It looked at the gambling industry's total revenue and its tax payments, including gambling, property and income taxes. It also used a multiplier to consider the industry's impacts on other. Aug 31, 2017  The British gambling industry has ballooned in size over the past decade, thanks to the growth of online games and the liberalisation of gambling laws by Tony Blair’s government.

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Gambling has a long and interesting history. It’s been a popular activity for almost as long as the human race has existed, and its popularity shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. It continues to be on the up rise: partly because of the consistent improvements in the world of online gambling, and partly because it’s starting to become more socially acceptable.

Throughout its rich history, and right up until today, gambling has attracted an incredible variety of different characters. Some of these individuals are famous (or infamous) for their gambling related exploits. Trust us when we say that their stories make for extremely interesting reading. Actually, that’s why we’ve put together this section of our website, featuring biographies of some of the biggest names in gambling.

When we first started this section we focused on the pioneers and innovators who were instrumental in developing the gambling industry in one way or another. We wanted to include individuals that helped turn Las Vegas into the gambling capital of the world, and those who contributed to the evolution of online gambling. We quickly realized that there were far more stories to tell though, so we decided to expand our scope.

We now have detailed biographies on people involved in all aspects of gambling. We address those who have won big, and those who have lost it all. We’ve written about those who have found legitimate ways to win, those who have cheated and those who have engaged in outright criminal behavior. In short, we’ve covered the good, the bad and everything in between. If there’s a story to tell, we’ve told it.

You can find all our biographies listed on this page. Because there are so many, we’ve divided them into the following categories.

There have been many entrepreneurs and executives who have helped to shape the online gambling industry into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Many of the big names and important people from the industry could be considered genuine pioneers, and yet they often don’t get the credit they deserve. While many of them have become household names, even more of them are virtual unknowns.

The biographies in this category tell the stories of the people who have turned modern betting and gaming into what it is today. Without them, the evolution of this industry might have been very different. It’s possible that other pioneers would have stepped in to take their place, but realistically gambling sites probably wouldn’t be anywhere near as advanced as they are today.

It wouldn’t be very fun if we focused solely on those who have had a positive impact on the industry though, as the “bad guys” have far more intriguing stories to tell. This small percentage of people are responsible for damaging the industry in one way or another, but their influence is still important to learn about regardless.

Featured Biographies

DENISE COATES

The mastermind behind online gambling giant Bet365

CALVIN AYRE

The charismatic billionaire who founded Bodog

ISAI SCHEINBERG

Innovative but private, he created PokerStars

RUTH PARASOL

The driving force of PartyGaming’s success

THE SHAKED BROTHERS

Founders of 888, one of the best-known gambling sites

ANDREW BLACK

Created Betfair, the most successful betting exchange

RAY BITAR

The main man behind Full Tilt Poker

TEDDY SAGI

Creator of Playtech sports betting software

Additional Biographies

Before the online gambling pioneers, the biggest names in the gambling industry mostly consisted of people who built, owned or developed land based casinos. Those names are the inspiration for this category of bios.

Many of the people listed below started small but went on to build huge empires. Some of them had a very significant influence on the way the land-based gambling industry evolved as a whole. Their stories will grab your attention early on and keep you hooked until the very end.

Featured Biographies

BOBBY BALDWIN

President/CEO of Mirage Resorts

JOHN ASPINALL

Bookmaker & founder of the Clermont Club in London

SHELDON ADELSON

Billionaire founder of the Las Vegas Sands Corp.

PHIL RUFFIN

Owner of Treasure Island & numerous other casinos

KIRK KERKORIAN

Las Vegas tycoon, the father of the megaresort

STEVE WYNN

Owner of the Bellagio, Wynn Las Vegas, and other venues

Additional Biographies

In this category we’ve provided bios of some famous historical figures. Although most of these individuals have earned their fame from something other than gambling, gambling has still played a significant role in their lives in one way or another. The diversity of names found here highlights just how widespread the popularity of gambling has always been.

