Whenever I speak with someone about online casino, I often hear something along the lines of “These online casinos are just a gigantic sham! They’re lying to you, trying to hook you in, and only give you tiny wins to keep you playing! I mean, have you ever heard of someone winning more than a few hundred on one of those things? It’s a conspiracy, I tell you!” Well, even ignoring the fact that it’s very well-known that all online casinos are VERY highly monitored and regulated from numerous agencies (some run by the government, some private – depending on where you live), news reports of people who win outrageously giant sums keep popping up all the time. Even if the vast majority of casino winners make their money little by little and accumulate profits over time, those success stories aren’t particularly news-worthy, so instead we get bombarded by a ton of articles about people who won life-changing sums in a single bet.

The latest one comes from only a few days ago (January 17h), when an anonymous British player known only by his first name (Matthew) managed to win over £35,000 – or close to $50,000 – at once while playing live roulette. Allegedly, this was his very first time playing online roulette at all, and it only took him a couple of hours to snatch a gigantic sum of money. It’s important to know that he didn’t win this money on a single bet – rather, he made several successful bets within a very short amount of time, which all paid off. Whether it was pure luck on Matthew’s part or an expert application of maths, chance and tips found online is anyone’s guess, but it bears mention that several sites, such as highstakesroulette.co.uk, offer tricks and guides to help increase your chances when playing online roulette.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “live roulette”, it’s when the game is played with a real wheel spun by a real-life, physical croupier who is being broadcast live with the use of a webcam to dozens of players, each of which is free to place their bets on a virtual table. After each turn, the winnings are added automatically to the players’ accounts, and they’re free to bet again or withdraw their winnings. Players are often allowed to chat, and on top of that most casinos have specialized live rooms where the dealers will speak about things such as sports while playing the game, encouraging a discussion on the subject. Live casino is fully playable in your browser and on all mobile devices in most online casinos that support it.