King Henry the VIII

This fascinating Tudor Monarch King Henry VIII was crowned King of England in 1509 and was not a King who had been expected to rule. He only took the throne because his older brother had died.

As his reign progressed, he grew desperate for a son to carry on his legacy and tried to have his first marriage annulled which was denied by the Pope. He then decided to take matters into his own hands and landed up marrying a total of six wives.

Nights filled with Gambling

When Henry VIII ascended the throne, he followed a philosophy of work to live not live to work. He preferred hunting and hawking over reigning. When his outdoor activities ended, Henry would take the time to attend to some of his obligations.

His nights were usually filled with dancing, playing cards or Gambling and he was often referred to as England’s No 1 Gambler due to it being his favourite leisure activity. He enjoyed playing dice, a version of Backgammon known as Tables and the checkers related game known as “Betting Queek.”

Henry was not a very lucky gambler or very skilful for that matter and once gambled away the beloved Jesus Bells of St Paul’s Church on a single roll of the dice. True to form he ensured the winner of that bet, Sir Miles Partridge was convicted of treason and hung publicly at London’s Tower Hill.

Wrapping it Up

King Henry VIII gained the reputation as an aggressive and heavy-handed ruler who made rash decisions and between all his political genius and unforgivable personal anarchy he was also an avid gambler who enjoyed “Bragg” and sports betting. During his reign, he lost £3250 which is equivalent to £2.5 million today. Ironically he banned his military from participating in any form of Gambling as it would distract them from their duties.

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.