Craziest Bets Ever Made (Crazy Big Money / Cash Bets) - YouTube

Channel: The Infographics Show

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You’re a young man, in need of adventure, bored of the drudgery of everyday life in
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your small town.
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You need a change, but you don’t have the cash to put change into effect.
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You know what you have to do, and that’s take a huge risk.
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You sell everything you own, your car, your electronic goods, your beloved bicycle, even
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your clothes.
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You then empty your bank accounts and buy a ticket to the gambling mecca of Las Vegas.
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In your pocket is the cash equivalent to everything you own: $135,300.
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You head to the roulette wheel and stack your cash on red.
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The wheel turns, the ball is put into action, and for a few seconds you consider the future,
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your hands trembling, your heart skipping beats.
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The ball stops with a clunk.
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It’s red

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And what we’ve just told you is a true story.
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The English Risk Taker That story is the tale of a man called Ashley
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Revell, a man from Maidstone in England who sold all his possessions when he was 32 to
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make that bet in the U.S.
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It’s said he also raised cash from auctions and sales, so he wasn’t exactly rolling
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in dough when he made that life-changing bet in 2004.
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In fact, when a UK online gambling company heard about what he was going to do they even
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gave him some cash.
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Because of this the man legally changed his name to “Ashley Blue Square Revell.”
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Before his bet he said, “I really want to put that bet on, and just get that rush and
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see how I’m going to feel and how I’m going to handle it, and if I lose how I’m
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going to handle that.”
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It’s said he walked out of the casino with his $270,600, and afterwards he told the media,
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“That was the most amazing experience I have ever had in my entire life.”
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With his cash he decided to buy a motorbike and travel across Europe, and on that trip
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he met his wife-to-be.
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They had two kids together and Revell later started a company.
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His win has inspired game shows and has become a legendary story among gamblers.
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This is a feelgood story, but you’ll see gambling has a very dark side.
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The Eternal Gambler This man may not have laid down the biggest
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bet but his name has gone down in gambling history and he claims to have bet more money
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in casinos than anyone else in history.
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His name is Archie Karas and he has a pretty wild story.
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In 1992 he drove to Las Vegas with just $50 in his pocket.
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There’s not much you can do with that, but he managed to get $10,000 from a friend as
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a loan.
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He made good on his word to pay the money back, beating 15 of the best poker players
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in the world in a competition.
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We should say here that he had made a lot of money in the past and was well known in
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the poker community, but he really was down to his last $50 before he borrowed that cash.
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It’s a long story, but he kept on gambling over the coming days and weeks.
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He kept on winning, playing various casino games, and this now is known as “The Run.”
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At the end of this run he had a whopping $40 million.
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That’s $50 to $10,000 to 40 mil.
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But as often happens with the eternal gambler, he lost it all.
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Then he made a few million back again, and then lost it all again.
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This is what he once said about his chosen way of life:
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“You've got to understand something.
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Money means nothing to me.
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I don't value it.
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I've had all the material things I could ever want.
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Everything.
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The things I want, money can't buy: health, freedom, love, happiness.
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I don't care about money, so I have no fear.
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I don't care if I lose it.”
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The Coin Toss This is the story of a man called Kerry Packer,
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who was before his death at one point the richest man in Australia.
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He was well known for his gambling proclivities and would at times lose many millions or win
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many millions in a matter of days in UK and US casinos.
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In 1999 he lost around $20 million in casinos in London in a matter of weeks, and also in
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the 90s he walked into a London casino with $20 million and played four roulette wheels.
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He lost everything that day.
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But his biggest bet, if you can call it that, was going up against another man.
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As the story goes, Packer was playing poker in the Stratosphere Casino in Las Vegas with
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a well known Texan player.
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Packer was said to have an explosive temper, and the Texan didn’t much like him.
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It’s said the Texan was also miffed that Packer didn’t know who he was after he had
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asked him to get into a poker match with him.
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That Texan guy apparently said, “I'm worth $60,000,000!” Packer’s response was, “Heads
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or tails, I’ll toss you for it.”
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As the legend goes, the Texan man wasn’t willing to bet his fortune on a coin toss.
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Money Mayweather We all know that one of the best boxers that
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ever lived Floyd Mayweather is not shy about showing how much cash he has earned throughout
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his career.
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It was reported in 2013 that the boxer made a huge bet in $5.9 million on the basketball
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game between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers.
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He bet on the Heat.
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His team won by 99-76.
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The odds were in his favor, but he still made around 500,000 in profit from the bet.
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He’s never admitted to making the bet, but one Vegas gambling man who knows what goes
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on in Vegas tweeted, “Good source from my HeavyHitters Vegas crew alerted me that Floyd
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Mayweather has laid over $5,900,000 on Heat -7 tonight in Vegas.”
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Better X Now we have a sports fan who goes by the name
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of Better X.
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It seems no one knows his real name.
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It’s said this guy, or girl, made $25 million in recent years after betting on the Houston
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Astros and Philadelphia Eagles.
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But early in 2019 he took a hit after putting millions on the Los Angeles Rams.
