herald put his team’s turnover above A$3 billion a year in 2018. In the 2011 financial year Tote Tasmania paid about A$45 million in rebates, most of it to Ranogajec by the Australian Financial Review’s estimate, and its profit fell 88.9% to A$1.7 million. Tatts Group bought it for A$103 million in a sale announced in December 2011. “They rebated the backside out of the business until there was nothing left,” Tatts chief executive Dick McIlwain told the AFR in February 2012.

The Australian Taxation Office had reviewed his gambling several times in 25 years and found each time that it was not a business, the AFR reported; it looked again in 2008, and his team, the Punters Club, settled confidentially in October 2012.

The Herald’s 2018 headline called him the biggest gambler in the world. He had denied the biggest-punter claim to the Daily Telegraph in 2010: “I believe that’s absolutely untrue… it’s all just a big exaggeration.”

Sources: The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 2018 · LotteryUSA (relaying The Sydney Morning Herald), 17 March 2026 · The Texas Tribune, 29 August 2025; 14 May 2026 · The Examiner (Launceston), relaying the Australian Financial Review, 18 February 2012 · The Australian, 2 December 2011; 24 December 2011 · Australian Financial Review, 20 October 2012; 27 May 2021; 30 May 2025; 29 May 2026 · The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 13 February 2010 · Telegraph Sport, 18 September 2024

7. Billy Walters net worth: an estimated US$100 million to more than US$200 million

Fortune

Estimated: US$100 million (KNPR, 2016) to more than US$200 million (casino.org, January 2023); no rich-list entry Confidence: low to medium

Source of wealth

Sports betting; car dealerships and Las Vegas golf courses

Born

15 July 1946, Munfordville, Kentucky

Signature moment

US$3.8 million at roulette, Golden Nugget, Atlantic City, June 1986

Status 2026

Age 80; sentence commuted on 20 January 2021; no pardon

• US$3.8mRoulette win, Atlantic City, 1986
• US$20m+Peak college Saturday, reported 2026
• US$44mPaid to the government, by January 2021

June 1986, the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, then Steve Wynn’s casino. Walters put up US$2 million against a biased roulette wheel and bet US$2,000 a spin. After a marathon session he was US$3.8 million ahead. The casino suspected cheating.

Moving the line

Bookmakers capped him at US$10,000 on a college game and US$20,000 on the NFL. So he bet through runners. ESPN described one sequence in 2015: US$50,000 at 3, then US$75,000 at 3.5. Then about US$250,000 went the other way at 4. At his peak, casino.org reported in August 2026, he had US$20 million or more riding on a typical college-football Saturday, spread over 1,600 accounts.

He won US$3.5 million on the Saints in Super Bowl XLIV, in February 2010. His count of losing years depends on the interview: none, he told 60 Minutes in 2011; one in 39, he told ESPN in 2015. 60 Minutes kept a different tally in 2011: “Indicted four times, three by the Nevada attorney general’s office. None of the charges stuck.”

The Dean Foods case

Then one did. From 2008 to 2014 a Dean Foods director, Thomas C. Davis, fed him tips over prepaid phones (code word: “Dallas Cowboys”) worth about US$32 million in profits and US$11 million in losses avoided. A jury convicted Walters of insider trading on all 10 counts in April 2017. On 27 July Judge P. Kevin Castel gave him 60 months and a US$10 million fine; forfeiture took another US$25.35 million. “Billy Walters is a cheater and a criminal, and not a very clever one,” Castel said.

Walters served about 31 months at Federal Prison Camp Pensacola before his release to home confinement in Carlsbad, California, in May 2020. President Trump commuted the sentence on 20 January 2021. There was no pardon, and the White House statement that day said Walters had “paid $44 million in fines, forfeitures, and restitution.”

His memoir, Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk, came out in August 2023; in it he claims Wynn lobbied Trump against a full pardon. That month he also joined the first class of the Sports Gambling Hall of Fame at Circa, Las Vegas. On a BetBash panel there on 6 August 2026 he named the market he had missed: “If prediction markets existed 25 years ago, then I’d be worth a hundred billion dollars.”

