From Julius Caesar, who coined the phrase "Alea iacta est" ("The die is cast") to the smoke-filled backrooms of the Wild West, the story of gambling has always been defined by larger-than-life figures. These characters didn't just play the games – they wrote the rules, outsmarted the house and risked life and limb to be able to overcome the odds and walk away as winners.
Today, the gambling floor has moved to the digital screen but the thrill of gaining the edge, overcoming the odds and finding the best bonus casino promotions remains the same. Join the Grande Vegas online casino and prepare to meet history's most infamous, brilliant, and daring gamblers whose legacy you perpetuate every time you place a bet. Regardless of the historical era or the setting, the ambition to claim your win is timeless.
Julius Caesar
Gambling was a popular pastime for people of all social classes in ancient Rome but it was especially prevalent in the army, where soldiers faced long periods of time with nothing to do. Archaeological evidence, including gaming boards and dice, have been found in excavations at military sites, demonstrating how games of skill and chance were incorporated into the soldiers' downtime. Implements for gaming were even carried by the soldiers as part of their army kitbags.
Roman soldiers used dice made from bone, wood, and stone in games of chance like Tali.
Julius Caesar was probably one of the most famous Roman soldiers to engage in games of chance. He coined the famous phrase "Alea iacta est" which means "The die is cast" when he crossed the Rubicon when he defied the Roman Senate, demonstrating his willingness to take risks and act on his instincts.
John Montagu
John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, was a passionate card game player but he is best remembered for the creativity that allowed him to continue playing through mealtime.
The Earl grew frustrated with the need to put his games on hold so that he could eat so he asked his servants to put a piece of meat between two slices of bread which would allow him to eat while playing while still keeping his hands clean. The Earl's friends thought that this was a brilliant idea. They too started to ask for “the same as Sandwich” and thus was born….the sandwich!
Henry VIII
Henry VIII was best known for having married 6 wives but it's not surprising that they were mostly relegated to the back of the castle (those that survived) because his greatest love seemed to have been gambling. He particularly enjoyed the game of Tables, an early predecessor of backgammon, and Bragg, a forerunner of poker.
Henry VIII's gaming activities may be best remembered for a bet in which he offered the bell tower of St. Paul's against a £100 wager from Richard Partridge. The account says that Partridge won the tower but it doesn't seem to matter much – the tower was later destroyed by the Great London Fire of 1666.
Wild Bill Hickok
When historians talk about the Wild West and the rough characters that shaped the era, they often refer to Wild Bill Hickok, a gunslinger/settler/outlaw/lawman who lived in the decades before and after the American Civil War. Hickok was raised on a farm in Illinois but moved westward as an adult, skirting the law and then enforcing it.
Wild Bill was known as an avid gambler. He could often be found playing poker in bars and saloons in the Old West. He was famous for winning thousands of dollars in a single night in Kansas and his "poker face" was legendary.
Wild Bill may be best remembered for having died at the poker table – he was shot dead while in the middle of a game in Deadwood, South Dakota. He held a hand of aces and eights when he was killed and that hand is still known as "dead man's hand".
Alice Ives
Gambling is often thought of as a man's pastime, but there have been notable women gamblers throughout history. In fact, over the last 200 years, a number of women have made their name both in the poker rooms of the Old West and the casinos of the French Riviera and Vegas.
The daughter of a schoolmaster and a graduate of an elite boarding school for young women, Alice learned to gamble by watching her husband play poker in western mining camps. After her husband was killed in an explosion, Alice, left with no means of support, turned to gambling to support herself. "Poker Alice" found herself in demand, both as a player and as a dealer. She traveled from one mining camp to another, wearing fashionable frilly dresses and refusing to gamble on Sundays. She also carried a .38 revolver and wasn’t afraid to use it.
Eventually, Alice broke the bank at the Gold Dust Gambling House in New Mexico, where she won $6000. She used much of her winnings to travel periodically to New York to replenish her wardrobe of fashionable clothing. In Colorado, she met her second husband with whom she went on to have 7 children and homestead a property in South Dakota.
Archie Karas
Archie Karas is known for having put together the biggest gambling winning streak in recorded history – and then having lost the entire bundle. Karas turned a $50 stake into $50M in winnings between 1992 and 1995, making "The Run" a Vegas legend.
Karas immigrated to the United States from Greece in the '60s and learned to play pool while waitering at a restaurant. He eventually became good enough at the game to win money which allowed him to earn a living. While playing pool in California's cardrooms, Karas learned the game and moved on to high-stakes poker. He won and lost over $2 million and, in 1992, took his last $50 and headed to Vegas.
A friend at the Mirage loaned him $10,000 and, within hours, Karas was able to repay that loan and start racking up wins. Between poker and pool, Archie continued to build up his bankroll, eventually holding $50 million.
Winning streaks generally turn into losing streaks and that's what happened to Karas. The rest of his life, Karas fluctuated between big wins and big losses.
So....
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