Australia is widely known as gambling heaven. The origins of this national obsession may be a historical mystery, but Australians love to beat the odds, whether it’s at the racetrack, the pokies, or the oval. They also love using online casino no deposit bonus to help them gamble. According to a poll, the average Australian gambles roughly $1,260 per year, with a total gambling turnover of $225 billion in 2018-19. The top Australian players have amassed millions of dollars at the tables and gained international acclaim for their exploits.
Some of Australia’s most famous gamblers:
- Alan Woods
- Kerry Packer
- Lloyd Williams
- David Walsh
- Zeljko Ranogajec
Alan Woods
Alan Woods hails from Wollongong and is regarded as one of the best in Australia and the world over. Woods, who died in Hong Kong in 2008, was a gifted mathematician with a keen intuition. Unfortunately, in the early 1970s, when he was still in college, the mathematician began to dabble in gambling.
Woods began his gambling career in New South Wales, where he played Blackjack in local casinos. He also put a lot of money into horse racing, but he lost interest when his losses outnumbered his victories. So for a while, he stopped betting, but he ultimately came back.
Alan Woods was estimated to have amassed a wealth of $670 million at his death. He made certain that every penny he had was wisely spent. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were contributed to mental health research by him. He also gave millions of dollars to the Philippines’ orphanages, schools, and hospitals. Alan Woods was Australia’s and one of the world’s best and most innovative gamblers.
Kerry Packer
Packer’s gambling career began in the 1970s when he inherited $100 million in assets from his father. Packer was a seasoned gambler who regularly won large sums of money betting on cricket and horse races. He had enjoyed both success and failure in casinos worldwide over the years, most notably in Las Vegas.
Packer had a string of terrible luck in the 1990s, losing $28 million in less than a month. He was, however, a horse racing and cricket expert. Packer is said to have won over $33 million at the MGM Grand Casino. As such, he quickly became one of Australia’s most famous gamblers. Another of his legendary successes was when he won 20 hands in a row while playing high-stakes baccarat, putting a $155,000 wager on each hand.
He passed away in December 2005 at the age of 68, having amassed a $6.5 billion fortune. Even though Kerry Packer died in 2005, his legacy lives on through his son, James Packer, who now controls many casinos, and James is currently considered one of the wealthiest casino owners in the world.
Lloyd Williams
Lloyd Williams is a businessman and one of Australia’s most successful casino owners. He was close friends with Kerry Packer, the founder of Melbourne’s Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex and the Sydney Harbour casino (which includes The Star). The Crown Casino, which first opened its doors in 1994, is still Australia’s and one of the world’s largest casinos.
He discovered poker as he grew older while studying in Paris, where he began learning how to play against some of Europe’s best players while winning enormous sums of money. His gambling business focused mostly on horse racing, and he was one of Australia’s largest thoroughbred racehorse owners.
He is well-known for winning the coveted Melbourne Cup four times, making him one of just four thoroughbred owners in the world to do it. Lloyd Williams is currently worth an estimated $4 billion, having established himself as one of Australia’s most successful casino operators, as well as a huge success in the hotel business.
David Walsh
David Walsh is known for more than just being a professional gambler. He is the proprietor of the Museum of Old and New Art or MONA.
Walsh grew up in Launceston, Tasmania, as the son of a dairy farmer. He is claimed to have spent much of his leisure time playing poker machines for money while studying arts at university. Walsh traveled to Sydney in 1990 with his gains, where he worked as an art dealer before quitting in 1993 after losing his entire investment. He arrived in Tasmania with nothing but a six-figure gambling debt, which he paid off by selling three paintings from his father’s collection.
After that, David Walsh established his art gallery, MONA. Although the enterprise was profitable, Walsh’s debts continued to mount; he owed almost $30 million this time. So Walsh embarked on a gaming binge at Tasmania’s Wrest Point Casino with only $1500 in his bank account, tripling his money and clearing over $50,000. It enabled him to pay off all of his debts, keep MONA afloat, and construct a one-of-a-kind art gallery filled with controversial modern art installations.
Walsh is currently the head of the world’s largest gambling syndicate running it with his best friend, Zeljko Ranogajec.
Zeljko Ranogajec
Ranogajec is not only a specialist at horse betting, but he is also one of the most imaginative advantage players in blackjack history, according to professional blackjack players. Ranogajec prefers to keep his affairs under the radar, but industry sources believe that he generates more than $1 billion every year.
Ranogajec was born into a Croatian immigrant household in Australia. He began working at the Wrest Point Casino in Hobart, Tasmania, doing card counting in Blackjack while studying Commerce and Law at the University of Tasmania. He eventually skipped out of school to pursue gambling. Apart from Blackjack and horse racing, he enjoyed playing Keno and poker. He’s won huge sums of money, including $7.5 million in one of his great triumphs.
He’s been barred from certain casinos in the US and Australia, including Gold Coast, Jupiters, and Wrest Point, because he’s been winning too much. However, following his induction in 2011, he is now a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. He is still regarded as one of Australia’s finest gamblers but resides in Europe.
Summary
Like everybody else who gambles, these great Australian gamblers began with a desire and eventually achieved it in their distinctive ways. Australians continue to enjoy success with gambling by putting their business talents to use and seizing chances that come their way. Gambling is enjoyable for many people, but it is even more enjoyable for those who make a living at it. Anyone has the chance to become a high roller now that gambling is so popular on the internet.
