Biggest Baccarat Wins in Casino History

Baccarat. Low house edge, high limits, whales everywhere. And the numbers are actually nuts when you line them up next to any other casino game.

Here are the biggest documented baccarat sessions anyone has ever talked about.

1. Kerry Packer vs the MGM Grand, Early 1990s

Kerry Packer, Australian media tycoon, was famous for betting more than most people earned in a decade on a single hand.

In one 1995 session at the MGM Grand, he reportedly won around 20 million dollars in a weekend playing baccarat and blackjack. The exact split is fuzzy but baccarat was the main event.

Packer's approach was flat: bet huge, tip huge, and leave. He once tipped a cocktail waitress enough to pay off her mortgage. Stay with me here, because he also lost just as spectacularly when things went the other way.

2. Akio Kashiwagi at Trump Plaza, 1990

The Japanese real estate tycoon Akio Kashiwagi famously took on Donald Trump's Atlantic City property in a baccarat marathon in 1990.

He went up 6 million dollars before Trump's team, advised by math consultant Jess Marcum, convinced him to stop before the variance caught up. Kashiwagi insisted on playing to 12 million or losing 12 million. The casino eventually cut the session off.

He walked out down about 10 million dollars after the extended session. The whole thing became a case study in variance management and why casinos set session limits.

3. Phil Ivey and Edge Sorting, 2012

Phil Ivey reportedly won around 12.1 million dollars at Borgata playing baccarat using a technique called edge sorting, which exploits tiny asymmetries on the backs of certain card decks.

Borgata sued. A US court eventually ruled against Ivey and required him to return the winnings. The case became the landmark ruling on where advantage play crosses into prohibited conduct.

Ivey also reportedly won around 7.7 million pounds using the same method at Crockfords in London, and lost that case in UK court too.

4. The Baccarat Whale at the Sands, 2007

Adelson's Venetian Macau opened and whales came. One unnamed Chinese VIP reportedly won around 80 million dollars over a multi-day session in 2007 before the casino tightened its play-to comps.

Macau baccarat regularly sees individual hands of over 100,000 dollars per bet. The numbers on that gaming floor dwarf anything in Vegas. Baccarat is roughly 90 percent of total Macau casino revenue, which is actually absolutely wild when you think about it.

5. Archie Karas's Streak, 1992 to 1995

Archie Karas turned 50 dollars into over 40 million dollars in what is probably the most famous hot streak in gambling history. A big chunk of it was baccarat.

He played craps, poker, and baccarat. The baccarat stretch at Binion's and the Horseshoe lasted for weeks where he could not seem to lose. He eventually lost it all back, also in a matter of weeks.

The lesson people take from Karas is usually the wrong one. The streak was real. The edge was not. Variance giveth and variance taketh away.

6. Genting Highlands Whale, 2015

A whale at Genting Highlands in Malaysia reportedly lost around 20 million Malaysian ringgit in a baccarat session over one weekend in 2015, which was roughly 4.6 million US at the time.

The details never got cleanly reported because Genting does not publicize this stuff. But local gaming press covered the session because the player's line of credit disputes ended up in local courts.

7. Terrance Watanabe at the Rio, 2007

Terrance Watanabe, heir to an Omaha novelty company fortune, lost an estimated 127 million dollars at Harrah's Las Vegas properties in 2007. A big portion was at the baccarat pit at the Rio.

The story became a landmark responsible gambling legal case. Watanabe sued Harrah's alleging the casino served him alcohol and kept him playing while visibly impaired. Harrah's sued him for unpaid markers. The case settled.

This is the dark version of the baccarat big-number story. The same game that can deliver 80 million dollar wins can deliver 127 million dollar losses.

8. John Chandler, 2011

John Chandler, a British businessman, reportedly won around 4 million pounds at the Ritz Club in London playing baccarat. It was a quieter story than the edge-sorting cases because there was no dispute: he just got hot and cashed out.

Wins like this happen every year somewhere. Most of the time they stay out of the press because the casino does not want to publicize them and the player does not want the attention. The ones we hear about are the tip of the iceberg.