Double or nothing
June 18, 2007 4:49 PM   Subscribe

Ashley Revell bet his life's savings on one spin of roulette. Watch the video to find out what happened. The young Englishman sold everything he owned -- including rights to his name -- and put the entire proceeds on red (which he decided at the last minute, originally having fixed on black). After you've watched the video, read an interview about the aftermath and about how Vegas almost didn't take the bet. His wager topped Inside Poker magazine's list of "Top 25 Most Outrageous Gambles."
posted by jeffmshaw (38 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
A real man would have gone double or nothing...
posted by Freon at 4:54 PM on June 18, 2007


This is from 2004. And I think it was on Metafilter too...
posted by vacapinta at 4:55 PM on June 18, 2007


I searched for "roulette" and "revell" and didn't find anything, vacapinta. Thought it was interesting and dramatic enough for a post. My apologies if it's a double.
posted by jeffmshaw at 4:56 PM on June 18, 2007


I loved it either way. Thanks!
posted by Sticherbeast at 5:01 PM on June 18, 2007


I knew this story was really old when I saw the blurb in the "almost didn't take the bet" story about how Mario Lopez was having his bachelor party before his wedding. He ended up cheating on Ali Larter on their honeymoon and the marriage was annuled in a month. And that was ages ago.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:02 PM on June 18, 2007 [2 favorites]


Meanwhile, I hadn't seen this story. Which is probably good, since I would have gone to Vegas and lost all my monies playing Blackjack.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:03 PM on June 18, 2007 [1 favorite]


I heard that pokerutd.com won't take money from Romanies or Jews.
posted by BeerFilter at 5:10 PM on June 18, 2007


He ended up cheating on Ali Larter on their honeymoon and the marriage was annuled in a month.

At first I was like, "now why would anyone remember anything about anything Mario Lopez does," but holy shit. That's honestly kind of amazing.
posted by Sticherbeast at 5:10 PM on June 18, 2007


All the world is a gambling hall, a casino located in the wildest imagination of Karl Rove.
posted by nervousfritz at 5:16 PM on June 18, 2007


I guess Wesley Snipes isn't always right.
posted by mckenney at 5:19 PM on June 18, 2007 [4 favorites]


Roulette is a fickle bitch.
posted by nola at 5:22 PM on June 18, 2007 [3 favorites]


How dare you besmirch the reputation of Mario Lopez.
posted by dhammond at 5:29 PM on June 18, 2007


Golly, it worked for him; I'm gonna do that too!!

Who wants to buy a slightly used cat?
posted by LordSludge at 5:30 PM on June 18, 2007


"Call it."
posted by william_boot at 5:32 PM on June 18, 2007


Wow. What a fucking idiot. I mean, does Slater really think he's going to get a hotter piece of ass than Ali Larter?
posted by Roman Graves at 5:37 PM on June 18, 2007 [2 favorites]


What a loser! ; )
posted by ericb at 5:38 PM on June 18, 2007


was this filmed for a TV show or something?
posted by pruner at 5:47 PM on June 18, 2007


How many hundreds of times a day to people bet their life savings at card tables all over Vegas? They don't get the benefit of a staged PR event and glossy production.

Coming soon to Metafilter - one man bet's his life savings on July 2007 AAPL 150 calls. Watch the iPhone sales to find out what happened...

Instead of gambling it all away, he used his lunch money to set up his own internet trading site IReallyShouldHaveBoughtPuts.com.
posted by Pastabagel at 5:51 PM on June 18, 2007 [1 favorite]


I just got the answer to my question by reading the linked CNN article.
posted by pruner at 5:54 PM on June 18, 2007


Last link spills the beans if you can't watch video.
posted by localroger at 5:57 PM on June 18, 2007


Feh. Call me when he bets his life on one spin of roulette.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:58 PM on June 18, 2007 [3 favorites]


Looks to me like this is a blatant viral marketing scheme for his website, which I've purposefully blocked out of my mind.

