The Most Successful Career Gamblers

Mark Wahlberg plays a punter down in his luck in new drama ‘The Gambler’, but not everyone is so unlucky.

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Here are some of world’s most successful players.

Amarillo Slim

As well as being a brash, Stetson-wearing poker shark, Slim – born Thomas Preston Jr in Arkansas – was also a canny gambler. One of his most famous bets involved him challenging Wimbledon tennis champion Bobby Riggs to a game of table tennis. The only criteria? Slim could choose the bats. Riggs showed up and Slim handed over a skillet, a utensil he’d been practising with for weeks. Riggs, unsurprisingly, got thrashed.

Having won the World Series of Poker in 1972, Slim was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992 and was one of the few gamblers who became a celebrity away from the poker table. He appeared on talk shows and in a Robert Altman movie, as well as playing cards with Presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson.

His legacy was sullied somewhat when he pled no contest to a misdemeanour assault charge relating to accusations surrounding the abuse of his 12-year-old granddaughter. Slim always maintained his innocence and said he took the plea to save his family the embarrassment. He died of cancer in 2012 aged 83.

The MIT Blackjack Crew

The subject of a book by Ben Mezrich and a film (‘21’ starring Jim Sturgess), the team from the prestigious US university started working as a group in the late Seventies in an attempt to ‘beat’ the casinos at blackjack.

Using their scientific and mathematical background, the system involved counting cards, not illegal, but hated by the companies who ran Vegas. As such, it was a cloak and dagger operation, with team members like Jeff Ma (pictured) and Mike Aponte followed by private investigators and even putting on disguises to avoid detection.

Essentially, the plan involved two players, one who acted as a spotter – betting small amounts at a particular table and counting the cards – who would then signal to a colleague when the odds were more favourable. The second person would then come in and bet larger amounts and generally win.

Sometimes there were up to 30 members of the crew playing at the same time in different locations around the world. The team is thought to have disbanded around 2000, with players like Aponte becoming a blackjack coach while Ma a business analytics expert.

Victoria Coren Mitchell

The erudite journalist (who is also known as Mrs David Mitchell and the sister of restaurant critic Giles) is something of a legend in poker circles, as the only person to win the European Poker Tour twice.

The ‘Only Connect’ host has won around £1.5million since taking up the game as a teenager to fit in with her brother’s mates and is considered to be one of the top ten best female players ever.

She has won tournaments on TV too, including ‘Celebrity Poker Club’ and still visits London casinos to play hands. All this and she still writes books and weekly columns for The Observer.

Still a comparative newbie on the world stage, it’s likely that Coren Mitchell’s professional poker player has plenty of years to run.

Bill Benter

Proving that the best gamblers in the world are also the brightest and nerdiest (bravado is all well and good, but it’s really about calculating the odds), Pittsburgh-born William Benter won most of his money having developed computer software which helped him choose the best horse running on the Hong Kong racetracks.

He’s thought to earn at least $10million a year with his system by betting constantly on the gee gees and is considered perhaps the most successful career gambler of all time. According to one source, turnover in his syndicate reached HK$71.65 billion during the 2010 racing season, which is more than £60million.

He began his career as a card counter, but was soon banned from most Vegas casinos, which is when he turned to sports. Now a multimillionaire, he works with the University of Southampton’s Centre for Risk Research as a Visiting Professor and gives huge donations to philanthropic causes.

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Photos: Sipa Press/PA/Rex/Getty/University Of Southampton