People

Zeljko Ranogajec

Zeljko Ranogajec was born in Hobart Australia on the 22 May 1961 to Croatian immigrants. He is a professional gambler and Entrepreneur, also known as John Wilson. He studied finance, tax and banking at the University of Tasmania before becoming a professional gambler. It was at this University that his interest in gambling and more specifically, card counting started.

He tested out his newly learnt skills at the Wrest Point Casino, and this is where he met his future wife Shelley Wilson, who subsequently became his business partner.

Zeljko and his wife then moved to New South Wales where he initially continued his studies, but then dropped out to concentrate on gambling fulltime.

Gambling at Australian Casinos

Zeljko initially started gambling at the well-known casinos in Australia like Wrestpoint Casino and Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast.

He was subsequently banned from all of the Australian casinos, so started visiting the Las Vegas Casinos.

However, He had problems getting his winnings back to Australia, so he had to hide his winnings and duck and dive the authorities. He was soon banned from the casinos in Las Vegas as well.

Advantage Play

Zeljko was always looking at different advantage play in other areas and branched out into Keno and Horse Racing where he continued to rack up the winnings.
On average, he earned $1billion per annum.

In 2011 Zeljko was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame alongside many other well-known gamblers like Bill Benter, Don Johnson and Stanford Wong.

Conclusion

Zeljko Ranogajev still gambles at sites like Betfair but keeps a low profile and leads a reclusive lifestyle. In 2019 and 2020 he appeared in the Australian Financial Review rich list with an estimated fortune of 600 million Australian Dollars.

He currently lives in Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, London.

Bill Benter

William Benter, aka Bill Benter, is a Professional gambler and philanthropist. He became one of the wealthiest gamblers in the world due to an algorithm that he wrote for the horse racing industry. His earnings surpassed $1 billion from this algorithm.

He was born in 1957 in Pittsburgh and studied Physics after completing High School. However, he never graduated as he dropped out of University at the age of 22 and went to Las Vegas. He had read a book by which was about card counting, and he wanted to see if the theories in the book worked.

Bill Benter meets Alan Woods

Whilst Bill Benter was living in Vegas; he worked various small jobs to make ends meet. One of these jobs was at Macdonalds, where he met an Australian chap called Alan Woods, who became his partner. At the time, Alan Woods lead a card-counting team which Bill Benter joined. Inevitably the casinos in Las Vegas blacklisted them eventually, so they then set their sites on horse racing.

This is where Bill Benter’s Horse Racing algorithm came into play, and they used this algorithm along with Alan Woods mathematical skills to create a formula to choose winners of each race.

They focused their attention on the Hong Kong Horse Racing market, as there were only two racetracks and minimal horses, so it was easier to predict a winner.

For the first two years, they lost over $150 000, but in the third year, they made a profit of $100 000. However, by this time, they both had their own ideas on the best betting model and landed up parting ways.

Conclusion

After splitting up with Alan Woods, Bill Benter then created his own computer model which made him a very wealthy man.

Nowadays, Bill Benter is a guest speaker at Universities and Human Rights organisations.

Annette Obrestad

Annette Obrestad was born in Sandnes Norway on the 18 September 1988. She is a Norwegian professional Poker player fondly known as “the Huntress.” She was an online poker legend well before she performed her no-look challenge where Obrestad took the game to new heights when she played an entire poker tournament without looking at her cards.

Obrestad began playing at internet poker rooms at the age of 15 and won her bankrolls through FreeRolls as they were her only option then as her mother would not allow her to use her credit card to make deposits.

Obrestad’s Professional Gambling Career

Annette Obrestad became the youngest player to earn a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in 2007 one day shy of her 19^th birthday. She landed up walking away with winnings of £1 million in the WSOP Europe Main Event. She continued on this winning streak and finished in second place at the 2007 PokerStars European Poker Tour Dublin Main Event.

Over the years her success has gained her many sponsorships from Full Tilt Poker, Betfair and Lock Poker. The backing with Lock Poker was a disaster as they shut down and never reimbursed the players.

Obrestad is the second-highest female earner in an all-time ranking of winnings made by women in poker tournaments. However, these days, she spends a lot less time at the poker tables or tolling online and focuses on her YouTube channel.

Where is she today?

Obrestad is now married and living in the gambling hub of the world Las Vegas and solely focused on her YouTube Channel. She offered some excellent advice “I cut my losses and moved on “, and this is a mantra many gamblers should pay attention to, especially when on a losing streak.

She maintains her title of the youngest person ever to win a WSOP bracelet.

Terence Watanabe

Introduction

Terence Watanabe is an American businessman who inherited a company called Oriental Trading. He is, however, best known for being a high roller with lavish gambling habits and one of the biggest Vegas Whales. In 2000 Watanabe sold his company to LA-based private equity and became a philanthropist who subsequently lost most of his fortune gambling in Las Vegas.

Terence Watanabe’s Gambling Habits

After selling his company, he lost $127 million at Caesars Palace and the Rio in Las Vegas after having gambled a total of $825 million. As a compulsive gambler, Wynn Las Vegas banned him, and by then it was estimated he had lost a total of $204 million.

Watanabe incurred massive debts with Harrah’s casino which was bought out by Caesars Entertainment, debts that he never paid back. Caesars filed a lawsuit, leading him to be criminally charged. In 2010 he settled this massive criminal and civil case with Caesars Las Vegas. His main argument was the fact that the casino allowed him to continue gambling while intoxicated, which is illegal. The case was settled and Caesars Entertainment was fined $225 000 in March 2013.

Terrence Watanabe Today

He has mostly stayed out of the news, but misfortune struck in July 2017. He opened a GoFundMe fundraiser for a Medical illness as he was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and requires surgery which costs $100 000 and he cannot afford to pay for it as he is flat broke.

Many may see him as looking for pity, however he says he has come to terms with his situation and hopes many can forgive him for his past and assist him, so he lives long enough to help others in the future. Many have shunned him and have made comments like he was rich and blew his fortune gambling, so he deserves everything he gets.

Nobody deserves ill health, and there are many stories about his generosity and he gave millions of dollars to NPO, in particular, LGBTQ and the Elton John AIDS foundation.

As of May 2020, the GoFundMe campaign closed with a total of $28 610 raised.