Sources: CBS, 60 Minutes, 13 January 2011 · ESPN, 6 February 2015 · KNPR Desert Companion, 26 October 2016 · PokerNews (citing Bloomberg), 28 July 2017 · The White House, 20 January 2021 · casino.org blog, 26 January 2023 · PokerNews, 4 August 2023 · casino.org, 22 August 2023 · casino.org (Devin O’Connor), 7 August 2026

8. David Walsh net worth: undisclosed (over A$695 million in dividends, 2019–25)

Fortune

Undisclosed; never on a rich list. More than A$695 million in dividends to his company, 2019–2025 Confidence: medium (flows only)

Source of wealth

Betting systems for horse racing and other sports; partner of Zeljko Ranogajec

Born

1961; raised in Glenorchy, Hobart

Signature business

Mona, Hobart, opened 21 January 2011

Status 2026

Active; Mona’s Phrontisterion library wing opened 21 June 2026

• A$695m+Dividends to Downward Spiral, 2019–25
• A$408mMona’s losses, 2011 to FY2023–24
• A$37.7mExtra tax the ATO sought in 2012

Four years of tunneling under Mona, in Hobart, ended on 21 June 2026, when the Phrontisterion opened. It holds 30,000 books, a 1623 Shakespeare First Folio among them. Mona’s chief executive, Philippa Holmes, put the Phrontisterion’s cost at “just north of $100 million” (Australian dollars), more than the A$75 million rebuild that opened Mona in January 2011.

Gambling props it up, Paddy Manning reported for the ABC on 5 June 2026. Accounts lodged in May by Walsh’s company, Downward Spiral Enterprises, show more than A$695 million in dividend income from 2019 to 2025, including a single A$114 million dividend in 2024–25 from an undisclosed source. Manning’s November 2025 piece had called Walsh’s wealth “unknown” and described him and Zeljko Ranogajec as partners in “a global syndicate that bets $10 billion a year” (Australian dollars). Our ranking counts only the dividends.

The betting business

Walsh dates the start to 1981, when friends got him into casino gambling in Hobart. That year he found Richard Epstein’s The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic in the State Library of Tasmania. Without the book, he wrote in June 2026, “there’s a good chance that there’d be no Mona.”

He met Ranogajec at the University of Tasmania. Walsh developed a gambling system for horse racing and other sports, and built Data Processors, a firm that advises clients on betting odds.

Walsh faced the Australian Taxation Office in the Federal Court in July 2012; it sought an extra A$37.7 million plus interest for 2004–06. SmartCompany quoted his reply: “I have always treated the proceeds of my gambling as the ATO told me.” The syndicate settled that October, before any ruling, the AFR reported.

Data Processors won consent orders in the NSW Supreme Court in May 2026, Manning’s June report said: three former employees and two associates must repay A$3.75 million.

The cost of Mona

Mona’s losses from the 2011 opening to the 2023–24 financial year came to A$408 million. “I chose Mona over private islands, jets, and big boats,” Walsh said in June 2026.

When he closed the Mona Foma festival in April 2024, he gave one reason: “I’m addicted to building, and my addiction got out of hand.”

Sources: ABC News (Paddy Manning), 5 June 2026 · ABC News (Paddy Manning), 15 November 2025 · ABC News (Ashleigh Barraclough), 21 June 2026 · SmartCompany (James Thomson), 4 July 2012 · Australian Financial Review, 20 October 2012 · Mona blog (David Walsh), 19 June 2026 · ABC News (Isabella Podwinski), 5 April 2024

9. Phil Ivey net worth: undisclosed; more than US$54 million in tournament winnings

Fortune

More than US$54 million in live tournament winnings (Wikipedia, citing the Hendon Mob, October 2026), US$23,646,879 of it at the WSOP (WSOP.com, October 2026); net worth undisclosed Confidence: high

Source of wealth

Poker tournaments and high-stakes cash games

Born

1 February 1977, Riverside, California; lives in Henderson, Nevada

Signature moment

More than US$16 million won from Andy Beal, Wynn Las Vegas, 21–23 February 2006

Status 2026

Active, 49; in the Poker Hall of Fame since 2017

• 11WSOP bracelets, second to Hellmuth’s 17
• US$54m+Live winnings, Hendon Mob via Wikipedia
• £7.7mCrockfords win ruled cheating, 2017
• US$10.13mBorgata repayment ordered, Dec 2016

From 21 to 23 February 2006, at the Wynn in Las Vegas, Phil Ivey played Andy Beal heads-up limit hold’em at stakes up to US$50,000/100,000, for “The Corporation,” a pool of professionals Beal had beaten earlier that month. Beal finished “some 16 million dollars” down, PokerNews reported on 24 February.

