The world’s strangest bets and their payouts
Ten years ago Gerry McIllroy placed a £200 bet on his son winning the Open golf championship. This summer he collected an impressive £100,000 when Rory lifted the Claret Jug. But he is not the only person to have collected on an outlandish bet. Here are some of the more unusual and weird bets which have been placed over the years.
On April 10th 1964, David Threlfall from Preston in the UK, placed a £10 bet that man would set foot on any heavenly body before January 1971. So impossible did bookmakers William Hill deem this feat that they offered him odds of a spectucular 1000/1. The odds tumbled for others who clamoured to place similar bets and Mr Threlfall was offered hundreds of pounds for his ticket as the Sixties progress. Nevertheless on 21st July 1969 when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, William Hill paid out £10,000 to Mr Threlfall is a special moon landing TV program. Later Mr Threlfall revealed that his win had not been such a huge punt after all. In 1963 he had heard a speech by President John Kennedy stating that there would be a moon landing before the end of the decade.
In 2008, Fred Craggs overcame odds of 2 million to one to win a cool million pounds when all 8 horses on his 50p accumulator romped home. Despite the fact bookmakers William Hill did not have to pay out more than 100,000 on his bet due to betting rules, they did the decent thing and paid Fred his full money. The agricultural worker vowed that his win would not change him and he would continue working in his job, although he may splash out on a holiday cottage in France.
The longest odds ever offered by a bookmaker was 20,000,000 to one on the odds of Elvis crashing a UFO into Loch Ness and hitting Nessie. Over the years this story has been altered to Elvis riding into town on Shergar and playing Lord Lucan in the final at Wimbledon. Needless to say, bookmakers William Hill are confident that they will never have to pay out on that bet.
A waiter from Malta managed a staggering 19 match football accumulator at odds of 683,000 to 1 and collected £570,000 when Liverpool beat Chelsea 2 -1 to complete his amazing run of luck.
The betting got totally out of hand in 2013 when Ugandan Arsenal fan Henry Dhabasani bet his friend Rashid Yiga that Arsenal would beat Manchester United one weekend. The stakes? Dhabasani bet his house whilst Yiga staked his Toyota Premio car and his wife! Unfortunately, Arsenal lost and Yiga duly arrived to claim his house, kicking Dhabasani’s three wives and five children out of the house.
What makes a really great casino?
With hundreds of casinos and gambling sites available to choose from, what qualities really make a site stand out from all of the rest? With the massive amount of competition, casinos cannot afford to be complacent, and player retention should be high on the agenda for all gaming sites. We asked online gamblers what really makes a casino special - and surprisingly bonuses and promotions did not feature prominently on the list. Here is what they said.
1. Outstanding customer service.
Without exception all of our players said that customer service was really important when it comes to staying loyal to any one casino brand. At some point it is likely that all players will come into contact with customer service, whether it is when they make a withdrawal, to answer a question or sort out an issue. Good casinos have live 24/7 customer support, either via live chat, toll free phone or email. Players like customer service staff to be welcoming but not too pushy - some casinos have customer service reps who constantly interrupt the gaming experience to try to encourage them to make a deposit (Top Game casinos are notorious for this).
2. Fast withdrawals
No-one likes waiting around for their wins, so its not surprising that this was high up on the list. The best online casinos have no pending withdrawal time and withdrawals are paid within in a day - unfortunately however this is not industry standard by any means. Many casinos have a 48 hour pending withdrawal time, designed solely to get players to reverse their withdrawal, and much of the time it works. The best casinos recognise that players deserve their winnings paid promptly and without hassle. Players making their first withdrawal are often required to provide documentation, but once a casino has verified a players identity there is no need to request any further documents. This is often used by unscrupulous casinos to slow down players withdrawals and possibly get them to reverse their wins. This “money saving” tactic usually backfires on the casino as not only do they lose a player but that player is also likely to tell other players resulting in bad rep for the casino that is likely to cost them much more than the original withdrawals.
3. A good selection of games/fast play and no lag
Back in the early days of online gambling casinos generally stuck to just one software provider ie Microgaming, RTG, Playtech etc but now casinos are becoming more modular taking games from a number of different software providers. This is great news for players as it means that they get the best of both - or even three, four or five worlds. Some software providers (IGT spring to mind) have issues with lag and the slots spinning slowly, which is highly frustrating to most players.
4. Easy deposit options
Theres few things more frustrating than finding a great online casino and not being able to make a deposit. Although credit and debit cards are universally accepted, there are many alternative deposit methods and ewallet solutions which can be used as a substitute for Visa and Mastercard. Ideally a casino will accept all the major alternate deposit methods including Neteller, Skrill, Ukash, Click2Pay, Eco etc as well as providing local options. Casinos should also be willing to absorb the costs of any transactions made. It is often in the casinos best interests for players to use ewallets as credit card providers can charge merchants an average of 3% on each transaction. This is why casinos will often offer a bonus for using alternate deposit methods.
5. Transparency and Honesty
Honesty and transparency should be standard for online casinos, but unfortunately some casinos fall far short from this ideal. Misleading bonus terms, unfair bans, missing or false licensing information, extremely high playthrus, limited withdrawals and stalling on payouts are just some of the tricks unscrupulous casinos are known to employ. Players value honesty and integrity and whilst the majority of casinos meet this criteria, there are still a few who need to up their game.
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Although Casino Luck is a relatively new kid on the gambling block, it is rapidly becoming a rising star in the online casino world. Hassle free gaming is the way one player described it, and Casino Luck offers a fair gaming experience with top quality customer service. Payouts are very fast, there is no reversal time and casino staff will flush the winnings from your account if you request it. Additionally Casino Luck have very high maximum withdrawal limits - €75,000 per month, so if you do hit it big, you can be assured that the money will be in your account in no time, with no stalling on payment.
Casino Luck are one of the fastest paying casinos around.
Withdrawals generally take between half an hour and six hours, on odd occasions when the casino is very busy, players may have to wait up to 12 hours for their money, but this is rare. Banking is extremely efficient and Casino Luck provide an example to other casinos exactly how it should be done
Like many casinos, Casino Luck use a selection of different software providers to bring players the very best choice of games including Net Entertainment, PlaynGo, Nextgen, Crypto, Evolution Gaming, IGT and Microgaming. The casino offers over 774 different casino games including 448 video slots, 34 jackpot games, over 2o different tables games, 34 video poker games, plus live blackjack, baccarat, roulette, three card poker and casino holdem. There are also special VIP high limit tables for players who like to raise the stakes!
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