Making money from gambling can be accomplished in one of three ways. The most popular way is to hope that luck is on your side. Another way would be to dedicate a huge chunk of time to learning the various skills and strategies in order to gain an edge over the bookmakers. Either of these approaches would perfectly respectable, although the second is far more likely to yield results.

The third approach is in no way respectable. It’s to cheat, and no one likes a cheater. Actually, when it comes to gambling, that’s not entirely true. Gambling cheats are usually admired by their fellow gamblers: especially when they a share a common enemy (the house). However, no one appreciates a gambler who cheats other gamblers. That’s wrong on so many levels.

The gamblers found on the list below are well known for their cheating exploits. We don’t doubt that this list would be bigger if it weren’t for the gambling cheats who were successful and gotten away with it. As much as we’d love to know THOSE stories, we probably never will.

All Biographies

Gambling and criminals basically went hand in hand at various points in history. At times, gambling was considered an “underground” activity run by criminals. Nowadays, in general, things have changed for the better. With so much money involved in gambling, however, one might suspect that some gambling-related crimes still go on today.

In this category we’ve provided bios on some of the most interesting criminals involved in some sort of gambling scandal.

Featured Biographies

JESSE JAMES

Infamous American Outlaw and gambler

BUGSY SIEGEL

Feared mobster and casino owner

Additional Biographies

Poker could easily be considered one of most popular forms of gambling in the world. It has many appealing characteristics, and it strikes a good balance between luck and skill. Players with no skill at all can get lucky and beat much better players on occasion, but the truly skilled players almost always make money in the long run.

The general interest in poker is so widespread these days that successful poker players are genuine celebrities. Televised tournaments and cash games attract huge audiences, and it’s not just because people enjoy watching other people play cards. They enjoy watching how the characters at the table interact too, especially the big name players.

It’s the big name players that you’ll find here. We’ve compiled biographies on the best-known players: past and present. If you have aspirations of becoming a successful player yourself, then it wouldn’t hurt to thoroughly read these biographies in order to see what it takes to make it to the top.

Featured Biographies

PHIL IVEY

One of the best poker players of all time

PHIL HELLMUTH

Extremely successful player known as “The Poker Brat”

DAN BILZERIAN

Poker playing playboy known as “The Blitz”

CHRIS MONEYMAKER

Won the WSOP main event after qualifying online

DANIEL NEGREANU

Charismatic and popular professional poker player

VANESSA ROUSSO

One of the most successful female poker players

Additional Biographies

No casino game has ever captured the attention of so many quite like blackjack has. This relatively simple card game is intriguing on many levels, and it also happens to be the only casino game that can be genuinely beaten without resorting to cheating. A skilled blackjack player can actually gain an edge over the house by counting cards.

Advantage players have shown a strong interest in card counting for several decades now. Some skilled card counters are considered true legends for their contributions to the subject, while others have earned that title thanks to their exploits in the casino. Learn more about all these interesting characters by reading the following biographies.

KEITH TAFT

Bona-fide genius and successful counter

EDWARD THORP

Established Author and “the godfather of card counting”

KEN USTON

Successfully sued a casino for banning him

TOMMY HYLAND

Manager of the longest running counting team

Additional Biographies

For some, the thrill of gambling is simply not enough. These people only want to gamble if they have the opportunity to win big. It’s easy to relate, as gambling obviously becomes more exciting when there’s more at stake. For the majority of us, though, our idea of big stakes may just be a few more dollars than we usually bet.

The guys listed below are on a whole different level. They are (or were) REAL high-rollers. They have gambled millions upon millions of dollars, often risking sums that most people would consider to be a fortune on single wagers.

Featured Biographies

KERRY PACKER

Media tycoon who loved to gamble for big money

WILLIAM LEE BERGSTROM

Placed some of the largest ever bets in casinos

ARCHIE KARAS

A famous gambler who went from rags to riches

NICK DANDOLOS

Won and lost huge sums of money while gambling

Professional Gamblers

For most people, gambling is nothing more than a fun activity to enjoy with friends. For a small percentage of gamblers, however, it’s a lot more than that. Professional gamblers, or those who have decided to make gambling their career, are obviously very good at what they do. Many of them also live very interesting lives.

