Gambling history is full of legends. There are famous gamblers who used to be notorious gangsters, some are child prodigies, some are basketball players, and there are people who are both notorious gamblers, university professors, and famous investors.
In this article, we would like to introduce to you the top 3 most famous gamblers in gambling history.
Edward Thorp
Edward Thorp was born in 1932 in Chicago. He is the only person in the history of world gambling; he is an intellectual – a professor of mathematics at MIT. He is also known as a famous Black Jack player great quantitative investor.
He was a pioneer in the modern applications of statistical probability. At that time, when playing Black Jack – one of the top betting games at Betway casino today – 6 decks of cards were shuffled and dealt until the cards ran out without shuffling again after each game. Taking advantage of this, Edward devised a Card Counting strategy and proved it would give the player an advantage through probability theory. He applied this tactic, and on his first weekend in Vegas, he won $700,000 from Black Jack. After a few times like that, he was banned from playing by the bookies. He later wrote the book “Beat the Dealer” describing his strategy. A team of students at MIT later used and refined his method to win a lot of money from Black Jack, and this story was included in the very attractive movie “21”.
After being banned from playing Black Jack, Edward continued to gamble on the Wall Street stock market and became the father of the quantitative method (Quantitative Method) used so much by the famous investment funds today. He opened an investment fund and made great profits at that time.
Arnold Rothstein
Arnold Rothstein, born in 1882, died in 1928. Rothstein was not only a famous gambler but also a New York gangster in the early 90s. Nicknamed “The Brain” or “The Big Bankroll”, he is involved in many criminal activities, but the most prominent is gambling. Rothstein is famous for fixing the American professional baseball final score in 1919 and turning the gangsters from small gangs of thugs into a ring operating like a large corporation.
The image of Arnold Rothstein has been transformed into many movies and, most recently, the fascinating TV series “Boardwalk Empire”.
Frank Rosenthal
Frank Rosenthal was born in Chicago in 1929. In the 1950s, he was recruited by the notorious gangster Chicago Outfit due to his gambling ability.
Frank is best known for his sports bets. He is so famous that the bookmakers’ odds can change dramatically every time he bets. In 1968, Frank was transferred to Las Vegas to control casinos at that time under the influence of the Chicago Outfit gang, the most spectacular of which was Stardust. Frank is actually a very creative person. He opened a sports betting section in the casino and, at the same time, hired many beautiful young dealers and invested in performances in the casino to attract players. The income of the casinos led by Frank is always at the top. However, Frank’s career came to an end when the police began to rigorously investigate these casinos. Frank himself was assassinated, possibly by his own gangs, to cover the clues, but he was lucky to escape death. After that, Frank retired and retired to California. In the last years of his life, he worked as a consultant for a number of bookmakers.
The image of Frank Rosenthal has also been included in many movies, most notably the character Sam “Ace” Rothstein (based on Frank Rosenthal), played by Robert De Niro in Casino.