I have enough things in my life taking my money away. I don't need any help in that area. I feel enough like an idiot whenever I buy a lottery ticket for a buck.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:00 PM on June 18, 2007


You buy lottery tickets? Idiot.
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:14 PM on June 18, 2007


But seriously, I was hoping this guy would lose.
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:14 PM on June 18, 2007


Leaving a casino during a buddy's bachelor party we (as was typical for such an event in our circles) took up a collection for the groom-to-be to place on the roulette table. A few of us had enjoyed some success at blackjack earlier in the day, so a larger than normal $950 was placed on black.

Of course the marble landed on... green. I'm guessing 36 grand might have made the evening even more interesting than it turned out to be.
posted by jalexei at 6:22 PM on June 18, 2007


Interesting how the casino's representative explained how they would never knowingly take a bet representing someone's entire life savings.

Just before knowingly taking a bet representing someone's entire life savings.

Who says casinos don't pretend to have morals?
posted by Flunkie at 7:01 PM on June 18, 2007


Interesting how the casino's representative explained how they would never knowingly take a bet representing someone's entire life savings.

Oh please, they're taking life savings every single day.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:08 PM on June 18, 2007 [1 favorite]


Interesting post but stupid person - I was hoping he was going to lose too.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 7:11 PM on June 18, 2007


He ended up cheating on Ali Larter on their honeymoon and the marriage was annuled in a month.

He was cheating in Ali LANDRY. The woman he married.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 7:23 PM on June 18, 2007


Ahh, you're right. Ali Landry is the Doritos Girl. Ali Larter is the blonde non-cheerleader on Heroes.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:27 PM on June 18, 2007 [1 favorite]


how do you sell your name and how much would you even get? what does that even mean?
posted by andywolf at 7:45 PM on June 18, 2007


He was cheating in Ali LANDRY. The woman he married.

Back in college, when I was doing laundry, I would set my Away message to "Ali Laundry."

Clearly, I was non-stop excitement in college.
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:54 PM on June 18, 2007 [3 favorites]


andywolf: He sold the rights to his name to the online sports betting site Blue Square for 10,000 pounds, legally changing his identity to Ashley "Blue Square" Revell. It's explained in the last link.
posted by jeffmshaw at 8:09 PM on June 18, 2007


there's an elmore leonard novel where the protagonist is walking past a hotel-casino when a fire breaks out inside. a man runs out wearing only his underwear. the protagonist tells him "you should have bet your underwear, maybe your luck would have changed."
posted by bruce at 10:32 PM on June 18, 2007


thanks jeffmshaw, i was curious, just not enough to read thru all of it.
posted by andywolf at 10:35 PM on June 18, 2007


Christ, what an asshole.
posted by stavrogin at 11:35 PM on June 18, 2007


So he did all that to...double his money? Don't get me wrong, $240 thousand odd bucks is nothing to sneeze at, but considering the extreme risk of losing everything, it was pretty stupid. It's not like the guy can buy an island in the Pacific and kick back for the rest of his life.

Now had he bet on a single number, that would've been a big payoff. Even stupider, but much more worth it if he won.
posted by zardoz at 2:21 AM on June 19, 2007


but considering the extreme risk of losing everything, it was pretty stupid.

It's not something I would do, nor something I would evn recommend doing, but assuming he didn't have any debt, it's not that horrible. With good credit he could get loans to cover whatever he needed in the short-term, and would be back on his feet in no time. Zero net worth isn't so terrible, especially when you consider how many people have a negative net worth. I had a negative net worth for a few years of my life, and I was neither homeless nor hungry during that time.

Lose the money, and maybe now he would have to work until he was 70 before he could retire, instead of retiring at 65. Win, and the excess can all go into his retirement fund. Like I said, it's not something I would do, but I don't see it as insane as some people here are making it out to be.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:13 AM on June 19, 2007


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