We rank Ivey ninth because his winnings are public and his fortune is not. The World Series of Poker site, WSOP.com, lists US$23,646,879 from 141 cashes, eighth on the series’ all-time money list; Wikipedia, citing the Hendon Mob, gives his live tournament winnings as more than US$54 million, 11th all-time. The US$100 million quoted online as his net worth is an undated Celebrity Net Worth estimate.

Edge sorting in court

On 20 and 21 August 2012 Ivey and Cheung Yin Sun played punto banco at Crockfords in Mayfair, London, at up to £150,000 a coup. Edge sorting gave them a long-term advantage of about 6.5%. They won just over £7.7 million. Crockfords refused to pay and returned his £1 million stake. Ivey sued and lost, in the High Court in 2014 and the Court of Appeal in 2016. The Supreme Court held unanimously on 25 October 2017 that edge sorting was cheating. “What Mr Ivey did was to stage a carefully planned and executed sting,” Lord Hughes wrote. The judgment also replaced the Ghosh test for dishonesty in English law.

Borgata in Atlantic City sued over the US$9,626,000 he had won at its baccarat tables on four visits in 2012. Judge Noel Hillman found breach of contract and dismissed the fraud and racketeering (RICO) claims: “Their conduct is far from admirable, but fraud requires more.” His damages order of 15 December 2016 came to US$10,130,000. The case settled in mediation in July 2020, on undisclosed terms.

Still in the money at 49

His grandfather taught him five-card stud, and he started in Atlantic City as a teenager on a fake ID. The 11th bracelet, his first since June 2014, came on 10 June 2024: US$347,440 in the US$10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship. The 2026 WSOP paid him US$1,204,580, US$600,698 of it for third in the US$50,000 Poker Players Championship on 21 June, won by Britain’s Benny Glaser. Triton’s Jeju series in South Korea added three cashes for US$753,000 in September 2026.

Sources: WSOP.com, 28 October 2026 · PokerNews, 24 February 2006 · Wikipedia, 10 October 2026 · UK Supreme Court, 25 October 2017 · US District Court for the District of New Jersey, 15 December 2016 · Card Player, 9 July 2020 · Celebrity Net Worth, page undated; accessed 28 October 2026

10. Dan Bilzerian net worth: undisclosed; assets over US$100 million, he claims

Fortune

Assets over US$100 million in his own House candidate disclosure (10 July 2026), against a promissory note of US$5–25 million Confidence: low

Source of wealth

Poker (unverified); Ignite International shares

Born

7 December 1980, Tampa, Florida; son of Paul Bilzerian

Signature moment

Claimed a US$10.8 million poker win in one night on Twitter, 30 November 2013

Status 2026

45; second in the Florida 6th district Republican primary, August 2026

• US$36,626One major cash we found, 2009 WSOP
• US$50mWon in 12 months, he said in 2014
• 146mIgnite shares at US$1 each, 2026 filing
• 18.7%His vote share, FL-6 primary, Aug 2026

Dan Bilzerian finished 180th of 6,494 in the US$10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event in July 2009 and was paid US$36,626. The only major cash we found.

“Won 10.8 million last night playing poker,” he tweeted on 30 November 2013. Opponent and game were never named. He told The Howard Stern Show in 2014 that he had won US$50 million in the previous 12 months and lost US$3.6 million in his worst session. None of it has been verified. That is why we rank him tenth: the large figures for his fortune all come from him.

His father, Paul Bilzerian, was a 1980s corporate raider; a Manhattan jury convicted him of securities and tax fraud in June 1989. Forbes called Dan a “trust-fund kid” in July 2020.

The vape company

Ignite International Brands listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange on 28 February 2019. That year it lost C$67 million (about US$50 million) on revenue of C$9.6 million. His federal lawsuit in Nevada, filed against his father and Ignite on 12 November 2024, says the board fired him as chief executive on 21 December 2023, three days after he warned it would lose “the multimillion-dollar benefit of [his] social media posting.” His father and the accountant Scott Rohleder then removed him as chairman, in June 2024.

