High Roller wins £1.3 million on the roulette wheel

Roulette is the ultimate gamblers’ game. No complicated rules, strategy, or decisions to make – just the adrenalin rush of waiting for the ball to stop spinning.

Visiting the up-market ’50 London’ casino in  Mayfair, London, which charges £650 for annual membership, Mike Ashley took a spin on the roulette wheel and placed bets of £480,000 all on the number 17.

Incredibly, he won.  He left the table with £1.3 million, and a crowd of startled spectators.

Mike Ashley is the owner of Newcastle United Football Club and was recently placed 54th on the Sunday Times Rich List of the UK’s wealthiest people.  He has an estimated £1398 million fortune, although was down several places from last year’s list.

The high-rolling Mr Ashley placed a ‘complete’ bet on the roulette wheel, covering all possibilities including the number 17 – a single number, odds, black, line bets and 1-18.  His mammoth payout - £1.3 million – was the sum of winning all his bets. 

Most casinos have maximum bets on each game, which limit the amount placed on any one game.  In this case, the house maximum was £2,000 for a single bet, but Mr Ashley got around this by placing several complementary bets, each time up to the maximum, totaling £480,000.

Mike Ashley usually shuns publicity, but can often be seen at Newcastle United games, sporting his lucky no.17 shirt.  He bought the football club in 2007 for £135 million, saving it from financial ruin. 

It’s not been all peaches and cream for the footie-mad millionaire, who made his fortune through sports goods retail.  He reportedly lost over £100 million on spread betting last year, wrongly predicting the way bank shares would go.

However, he seems to have bounced back and both Mike Ashley and Newcastle United seem to be on their way to a bright future.