The World’s Worst Casino Losers

The most ridiculous, outrageous or tragic stories about people who gambled and lost.

Everyone knows a sore loser and probably hates to be around him or her, but it’s just unbelievable what some people are capable of doing to release their rage, after a bad game of poker.

International gambling news became full of stories about parents leaving their children unattended for hours while playing slot machines. Unable to accept their losses, dozens of gamblers are blaming and suing casino developers. Nuns and pastors have been caught stealing church money to feed their gambling habits. But these are only a few examples of what addiction can do to people.

Losing can certainly trigger some of the weirdest reactions in people, ranging from ridiculous to dangerous. Here are a few people who could very well be the world’s worst casino losers.

1. Deemed the world’s biggest casino loser, a Nebraska businessman named Terrance Watanabe has accused two Las Vegas casinos of getting him drunk and secretly “feeding” him prescription drugs, in order to get their hands on his money. The man lost nearly $127 million in one year and this is believed to be the biggest losing streak in Vegas History.

Watanabe was a well-known client at Caesars Palace and the Rio casino - both owned by Harrah Entertainment - where he wagered more than $825 million. His gambling habit helped generate 5.6% of the company’s revenue for that year.

Watanabe’s lawyer claims the man was addicted and “didn’t really realize what was going on”. Casino employees were fueling his habit by offering him “two to three bottles of vodka a day” and “eight or 10 addictive pills”, he added. The businessman still has to pay $14 million of his total casino debt and was charged with felony for refusing to do so.

2. Just last week, a Chinese woman completely lost it after the gambling machine she was playing on broke, causing her to lose about 6,000 Yuan. When the machine refused to award her the money, she picked a fight with the owner of the gaming room (which, by the way, is completely illegal under Chinese gambling laws) and the man hit her on the head.

This was when she lost her temper, got some fireworks, filled them up with gunpowder and threatened to blow up the venue. Her plan didn’t work out though, because she was so enraged that she fainted. The police took her to the hospital and questioned her. Apparently, she had become addicted to gambling and a regular customer of the venue where it all happened, after a friend introduced her to the place last year.

3. Clearly, some people have a very hard time accepting the fact that they lost. But when emotional problems also come into play, tragedies happen. Last July, Alessandro Bastianoni, an Italian poker star, killed himself after losing a lot of money and accumulating a $600,000 debt. The poker player was found dead in his luxury apartment in Peru, by his partner Yeinni Ospina.

4. Luckily not all people become dangerous when faced with a losing streak. Some start acting downright ridiculous. Glen Healy, a man believed to be addicted to gambling, was so desperate after he was caught stealing a phone that he blame it… on a toddler!

When his case was heard at the North Surrey Magistrates’ Court in Staines, it was revealed that the man had been stealing various items from shops, in order to fuel his gambling habit. He was hoping for a lucky win that would help him provide for his family, but ended up losing a lot of money instead.

This was when Healy started to steal from shops, but this didn’t work out well for him either. He was finally caught after a phone he had stolen fell out of his pocket. The man panicked and pointed at a two year-old who was fast asleep in her pushchair, claiming “she must have taken it”.

5. There are countless examples of men behaving irrationally after losing large amounts of money and David Hayes is certainly another one of them. Well, the man didn’t really lose; he actually won over $35,000 playing at a casino in Ohio. But with that much cash in his pocket, he was bound to get into trouble.

A few hours after he got back home, Hayes was robbed in his own house by two armed men who took his stack of $100 bills. Reportedly, they knew exactly what they were after, because they asked for “the money you won tonight”. The thieves were eventually caught, because one of them started to brag about the robbery he had committed.

Naturally, the victim was very angry, but his actions after that make little sense. He ended up suing the casino for giving him cash instead of a check.

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Some say the way you behave when you lose says a lot about your personality. Clearly, playing at a casino can be quite thrilling, but the truth is that gambling is both about winning and losing and players simply have to learn to accept this. How would you react if you lost thousands of dollars at a casino?