26Warren Buffet's S&P 500 Bet
Over a ten-year period, Warren Buffet bet $2,222,278 that, when measured net of fees, costs, and expenses, the S&P 500 would outperform a portfolio of hedge funds. He won.
27. During the Great Depression, banker Mark Welch Munroe convinced struggling families in Quincy, Florida, to buy Coca-Cola shares that traded at $19. Later, the town became the single richest per capita in the US, with at least 67 millionaires.
28. During future US President Gerald Ford's first campaign for Congress in 1948, he visited local farms. He lost a wager, resulting in him milking cows for two weeks after his election victory.
29. Gamblers in the Old West rarely played poker, despite its representation in films, games, and other media. A card game called "faro" was the most popular form of gambling in the US until the early 1900s.
30. Terrance Watanabe is one of gambling's biggest recorded losers. In 2007, he bet more than $825 million and lost $127 million at Caesars Palace and the Rio casinos. He often gambled for days on end, sometimes losing more than $5 million a day. He was responsible for 5.6% of Vegas' gambling revenue, but he was later unable to pay for his cancer treatment.
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31Japanese Public Sports Gambling
Kōei kyōgi (public sports) are Japanese public races that can be legally gambled on. There are four types: horse racing, bicycle racing, powerboat racing, and asphalt speedway motorcycle racing. Local governments or governmental corporations regulate these through special laws.
32. Abraham Lincoln once bet a fur hat that he could pick up a barrel of whiskey off the floor and drink from it. He won the bet.
33. President Warren Harding used to play poker in the White House, and he once gambled away an entire set of White House china dating back to Benjamin Harrison's presidency.
34. Bountygate was a scandal in the NFL during the 2011 season, involving New Orleans Saints players gambling on the severity of injuries they could cause to opposing team players. The head coach received a season-long suspension for condoning the behavior.
35. In the early 1900s, a baseball team called the Penitentiary All-Stars literally played for their lives. In Wyoming, this integrated team of death-row inmates played against other local teams, earning prison officials money from gambling. Winning games earned the team a stay on execution.