A federal indictment returned in Los Angeles on 26 September 2024 charged Paul Bilzerian and Rohleder, and Ignite as a company. Prosecutors allege that Paul “exercised de facto control” of the company and funneled money into it while owing the SEC more than US$180 million. Dan, “D.B.” in the filing, is not charged. Bloomberg Businessweek, in a feature of 22 October 2026, found him in January 2025 with a US$8 million loan coming due and most of his net worth in Ignite stock his father now controlled.

A House run in Florida’s 6th district

His House candidate disclosure of 10 July 2026 gives ranges. He values his 146 million Ignite shares at US$1 each and enters them as “over US$50,000,000.” His furniture and art, jewelry included, fill a second line in the same range. Against that sits a promissory note of US$5–25 million.

Randy Fine won the 18 August primary with 56.9% of the vote, by the Associated Press count; Bilzerian came second of five, with 18.7%.

Sources: WSOP.com, 3–15 July 2009 (archived copy of 3 October 2017) · PokerStake, 4 December 2013 · PokerStrategy, 2014 (page updated 22 February 2026) · Forbes, 7 July 2020 · UPI, 29 June 1989 · US Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, 27 September 2024 · US District Court for the District of Nevada, 12 November 2024 · Office of the Clerk, US House of Representatives, 10 July 2026 · NBC News (vote data from the Associated Press), 20 October 2026 · Bloomberg Businessweek, 22 October 2026

Ten dates, 1962 to 2026

The first date is a paperback (1962), the last a congressional filing (July 2026).

1. 1962

   Edward Thorp publishes Beat the Dealer; its method had won him US$11,000 in Nevada in April 1961. By its publisher’s count, more than a million copies are in print.

2. September 1985

   Bill Benter lands in Hong Kong with three IBM computers to join Alan Woods, who arrived in autumn 1984 and holds 60% of the partnership.

3. June 1986

   At the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, Billy Walters stakes US$2 million at US$2,000 a spin on a biased roulette wheel. He wins US$3.8 million.

4. May 1995

   Kerry Packer, betting US$250,000 a blackjack hand at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, wins about US$20 million in roughly 40 minutes (Variety; South China Morning Post).

5. 6 November 2001

   Benter and Paul Coladonato hit a Triple Trio worth about US$16 million with HK$1.6 million spread over 51,381 combinations, then leave it unclaimed.

6. 21 January 2011

   David Walsh’s Mona, the Museum of Old and New Art, opens after an A$75 million rebuild. Its losses since: A$408 million (ABC, 2025).

7. 25 October 2017

   The UK Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that Phil Ivey’s edge sorting at Crockfords was cheating leaves his £7.7 million uncollected.

8. 22 April 2023

   Rook TX buys about 99% of Lotto Texas combinations and wins the US$95 million jackpot. Zeljko Ranogajec later said he helped finance it.

9. 15 May 2026

   The Sunday Times Rich List values Tony Bloom at £779 million (199th), the largest documented fortune of any living gambler on our list.

10. 10 July 2026

    Dan Bilzerian’s House candidate disclosure lists his Ignite shares at “over US$50,000,000,” against a promissory note of US$5–25 million.

Biggest gamblers vs richest gamblers: record wins and bets

The largest number here, the 2022 Powerball jackpot, went to Edwin Castro, a one-off lottery winner of the kind our rules exclude. Three of our ten made the table.

Eight rows are documented: Guinness for Karas, Caesars’ own US$30 million check for McIngvale, tournament results for the three poker prizes, lottery records for Castro and Rook TX, and Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2018 investigation for Benter. Packer’s session rests on two newspaper stories from May 1995, the keno win on one Daily Telegraph article from 2010. Théo’s profit is a range of press estimates.

The biggest gambling losses

Terrance Watanabe, Archie Karas, Stu Ungar and Akio Kashiwagi are not on our list. The other six are, and two of their entries are costs paid away from the tables: the prison term Walters served and the tax settlement Ranogajec reached.

Court records back the Ivey and Walters rows and Guinness the Karas row; Watanabe’s and Packer’s numbers come from the press and Ungar’s from Wikipedia. Bilzerian’s is his own word. One documented loss rivals Watanabe’s: Zhenli Ye Gon lost more than US$125 million in Las Vegas in 2004–07, US$84 million of it at the Venetian (AP, 2013).

Famous gamblers who did not make the list

Benham and Voulgaris came closest. Both bet on sport. Beal and Tony G made their money outside gambling, and we found no source for what the one-off winners kept. Poker totals are gross prize money, before buy-ins and backers’ shares.

