Gambling

More than thirty countries currently have legalized gambling in the form of national

lotteries or private casinos. In the last ten years this addictive pastime has been

generating millions more via the internet.

So how do you become a successful gambler?  recently, an Australian wrote a software

programme to help him spot winners on the horses in Hong Kong and has supposedly won $150 million over the last 20 years.

What’s the biggest lottery jackpot ever? – the record is currently $350 million, won by two

people in the USA in May 2000.

Why do lotteries exist? – often to make money for the state. The Chinese had a lottery over

2000 years ago to raise money to build the Great Wall.

Which city earns the most from gambling? – Las Vegas. gaming was legalized there in the

1930s ; today it has 35 million visitors and earns seven and a half thousand million dollars

 What do they do with the profits? Build hotels, it seems – the world’s biggest is the MGM

Grand Hotel & Casino with 5,005 rooms.

What’s the least successful bet? – politician and fraudster Horatio Bottomley went to

Belgium in 1914 and bought all six horses in a race.  the race meeting was by the sea and a

mist came in and covered the entire course. The jockeys couldn’t see each other and the

judges couldn’t make out who had won. Bottomley lost a fortune.

What’s the longest-running bet? There was a ten-year bet between writer Paul Ehrlich and

businessman Julian Simon . Ehrlich lost when copper, chrome, nickel, tin and tungsten

dropped in price.

What’s the strangest bet ever made? Here’s one which started a hundred years ago in a London club. An American businessman bet a British investor $100,000 . A certain Harry Bensley agreed to take up the challenge.