Gambling is a fickle game. For every million-dollar poker tournament winner, $1 million slot jackpot winner, and Las Vegas casino baccarat hustler, there are many, many more gamblers who end each year with losses.
Of course, if you’re losing only what is within your budget and you’re enjoying it recreationally – then, good luck to you. Who knows, you might win next year. But the biggest stories are of those who gamble and lose millions. As well as those who gamble their freedom through cheating, or getting angry at the casino.
A Golden Miss
By far the most popular losing story of the year was understandably so, as it was a multimillion dollar tale of victory missed by inches. Las Vegas-based online gambling giant BetMGM runs a soccer betting Golden Goals competition in the UK. Anyone with a BetMGM UK account can enter for free and try to predict all that week’s soccer scores in the English Premier League.
During the 2024 European Championship, a £2.5 million jackpot was on the line for anyone who predicted all six of a round of group matches. One player had gotten five right, only to come within a 90th-minute disallowed offside goal of bagging the top $2.5 million prize.
The unlucky bettor predicted all five games’ scores perfectly, except Portugal vs the Czech Republic. They predicted 3-1 to Portugal, but it ended 2-1. They would have been the only person to correctly predict a whole round of scores since BetMGM started running the competition in mid 2023. The unlucky entrant did win £5000 (USD$6,286), but that probably felt more like a $2.495 million loss.
Other popular tales of woe for gamblers included the $3 million a legendary online poker pro says he lost to a cheating ex- girlfriend in a crypto scam; a former English Premier League youth hotshot who admitted gambling away $40,000 a month during his controversial career; and a Delaware man who was arrested for starting a fight over losing a hand of poker.
The Literal Biggest Losers
The man arrested for fighting at the Delaware casino may have been a popular story. But the stakes were almost certainly far lower than the biggest monetary losers of the year we reported on.
Streamer xQc reportedly gambled over a billion dollars in mostly losing bets since 2023, he told his stream’s audience of thousands on Kick earlier this year. It’s not clear exactly how much he lost, or if it is even real money and not for the stream. But his profile showed a large majority of losing bets.
Months later, the Canadian streamer recorded himself losing $1.52 million in one night of online slots playing. That’s before launching into a foul-mouthed tirade against developer Pragmatic Play, whose slots he had been playing.
The biggest reported single loss of the year was most definitely the story of the British aristocrat and convicted fraudster who lost $20 million in one night of high stakes poker in a glitzy Montenegro casino.
A friend told British media that George Cottrell lost the hefty sum playing in a super high stakes cash game with billionaires and top money list poker players. He was reportedly not too concerned with his massive losses, leaving the poker table at around 7 a.m.
As well as multimillionaires ending up down bad, you readers also liked tales of cheaters getting their comeuppance.
The tale of French police busting a significant card game cheating operation that ran across casinos in Europe was a popular story. As was that of the MGM National Harbor dealer who was arrested after cheating the casino out of $43,000.
In Las Vegas, the prolific Nevada casino chip thief who was added to the state’s infamous list of banned casino patrons was also of interest. As was that of the man charged with using a bad check to back borrowing $800,000 from Aria Las Vegas, which he then gambled away.
A large losing gambler in the news in 2024 was Amit Patel. The former Jacksonville Jaguars accountant was convicted and imprisoned in March of this year for his 2023 fraud spree, in which he stole $22 million from the Florida-based NFL team. A large portion of that money was gambled away on Daily Fantasy Sports at DraftKings. He was reportedly known in the DFS community as a huge losing player. As well as now being in prison, the Jaguars have also filed a lawsuit against him.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