Matthew Benham came closest. Hired by Bloom in 2001, he fell out with him, founded Smartodds in 2004 and now owns Brentford; SportBible put him at £220 million in December 2023, and we found no Sunday Times Rich List entry for him. Haralabos “Bob” Voulgaris routinely bet about US$1 million in a single day of NBA games (ESPN, 2013); his career profit of US$120–150 million is his own estimate (Heavy, 2026).

Poker’s money leaders are gross prize totals. Bryn Kenney leads all-time live tournament winnings with US$90,849,210, most of it from buy-ins of US$100,000 and up, and Daniel Negreanu has US$60,974,367 and an eighth WSOP bracelet, won on 2 July 2026 (Hendon Mob data via PokerNews, October 2026). Santhosh Suvarna, a Bangalore businessman who co-founded Goa’s Cadillac Casino, is the highest-earning Indian in live poker: US$23,635,232 and three WSOP bracelets, the third on 11 June 2026 (PokerNews; PGT). Andy Beal made US$12.1 billion in banks and real estate (Forbes, 28 October 2026) and lost more than US$16 million to Ivey in three days (PokerNews, 24 February 2006). Antanas “Tony G” Guoga put his previous year’s income at US$100 million in an interview reported by WPT News in February 2025, and the reporter paraphrased his net worth as around US$300 million; neither figure is verified.

Three others beat a system rather than an opponent. Don Johnson took about US$15.1 million from three Atlantic City casinos in six months of 2011, on negotiated terms that included a 20% rebate on losses over US$500,000 (Mark Bowden, The Atlantic, 2012); Caesars effectively banned him. Stefan Mandel bought about 7.06 million combinations, with money from thousands of investors, to win Virginia’s US$27,036,142 Lotto jackpot on 15 February 1992, his 14th lottery win (LotteryUSA, 2024). Joseph Jagger, around 1880–81, logged a month of Monte Carlo roulette results and won more than 2 million francs on a biased wheel, about £80,000 then and £7.5 million in 2018 money (The Times, via Wikipedia). The anonymous French trader known as “Théo” staked about US$28 million on a Trump win on Polymarket in late October 2024 and cleared between nearly US$80 million and more than US$85 million by press estimates; Polymarket later put French users in view-only mode (The Block, 22 November 2024).

What the ten have in common

Six of the ten came up through mathematics or blackjack. Walters and Ivey came up through betting itself. Packer inherited a media company, and Bilzerian’s figures come only from him.

Five trained in numbers, four counted cards

Thorp took a mathematics PhD at UCLA in 1958; Bloom and Walsh also studied mathematics, Benter physics, and Woods started actuarial training. Four of them counted cards in casinos: Thorp, who put the method into print in 1962, then Woods, Benter and Ranogajec.

Benter teamed up with Woods, Walsh with Ranogajec

Benter and Woods met in Las Vegas in 1980; Walsh and Ranogajec met as students in Hobart. At a 0.25% margin Benter had to bet 400 times what he expected to make, and evidence in a 2012 Australian court case put Ranogajec’s bets above £750 million a year (Telegraph, 2024). In May 2026 the Sydney Morning Herald named Walsh as a backer of the Lotto Texas buyout that Ranogajec helped finance.

Most of the ten have faced a court or a tax office

Ivey lost his edge-sorting case in the UK Supreme Court on 25 October 2017. Walters spent about 31 months in federal prison for insider trading. Bloom is contesting a High Court claim filed in November 2025. Walsh met the Australian Taxation Office in the Federal Court in 2012 and settled that October; Ranogajec’s syndicate settled with the same office in the same month. Bilzerian is suing his father in a Nevada federal court.

Few name a total, but the spending is public

Thorp, 94, has never named a figure, and Ranogajec has not made the AFR Rich List since 2021. Bloom owns 75% of Brighton and minority stakes in three other clubs. Two of the richest sports bettors outside the ten own clubs too: Matthew Benham has Brentford, and Haralabos Voulgaris bought CD Castellón in 2022 (Heavy, 22 September 2026). Walsh built Mona, and by our count of the reported building costs, more than A$200 million across the museum and its extensions.

How much do professional gamblers make?

Professionals make their money the dull way, from a small edge repeated over thousands of bets. At the standard American price of −110, a balanced book leaves the bookmaker 4.5% of everything staked. Walters has claimed a lifelong win rate of about 57% (Celebrity Net Worth, 6 August 2014). We found no audit of it.

