Over the more than a decade of Bitcoin’s existence, the online casino world has seen numerous significant winnings. However, there is one record that anyone will hardly be able to beat ever, since a rather large gain, even at that moment, has turned into an even more colossal amount due to the price appreciation.
The biggest known win in the history of bitcoin casinos belongs to a player under the nickname Nakowa, who won 11,000 BTC playing crypto dice in September 2013. At that time, this amount was valued at $1.3 million. If Nakowa had held it until now, he could potentially be the owner of more than $500 million.
Nakowa’s story begins with a failure. Thanks to his loss over a weekend, the casino recorded a profit of 7,000 bitcoins, or about $850,000. By Monday morning, Nakowa was able to completely recoup his losses and later on turned it into a big win with a help of incredible series of luck.
One day, he was constantly betting from 100 ($12,000) to 300 ($36,000) bitcoins over 10 minutes and won most of the bets. But there is more to it. He once managed to win over 1,000 bitcoins ($120,000) in 10 rolls within 18 seconds. That’s more than $6,500 per second.
Not everything is so simple about Nakowa, though. He played at a casino, where investors can bet their money against players. Because of this, many started to suspect fraud and tried to withdraw money at his appearance. One investor even launched a Twitter account to alert others as to when Nakowa came online. This approach wasn’t flawless, as the casino website was subjected to DDoS attacks, and investors simply did not have time to withdraw their Bitcoins.
The player himself said that he was an owner of a large amount of cryptocurrency, which he acquired back in 2011.
“I WANT to QUIT, really,” he wrote. “However, quitting from winning is much harder than quitting from losing. I’m trying very hard to leave this site, I MEAN it. I know I might fail, God bless me.”
The “legendary high roller” was next mentioned in December 2013. By that moment, in a few months Bitcoin jumped from $120 to more than $1,000. Nakowa returned, but this time he was not so lucky.
He started with small bets of 1 BTC and followed the Martingale strategy, doubling the bets on losses. The bets soon ballooned to 10, 20, and then 50 BTC. Nakowa ended up reaching the maximum allowed 168 BTC per bet, then placed remaining 78 BTC, and left with nothing. On that day, Nakowa lost 2,300 BTC, or $2.1 million, which is more in dollar terms than he won in September.
Dice strategies
It is not known for certain whether Nakowa was a scammer or just a lucky gambler. LTC Casino players also have a chance to win Bitcoins playing dice. Many players ignore dice without a good reason, as this game offers one of the highest return to player rates, which can reach 99% or even more.
You may follow one of the basic dice strategies. It is important to understand that none of them allows consistently winning in the long run, but they may serve as a good starting point.
Martingale
This is an old strategy that originated back in the 18th century in France and is still popular in modern casinos. This strategy assumes that the player doubles his bet after each loss until he finally wins. When he wins, he gets back all the lost money plus his minimum first bet.
This strategy has its pros and cons. Its main advantage is in its simplicity, which explains why so many players choose Martingale for short-term gambling sessions. Things change if you use it for longer sessions or with more serious amounts. Given the laws of probability, sooner or later the moment will come when you will not have enough money to double your bet or you will run into the casino’s limits for the maximum bet. Losses can be enormous, with potential winnings limited to the minimum first bet. Remember the aforementioned Nakowa example.
D’Alembert
The D’Alembert strategy also assumes that the player increases his bet after each loss, however, unlike Martingale, this happens in an algebraic, not geometric progression. In other words, the value of the very first bet is added to the next bet, and so on until the player wins. This is a less risky strategy than Martingale; however, it will not be possible to recoup all previous losses with one win, especially if the losing streak was a long one.
Paroli
The Paroli strategy is the opposite of Martingale. The player doubles his bet after winning, and in case of a loss he returns to the initial bet. Commonly, the Paroli strategy is used to increase a small deposit, which is its main advantage. The disadvantage is that a winning streak is required for successful execution, while any loss nullifies all previous winnings.