Legendary gambler, Archie Karas, banned for life from all Las Vegas casinos

This is literally the fall of the legend - one of the most famous gamblers in the history of our planet is now facing criminal charges if he steps foot inside a casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This man is a walking scandal - over last 25 years of his career there have been numerous incidents, problems, law suits and rumours around Archie Karas. However, just now he has been banned for lifetime from playing in all Las Vegas casinos.

Archie Karas, who is now 64 years old, destroyed his reputation when he was found guilty of cheating at cards in San Diego casino in 2013. He was sentenced to three years of probation and was added to California's excluded persons list. In a result of that, last week, the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) unanimously voted for his addition to "The Black Book", which means he is banned from all casinos in the state. He is just the 33rd individual person to be put on that list.

The story of Archie Karas, man who turned $50 into $17,000,000 and lost it all
Below you can read the story of Archie Karas, via Wikipedia:
"Karas drove to Vegas with $50 in his wallet. His initial run lasted for six months where he turned $50 into $17 million playing poker and pool. After arriving at The Mirage, he started gambling and went on a hot streak. Karas recognized a fellow poker player from the Los Angeles scene and convinced him to loan him $10,000, which Archie quickly turned into $30,000 playing $200/$400 limit Razz.[4] Karas returned $20,000 to his backer, who was more than content.[5]

With a little over $10,000 in his pocket, Karas began looking for pool action. He found a wealthy and respected poker and pool player, Karas refused to reveal the name of his opponent for the sake of his opponent's reputation; he simply referred to him as "Mr. X". They started playing pool at $10,000 a game. After Karas won several hundred thousand dollars, they raised the stakes to $40,000 a game. Many gamblers and professional poker players watched Archie play with stakes never seen before. Karas ended up winning $1,200,000. He then relocated to Binion's Horseshoe and played Mr. X in poker where Karas won an additional $3,000,000 from him. Karas was willing to gamble everything he made and continued to raise the stakes to a level few dared to play at.[6]

With a bankroll of $4 million, Karas gambled his bankroll up to $7 million after spending only three months in Vegas. By now many poker players had heard of Mr. X's loss to Archie. Only the best players dared to challenge him. Karas sat at the Binion's Horseshoe's poker table with 5 of his 7 million dollars in front of him waiting for any players willing to play for such stakes.[7]

The first challenger was Stu Ungar, a three-time World Series of Poker champion widely regarded as the greatest Texas Hold'em and gin rummy player of all time. Stu was backed by Lyle Berman, another professional poker player and business executive who co-founded Grand Casinos. Karas first beat Stu for $500,000 playing heads-up Razz. Ungar then attempted to play him in 7-card stud, which cost him another $700,000.[7] The next player was Chip Reese, widely regarded as the greatest cash game player. Reese claims that Karas beat him for more money than anyone else he ever played. After 25 games, Reese was down $2,022,000 playing $8,000/$16,000 limit.[7]

Karas continued to beat many top players, from Doyle Brunson to Puggy Pearson to Johnny Moss. Many top players would not play him simply because his stakes were too high. The only player to beat Karas during his run was Johnny Chan, who beat him for $900,000 after losing to Karas the first two games. By the end of his six-month-long winning streak, Karas had amassed more than $17 million.[8]

The poker action for Karas had mostly dried up due to his reputation and stakes. He turned to dice, rolling for $100,000 per roll[3] and was allowed to make pass line and come bets of up to $300,000 with no odds.[9] At one point, Karas was allowed to bet a maximum of $200,000 on the 4 and 10 for 1 to 4.6 odds. With two rolls Karas won $920,000, then Jack Binion immediately lowered the limit back to $100,000.[9] He said that he could quickly win $3 million on dice, while it would take days to weeks with poker. He said that "With each play I was making million-dollar decisions, I would have played even higher if they'd let me."[4]

Transporting money became a hassle for Karas as he was moving several millions of dollars in his car every day. He carried a gun with him at all times and would often have his brother and casino security guards escort him. At one point, Karas had won all of the Binion's casino's $5000 chips, which were the highest denomination of chips at the time.[10] By the end of his winning streak he had won a fortune of over $40 million.[2][11]

aras's odds defying two-and-a-half-year streak came to an end in 1995 when he lost most of his money in a period of three weeks. He lost $11 million playing dice and then lost the $2 million he won from Chip Reese back to him. Following these losses he switched to baccarat and lost another $17 million, for a total of $30 million. With approximately $12 million left and needing a break from gambling, he returned to Greece. When he came back to Las Vegas, he went back to the Horseshoe shooting dice and playing baccarat at $300,000 per bet, and in less than a month, lost all but his last million.[12]

With his last million, he went to the Bicycle Club and played Johnny Chan in a $1,000,000 freeze out event. This time, Chan was also backed by Lyle Berman and both took turns playing Karas. He preferred playing the both of them instead of just Chan, as he felt Chan was a tougher opponent. Karas won and doubled his money, only to lose it all at dice and baccarat, betting at the highest limits in just a few days"

This man's a legend.