As you might imagine, a lot of professional gamblers are very secretive. They don’t want everyone knowing how they do what they do. Nonetheless, we’ve managed to compile a few bios on some of the more colorful characters that gamble for a living.

Additional Biographies

Most gamblers appreciate a win of any kind. We all hope to win big, of course, but even just a small win is better than no win at all. And there’s always next time, when maybe we’ll finally get that elusive win that will really change our lives. This might be based more on hope than expectation, but that’s partially what makes gambling so much fun.

The people below help reassure us that our dreams can indeed come true. These are among some of the biggest gambling winners of all times. If it can happen to them, it can happen to any one of us. Right?

Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo

Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo is one of the most successful roulette players of all time. He’s considered by many to be the first person to truly exploit the bias that mechanical roulette wheels can show. He invested months of his life to studying and analyzing the behavior of wheels in Spain, before winning hundreds of thousands of dollars based on his findings.

Elmer Sherwin

Slots players all over the world share the dream of one day hitting a big jackpot. A select few of them will get lucky and realize their dreams, but we doubt than anyone will ever be as lucky as Elmer Sherwin. Why would we make such an assumption? Well, it’s because he won the Megabucks Jackpot not once, but twice. He won $4.6 million in 1989, before following that up with another $21 million win 16 years later. This is a truly unbelievable story.

Conor Murphy

Conor Murphy is an inspiration to horse racing bettors. He proved that it IS possible to win big, providing you bid your time and wait for the right opportunities. His opportunity came in 2011, while working as a horse racing trainer. He identified five horses that he felt would do well in the following year’s Cheltenham Festival, and placed an accumulator accordingly. All five won, bringing him in over $1 million.

Charlie Wells

There is a great deal of uncertainty over exactly how Charlie Wells landed his big win, but some facts are known for sure. In the late 19th century, he made two trips to the Monte Carlo Casino and won the equivalent of $10 million in today’s money. This was all from roulette. He claimed to have a system, but it’s been speculated that he cheated. Maybe he just got lucky. Whatever the truth may be, he’ll always be known as the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo.

Colin & Chris Weir

This married couple from Scotland made the headlines back in 2011 when they won the lottery. Although simply winning the lottery isn’t extraordinary, how much they won was. They won £161 million (around $240 million) to be precise. This was the highest amount ever won in the United Kingdom: an astonishing amount of money from a ticket that cost only £2.

Casino Gambling Industry

Ashley Revell

They say you have to be prepared to take big risks to win big. It’s hard to imagine anyone has ever taken this more literally than Ashley Revell did. In 2004 he sold all his possessions, and travelled from England to Las Vegas. He put everything he had ($135,300) on a single spin of the roulette wheel. He bet red, and got extremely lucky.

Cynthia Jay-Brennan

Cynthia Jay-Brennan is another Megabucks Jackpot winner. She won $35 million in 2000, which was a record at the time. This is a story in its own right, but what happened subsequently highlights just how cruel life can be. Just a few weeks after her record win, she was involved in a car accident and paralyzed from the chest down.

Gloria MacKenzie

Gloria MacKenzie won the Powerball lottery in 2013. This wasn’t just any Powerball lottery. She won the largest undivided prize in its history, a cool $590 million. She could have had the full amount paid over 30 years, but she opted from the lump payment of $370 million. At 84 years old, we don’t think anyone could blame her for this decision!

Don Johnson

No, not the actor. This Don Johnson is a professional gambler who went on one of the most astonishing winning streaks ever known. During a six-month period in 2011, he took Atlantic City casinos for over $15 million. He played only blackjack, and managed to convince the casinos to change some of the game rules to his favor. This obviously helped, but he still needed a great deal of luck to win that big.

