5 Mind-Blowing Facts About Gambling

The gambling industry is vast and complicated, encompassing everything from bingo halls in small towns to the vast casino complexes that are seen in cities such as Las Vegas in Nevada.

Not to mention online gambling, which is taking an ever larger slice of the pie with each year that goes by. The coronavirus crisis seems set to hasten the switch by gambling companies to operating online. Bricks and mortar casinos are among the businesses that might have to fold.

Here are five of the best mindblowing facts about gambling that you likely did not know.

1.€17.8 Million The Record Online Slots Win

The chance to win the jackpot is one of the top reasons that people choose online slots. The amount of money that can be won on these games is much more than in other options.

At the moment, the record win for an online slots game stands at a remarkable €17.8 million. Little is known about the player who scooped a life-changing amount of money other than that they were in Finland and playing on the Mega Fortune slot game, which is made by NetEnt.

Other massive wins on online slots at internet-based casinos include the £13.2 million that was won on the Mega Moolah slot, which is famous for its gigantic payouts. That lucky player was a man from the UK called Jon Heywood, who spent just 25p on his life-changing spin of the reels.

2.Slot Machines Must Pay More Than 70%

Online casinos have to stick to a wide range of rules and regulations. When it comes to online slots, one of the most important of them is called RTP - or return to player. While it might seem hard to get your head around it, RTP is not a complicated concept at all.

For online slots, this must be at least 70 per cent, but RTP is usually a lot higher. To give an indication of typical RTP, a good value slot might be towards the 98 per cent mark. Games that only have RTP of about 95 per cent are usually not worth playing.

Of course, RTP is no guarantee of what will be paid out by an online slot game. RTP works as an average and it is worked out by a huge number of spins. So 100 spins on a slot at $1 per spin does not necessarily mean that a player will get at least $70 back from their $100 spend. Players should also keep in mind that averages include big jackpot wins, which are a factor too.

3.Professional Gambling Careers Are Possible

It might seem like a pipe dream, but some people do actually make a living from gambling. 

Poker is the most obvious way to do this, with the professional poker player having been an established career for a long time, even if it remains hard to make it in the sport.

Others can carve out an income through specializing in areas such as sports betting, while the large number of offers and promotions at online casinos makes it possible to make money through them as well. 

Of course, there are some challenges to becoming a professional gambler. Among them is that income is not likely to be reliable or regular, with peaks and troughs absolutely to be expected. 

4.Macau Hosts The World's Largest Casino

Vegas might be considered the gambling capital of the world by most people. But the planet's biggest casino is not on the famous Strip. It is actually in Macau.

The Venetian is an absolutely remarkable facility, with the design modelled on a sister site that is in Vegas. Everything might usually be bigger in America, but this time that is not the case.

At 10,500,000-square-foot, the Venetian has space for about 800 gambling tables for games such as blackjack and poker, as well as around 6,000 slot machines. 

There are nearly 3,000 rooms and suites for people to stay at in the Venetian, while the casino's Cotai Arena has a capacity of 15,000 for sporting events. Foodies are very well catered for at the Venetian too, as there are more than 150 different restaurants inside to try out.

5.Odds Of A Royal Flush Are 649,739 : 1

The royal flush is the best hand in poker. Most players have probably never been lucky enough to get one, though, or even to see one happen live at the casino table.

That is because the royal flush is an incredibly rare hand. The odds of getting one from a single hand stand at 649,739:1. That is an awful lot of hands of poker!

How do some of the other top hands in poker compare? Well, a straight flush comes in at odds of 1 in 72,192, while four of a kind is at 1 in 4,164. 

Keep these odds in your mind the next time you are tempted to chase one of those hands.