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ESPN wrote that he made three big bets and in total lost $3.8 million.
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Still, with his recent winning streak he’s got $20 million in the bank that he didn’t
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have.
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The questions is, how long can he keep that?
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Nick the Greek The man known as Nick the Greek, real name
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Nicholas Andreas Dandolos, was another high roller that has gone down in gambling history.
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From January 1949 to May 1949 he played a two-man poker match against another legend
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called Johnny Moss.
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At the end of the match the Greek man was down severely and it’s said he uttered the
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words, “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.”
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We don’t know exactly how much he lost going against Moss, but some reports state it was
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as much as four million dollars.
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In 1949 that was a lot of money, and if you convert that into today’s money it’s over
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$21 million.
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That’s some loss.
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The Underdog This was by no means the biggest bet ever
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made but we are including it because it’s such a cool story.
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It’s about a British soccer team (football to the Brits) called Leicester City.
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This team was a massive underdog and no one in the world thought they could win the Premier
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League.
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It’s difficult to explain if you don’t know your soccer, but just imagine a lower
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rung team from any sport, that you know certainly don’t have a chance of beating the big teams.
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In British soccer, the good teams almost always seem to win the league.
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But not this year.
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At the start of the season the odds for Leicester winning the title were 5000/1.
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That’s how bad the team was.
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But some people did make a small bet, and we are talking about a fistful of pounds.
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The thing was, as the team were on their winning streak, betting companies gave the gamblers
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the option to cash out.
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Some took that option and took home a handsome $100,000 from a very small bet.
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But others stayed in, believing their team would win the title.
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It’s said one gambler won $250,000, but he put his money on when the odds were 2000/1.
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With Leister winning, the bookmakers took a huge loss that year to the tune of around
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$30 million.
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Go Dodgers This is said to be one of the biggest sporting
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bets in history.
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The gambler became known as the “Let it Ride” better.
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All we know about the man is that he was younger than 30 at the time he made the bet and of
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Eastern European decent.
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USA Today reported in 2017 that this man started betting on World Series games in baseball,
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but he let the bet ride, which meant when he won game one he put all the money on game
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two.
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If he won game two, he put all his cash on game three.
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He kept winning, and by the time he had won game 6 he had amassed a massive $14 million.
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But to get that he had to risk $8 million, on which he bet that the Dodgers would win.
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Think about if he had bet wrong on that last game!
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USA Today writes that the man was even thinking about betting his 14 million on game 7, but
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he backed out.
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According to some sources, he is known in Las Vegas for betting heavily and has placed
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very large bets on UFC fights in the past.
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Some people think he doesn’t even exist and is actually a betting syndicate.
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The Phantom Gambler The man known as the Phantom Gambler, sometimes
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“The Suitcase Man” was really called William Lee Bergstrom.
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He died in 1985, but before his death he became known as the biggest gambler that ever lived.
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As the story goes, he made some cash in real estate and then in 1980 he turned up in Las
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Vegas ready to bet a lot of money.
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He went to Binion's Horseshoe Casino with a suitcase full of cash to the amount of $777,000.
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That’s almost $2.5 million in today’s money.
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He was also carrying a second suitcase which was empty, so he obviously thought he was
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going to win.
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What most people don’t know is he had borrowed half the cash and told the casino owner that
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if he didn’t win he would take his own life.
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This was some bet, a mortal risk.
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At the time the casino had a policy to accept any bet, and on this day that policy would
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be its ruin.
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Bergstrom put all of the cash, and we mean every dollar, on the roll of a dice in a craps
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game.
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He won and he doubled his cash to around $1.5 million (5 million today) and as the tale
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goes he drove off into the sunset.
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The next day the LA Times printed the headline, “Mystery Man Wins Fortune.”
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The paper interviewed the casino owner who said, “He was cool.
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He really had a lot of gamble in him.”
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It would be a long time before the Phantom would turn up again.
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But he did go back to Vegas and the year was 1984.
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Again he had a suitcase full of cash but this time $538,000.
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On this occasion the shooter rolled a seven, and that was a loss for Bergstrom.
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There was an eerie calm before Bergstrom went and ate some enchiladas.
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A few days later he tried to kill himself but failed.
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His father tried to counsel his son back to good mental health, but his depression and
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addiction were seemingly irrevocable.
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Bergstrom went missing one day and his father called the casino bosses and told them not
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to take bets from his son.
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Bergstrom had actually gone to Vegas with forged cash, but that didn’t work out for
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him.
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On February 4th, 1985, he was found dead in a hotel room after consuming a large number
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of pills.
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He was just 33-years old.
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What’s the biggest bet you’ve ever made?
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Think you have the nerve to bet big and potentially lose everything?
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Let us know in the comments!
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Also, be sure to check out our other video Why Winning The Lottery Is The Worst Thing
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That Can Happen To You.
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Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
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See you next time.