What was your professional background before co-founding Global Risk Technologies, parent company of Chargebacks911?
I’m not originally from the payments industry. I actually spent 25 years trading with the most volatile commodities on this planet – natural gas and electricity. I spent 15 years in the US helping reform and build markets. I was then in the UK from 1992 to 2002 working with both the electric regulator and natural gas regulator to make the markets over here work properly.
What was behind your decision to create Global Risk Technologies?
In 2007, my now COO dragged me to an internet show. I spent four days there and the parallels I saw between the online marketplace and what I had done for the previous 25 years were unbelievable. We just built this construct and we did a test where we took a product and white-labelled the branded product. We said: “Which one of these is going to sell more?” I did not know what a payment processor was or what a checkout page was. I didn’t know anything about payments at all. We sold $1.2m-worth in 90 days. This is from someone who didn’t know anything about the online market. People tell me it’s really difficult to make a living. This was in 2007 at the very bottom of the worst recession the UK and the US had seen in a long time. No one that is instrumental in building payments ever assumed that the online marketplace in 2015 would be 7.8% of all commerce on this planet, worth trillions of dollars.

We have shown through research that when a consumer does this and gets away with it, whether it’s a mistake or not, they are 50% more likely to do it again within 90 daysGary Cardone

How Much Is The Online Gambling Industry Worth

How closely are you currently working with the real-money online gambling industry?
Some of our business is with gamers. We were at the ICE Totally Gaming show this year. We started developing our products for technology in 2009. We went live in 2011 and we started in a number of different verticals. As we have become more diverse and moved up the retail value chain, we are yet to find a vertical that doesn’t have a substantial problem. It is staggering. Every vertical has this problem. It doesn’t matter if it’s digital or physical. Whether it’s Amazon, Microsoft, Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, whatever brand you have, they are having fraud problems, because their online business is growing. If a consumer will file a $2 chargeback against Apple or iTunes and they claim it’s fraud, they’ll definitely do it for a $200 loss with a gaming site.
How does chargeback fraud apply to the gambling industry?

How Big Is The Gaming Industry

How Large Is The Online Gambling Market

Issuing banks sometimes make mistakes. They have a consumer call up and say: “I’ve got a charge here that shows I paid x, y and z gaming companies.” The thing is the wife made the phone call. Her husband was out of town and she didn’t know he placed a bet last night. He lost £600 and she didn’t know about it. When she calls NatWest, for example, what is the person at NatWest supposed to do? This is an £8 per hour person who has been told to take care of depository accounts and says they will take care of the charge, no problem. We have shown through research that when a consumer does this and gets away with it, whether it’s a mistake or not, they are 50% more likely to do it again within 90 days. They don’t know there are penalties associated with this.
How exactly does the process of reclaiming chargebacks work?
I’d have to kill you if I told you that. There is a way to prevent these problems and then there’s remediation. If it’s a fraudulently-claimed file or dispute, there is a way for the merchant to get their money back. They’ve got to prove their case though and the problem with the online gaming market is that many merchants look at it and think they can’t prove anything, because it’s digital. This is a great myth in the payments industry.

Sports Gambling Industry News

What more can banks and gaming operators be doing to prevent the problem of chargeback fraud?

Gambling Industry News

I don’t know anyone that doesn’t defend something when it is taken from them. Over the last decade, with nearly every vertical in payments, it has been the status quo to not fight chargeback disputes, because it’s a cost of doing business. Chargebacks are up 155% for the last four years and 41% in the last two years. We think the number of dollars paid out exceeds $200bn a year. It’s a massive problem. First off, you have to become compliant. Compliance is not having a fraud-filter on. Compliance is doing what you said you were going to do. Once the merchant has become compliant, why would he put up with friction from a system that has huge inefficiencies in it? If we are currently having this level of friction with 1.3 billion consumers, what is going to happen when we have 7.3 billion consumers? Gambling companies are telling me they are getting hit with fraud. You should ask them what kind of fraud it is. I asked a guy today: “How do you define fraud?” He couldn’t answer my question. The payments industry has not defined what fraud is. There’s real fraud, there’s soft fraud, there’s hard fraud. Let’s give these activities names and then once you give it a name, you will now be able to defend against it. When you just lumber it all into one bucket, you apply one or two tools to the same bucket and it doesn’t solve the problem. It’s like going to four different doctors with four different symptoms. They each give you medication, and a week later, you’re dead.