Ashley Revell - Betting Your Life on Roulette

While plenty of casino gamblers throughout history have taken big risks, none of them took quite the risk that roulette player Ashley Revell did. In fact, Revell bet everything in his possession on the outcome of a single roulette spin. Crazy? Of course it is! But Revell’s journey towards this single roulette spin is one of the most interesting casino gambling stories ever told.

Before he decided to put all of his life savings into one roulette wager, Ashley Revell was a seemingly ordinary man. He wasn’t rich, he wasn’t famous, and the 32-year-old only had a modest amount of possessions. However, all of this changed when Revell suddenly got the notion to sell everything he had, including his house, car, clothes and even underwear for a shot at casino fame. When he was finished, the UK native had pulled in $135,300 for his gambling adventure.

Revell’s motivation behind selling everything was that he wanted to travel to Las Vegas, and try to turn the $135k into huge profits through the aforementioned single spin. Initially, the whole matter was kept amongst Revell’s closest friends and family until local media outlets around Kent got a hold of the story. That’s when everything turned into a spectacle, and Revell’s life would be changed forever.

Choosing to risk everything you own for a single chance at riches is certainly an interesting story. And the UK’s Sky One channel decided to capitalize on this saga by running a special on Revell called Double or Nothing.

Double or Nothing was a mini-series that documented everything leading up to the casino roulette spin of Revell’s life. Aside from this piece, Revell has also been featured on other television shows such as THS Investigates: Vegas Winners & Losers and a documentary on the E! channel.

As you can imagine, Revell was no doubt extremely nervous in the moments leading up to the huge casino spin. The Brit was pretty indecisive about where he was going to put the $135,300 bet. He documented the decision-making process in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper as he said, “It was just pleading that I’d pick it, and that it would come in red. Before I actually walked up to the wheel, I was thinking about putting it on black, and then suddenly, the guy was spinning the ball around and all the Sky viewers said…they voted that I should put it on red. So suddenly I just put it all on red.”

Luckily, Revell listened to the Sky One viewers, and his winning bet came through as the ball landed on 7 red. A huge celebration was ignited as Revell’s friends and family members jumped in triumph for the man who risked everything to turn his $135,300 bet into $270,600 at the casino.

Revell opened up more to Cooper about his feelings after one of the most famous bets in history as he said, “Looking back on it now, I mean, at no point before I did the bet did I think about losing. I just felt positive and thought about just going ahead and winning. But now I've actually won, I can think about what would have happened if I’d lost. And to be honest, I was crazy to do this bet. It was the maddest thing. I mean, this is really about all I’ve got left, the tuxedo, which I’m not allowed to keep.”

Fortunately for Revell, he earned more than enough money to buy an outfit when the tuxedo was taken back. If you’d like to see footage of Revell’s miraculous casino bet, here is a video of how he doubled the massive $135k bet.