Wonder how busto he is.. He should write a book

Mr. X = Andy Beal?

Since there's a movie on Stu Ungar, a movie should be made on Archie Karas.

so was he cheating when he beat all the top poker players?

This amount of money was worth a lot more back then too.

Played 10/20 with him once, was stories all night

sick shark, wonder how he had an edge on so many pros....

woulda been cool if he had a cool head, be fun to watch him.

On September 28 2015 04:20 casinocasino wrote: Played 10/20 with him once, was stories all night

This man could probably write a book with those stories... an awesome book

On September 28 2015 07:15 Baalim wrote: Show nested quote + On September 28 2015 04:20 casinocasino wrote: Played 10/20 with him once, was stories all night This man could probably write a book with those stories... an awesome book

and make money from that book...

seems to me like writing a book doesn't really make money at the pace this guy likes doing

Lesson here is to stick to skill games like pool & poker and not casino games.

btw, everyone who is saying "he should have stopped and live with that cash etc etc" - that man doesnt give a jack shit about the money, which is one of the reasons he was able to go on such streaks. He said it himself (via Wikipedia as well):

You've got to understand something. Money means nothing to me. I don't value it. I've had all the material things I could ever want. Everything. The things I want, money can't buy: health, freedom, love, happiness. I don't care about money, so I have no fear. I don't care if I lose it.

On September 28 2015 19:13 Defrag wrote: btw, everyone who is saying "he should have stopped and live with that cash etc etc" - that man doesnt give a jack shit about the money, which is one of the reasons he was able to go on such streaks. He said it himself (via Wikipedia as well): Show nested quote + You've got to understand something. Money means nothing to me. I don't value it. I've had all the material things I could ever want. Everything. The things I want, money can't buy: health, freedom, love, happiness. I don't care about money, so I have no fear. I don't care if I lose it.

Everyone cares about money to an extent.

Money buys you freedom from having to work for the basic necessities, food, clothing, shelter, etc. You can give yourself freedom in terms of eliminating the desire for luxuries and prestige, but you can't give yourself freedom from having to work for the basic necessities. I would bet that there's some part of this guy that will always feel like an idiot and he's just saying shit like that to save face. Obviously I could be wrong, but I'd be surprised.

On September 28 2015 09:33 TimDawg wrote: Show nested quote + On September 28 2015 07:15 Baalim wrote:   On September 28 2015 04:20 casinocasino wrote: Played 10/20 with him once, was stories all night This man could probably write a book with those stories... an awesome book and make money from that book...

And make teh movie from that book...

On September 28 2015 19:13 Defrag wrote: btw, everyone who is saying "he should have stopped and live with that cash etc etc" - that man doesnt give a jack shit about the money, which is one of the reasons he was able to go on such streaks. He said it himself (via Wikipedia as well): Show nested quote + You've got to understand something. Money means nothing to me. I don't value it. I've had all the material things I could ever want. Everything. The things I want, money can't buy: health, freedom, love, happiness. I don't care about money, so I have no fear. I don't care if I lose it.

Of course he cares about money. Of course he cares if he loses it. He just sounds like he's the GOAT degen

You don't need much money to live well. You can easily live off a million for 40 years and have all you need. This guy just likes playing and gambling but what he says makes sense and is in line with what he has done.

On September 28 2015 00:27 MARSHALL28 wrote: so was he cheating when he beat all the top poker players?

Yea, I'm curious as to why this guy crushed all the highest stakes against the best in the world at the time and I've never heard of him.

On September 28 2015 19:13 Defrag wrote: btw, everyone who is saying "he should have stopped and live with that cash etc etc" - that man doesnt give a jack shit about the money, which is one of the reasons he was able to go on such streaks. He said it himself (via Wikipedia as well): Show nested quote + You've got to understand something. Money means nothing to me. I don't value it. I've had all the material things I could ever want. Everything. The things I want, money can't buy: health, freedom, love, happiness. I don't care about money, so I have no fear. I don't care if I lose it.

he cared enough about money to cheat innocent people at a casino in order to get it