here is an old saying in poker: “A chip and a chair.” That’s all it takes for someone to turn their fortunes around and win big. For Archie Karas, that’s essentially what it came down to. He went to Las Vegas with $50 in his pocket and built a gambling dynasty.

After winning $40 million as one of the top sports bettors in the United States, he fell as quickly as he rose. His story is like few others and Karas has carved out a niche as a legendary gambler for better or for worse.

Gambling in His Blood

Long before you could play conveniently at an online casino, Anargyros Karavourniotis was just a kid getting started in gambling. He would shoot marbles in an effort to win enough to keep himself fed, having grown up the son of a poor construction worker.

He would invent his own games and quickly won good pocket money. Rather than following in his dad’s footsteps, he came to America to chase a dream. He started as a successful pool shark before moving on to his true calling.

The Up-and-Down Life of Archie Karas

Though many of today’s gamblers get started with online blackjack or poker, Karas sat down at the poker table in person. He was fearless at the table, winning $2 million seemingly overnight. All of it was gone by December 1992.

It would lead him to what some would call a “come to Jesus” moment. While most gamblers would pack it in after those huge losses, the experience took Karas on the journey to become a millionaire once again.

$50 into $40 million

Karas moved to Vegas with $50 in his pocket. He ultimately found a friend to loan him $10,000 with a whopping 50% interest. He started out in razz and tripled his money inside of three hours. He paid the friend back and kept going from there.

He went on a streak that could only be called “The Run.” By the 1995 rolled around, he had managed to earn $40 million. He became a feared name in both Razz and poker, even scaring off some of the big names.

Then the casinos came after him. He was arrested five times for perpetrating alleged casino scams. It all caught up to him when he was put in the infamous “black book,” marking the end of his gambling career in 2015. He still lives in Las Vegas but will never be able to achieve his previous heights in gambling while there.

Conclusion

Few went on the kind of journey that Karas did. Though his huge wins were often gone before he knew it, no one had the kind of experiences that he managed. When we think of movies about gamblers, Karas lived that life to a tee.

The post The Story of Archie Karas appeared first on Casino.com Blog.

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Print Studio, a popular casino game studio highly regarded for its carefully crafted games with exciting themes, has released a new slot game, Tarasque.

Thrilling gameplay and amazing win potential:

The new title leads players to Tarragon, a mysterious town that is about to celebrate the holiday of St. Martha. But once the festivities begin, the villagers will realize that nothing is what they expected and they will be drawn into the adventure of their lives.

Tarasque combines fantastic, captivating gameplay and unique features. What makes this new online slot stand out from other titles in the market is humor, which adds a different tone to the whole gameplay.

The game has a return to player (RTP) of 96.32%, which can be increased to 96.46-97.02% through Bonus Buy options. The volatility is rated 4 out of 5. 

Apart from fantastic gameplay, the slot also has a huge win potential of 20,000x the bet and is set on an 8×8 grid.

To win a prize, the player must create a cluster. But the real fun begins once the Morph feature is triggered. Whenever a spin occurs, one symbol will help replace the whole cluster with one symbol, which helps in creating a win and causes more symbols to drop to the grid, causing a chain reaction and increasing the win potential of the game.

Once the first progressive feature is activated, the Tarasque begins. Tarasque symbol is simultaneously Wild, and it collects all winning symbols that surround it. However, when the Wild is full, it returns the collected symbols to the grid, causing massive wins to occur and further increasing the win potential

Captivating Progressive Features:

The game doesn’t have regular bonus rounds, but players can enjoy a range of Progressive Features. Whenever a win is achieved, the feature meter gets filled. The meter has five stages, and each stage can unlock fantastic features. Every level of the meter consists of four features, and once it’s unlocked, one of them is triggered. The features become better and more powerful as the level increases.

If the Wild Spikes feature is activated, 24 Wilds appear on the grid, and it’s much easier for the player to form a win. There’s also a Blazing Gaze feature, which removes all low-paying symbols from the grid, resulting in a cascade, and increases the win potential, allowing only high-paying symbols to be a part of the win.

Mage’s Morph feature adds up to 45 powerful morphing symbols to the grid.

Print Studio is a Maltese-based studio that became well-known for its captivating slots with edgy themes and fantastic features. Among them is a hit release Darkness, which was released back in October 2023, and rapidly became a hit among players all over the world.

MPS makes arrests in China

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS) arrested 93 suspects on home soil connected to an illegal RMB 725.5bn ($100.8bn) online gambling platform based in the Philippines.

mega cross-border online gambling case”

State media outlet CCTV stated that Sichuan police operating under the MPS, China’s nationwide police force, uncovered the “mega cross-border online gambling case.”

While the MPS arrested the near 100 suspects on the Chinese mainland in June, the server for the illegal online platform, trade named as CAGAYAN, was located in the Philippines.

The MPS said the platform’s operators promoted the illegal online site in China to attract Chinese nationals to sign up for memberships and deposit funds.

Chinese nationals targeted

Inside Asia Gaming on Friday cited the MPS as stating its investigation uncovered over 300 people linked to the site’s operations. Under the guise of hotel services jobs with high salaries, these suspects recruited Chinese nationals to move to the Philippines.

On arrival, CAGAYAN staff would train the recruits “to accept online gambling jobs and become core members of the online gambling platform.”

Media reports estimate the illegal platform had almost one million members and that over 50,000 agents of Chinese nationality were involved.

hatched a plan to arrest them when they returned to China for vacation

In order to apprehend the Chinese suspects based in the Philippines, the MPS hatched a plan to arrest them when they returned to China for vacation in June 2023. The MPS split its forces into several groups and conducted police raids in over 20 provinces “including Henan, Hebei and Hunan.”

The result of this carefully planned operation was the arrest of the 93 suspects, along with bank cards and mobile phones. The ensuing investigation led to the recent publicizing of the scale of the illegal platform, with its “running account” of $100.8bn.

China on a roll

The take-down of the illegal Philippines operation is another massive win for the MPS and the Beijing’s commitment in 2020 to creating a “blacklist” system for illegal cross-border gambling tourist destinations, such as the Philippines.

Beijing’s big breakthrough came in 2020 when police shuttered 2,260 illegal online gambling platforms and arrested over 75,000 people. A year later, the MPS made history by taking down junket kingpin Alvin Chau.

The massive fallout from Chau’s demise continued last week when the Hong Kong regulator SFC warned of delisting two Macau gambling firms once owned by the imprisoned gambling maven.

The post China Police Arrest 93 Involved in $100.8bn Philippines Online Gambling Platform appeared first on Vegas Slots Online News.

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