Each of those bets still loses 43 times in 100.

The Kelly formula sets each bet at p − q/b of the bankroll. Here p is the chance of winning and q the chance of losing. The net odds, b, are 0.9091 at −110. At 57% that comes to 9.7%. Because the 57% is itself an estimate, a cautious bettor stakes less; a quarter of Kelly is 2.4%. Between a 53% and a 60% win rate the profit per US$1,000 runs from US$11.82 to US$145 and the Kelly stake from 1.3% to 16%, with 55% in between at US$50 and 5.5%.

What the house keeps

Casinos run the same arithmetic the other way. With correct play the house keeps anything from under half a percent at blackjack to 14.36% on a baccarat tie.

1. Blackjack, basic strategy
   0.28–0.43%
2. Baccarat, banker bet
   1.06%
3. Roulette, single zero
   2.70%
4. Aviator (Spribe’s 97% RTP)
   3%
5. Sports bet at −110
   4.54%
6. Roulette, double zero
   5.26%
7. Baccarat, tie bet
   14.36%

House edge with standard rules and correct play, from the Wizard of Odds tables: blackjack is 0.28% on liberal Las Vegas Strip rules and 0.43% on Atlantic City rules, and that range is drawn at its midpoint. Aviator’s 3% follows from Spribe’s published 97% RTP; we found no named test lab behind it.

How casinos and bookmakers fight back

Robert and Beverly Griffin started their book of faces in 1967: photographs of card counters and other advantage players, sold to casinos. Michael Russo and James Grosjean, detained at Caesars Palace on Griffin information in 2000, won their Clark County case in June 2005; that September Griffin Investigations filed for Chapter 11. Melco Crown installed Cognitec’s facial recognition in Macau in February 2016 to flag banned people, and in August 2019 Macau’s gaming regulator ruled such tools “permissible only for security purposes.”

Paying 6:5 for a blackjack instead of 3:2 costs the player 1.39 percentage points; at basic strategy the house edge goes from 0.28–0.43% to about 1.7–1.8%. Continuous shuffling machines defeat the method Thorp published in 1962: “Card counting is useless versus CSMs,” Arnold Snyder wrote in the Las Vegas Advisor in February 2017.

The UK Gambling Commission’s July 2025 figures covered 14,923,840 active online betting accounts; 4.31% were restricted, most through stake-factor reductions. Of the restricted customers 46.78% were in profit, against 25.42% of all customers. “It is not within our regulatory remit to mandate how individual operators manage their commercial liabilities,” wrote Andrew Rhodes, its chief executive. Since February 2025 a net £150 deposited in 30 days has triggered a light-touch check of public data, while checks using credit-reference data have only been piloted. The Commission rejects the word “affordability.”

Tax on gambling winnings by country

“There have been frequent reviews and audits into my gambling, all of which have found that winnings are not taxable,” Walsh told SmartCompany in July 2012, when he and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) were in the Federal Court.

In Hong Kong, where Benter and Woods made their fortunes, betting duty falls on the Jockey Club, the sole licensee: 72.5–75% of net stake receipts on racing. In the year to June 2025 it paid a record HK$28.8 billion in betting duty and profits tax. Bettors pay none of it.

This table is a summary, not tax advice.

Can you become one of them?

Gamblers worldwide lost US$712 billion to operators in 2024, H2 Gambling Capital estimates. In Britain, Gambling Commission data published in July 2025 put about one online betting customer in four in net profit.

Price comes first: at the standard sports-betting price, a bettor who wins 52% of the time still loses money. The edge has to come from knowing one market better than the bookmaker does. It is thin: Benter’s ran at a fraction of a percent of turnover per race. It pays only over hundreds of races a year, with stakes small enough to survive a losing season and a record of every bet. The winners who manage all of that get restricted by bookmakers or barred by casinos.

The discipline carries over to Aviator: a stake set before the session and a record of every round. Pricing skill has nothing to work on there, because each round’s crash point comes from a provably fair random number generator, and Spribe publishes a 97% return to player, a house edge of about 3%. No predictor or signal service can beat a random number. Early cash-outs win small amounts often; late ones win large amounts rarely. The expected loss per stake doesn’t change with the cash-out level.

18+. Gambling involves risk. Set limits before you play.

FAQ

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