10 Of The Most Craziest Bets People Ever Made

by Shivam Khandelwal3 years ago

6 Gionee is a huge Chinese mobile phone company. Their chairman, Liu Lirong, had the habit of gambling due to which the company went bankrupt in 2018. The chairman lost $144 million at a casino that required the liquidation of the company. 

Liu Lirong
Liu Lirong. Image credits: Tech.sina.com.cn

Gionee is a smartphone manufacturer based in Guangdong, China. It was founded in 2002 and was one of China’s largest mobile phone manufacturing giants.

The company went bankrupt in November 2018 when its chairman lost a huge sum of money in gambling in a casino in Saipan. The reports first said that he lost about $1.4 billion but later he admitted that it was $144 million.

As the consequence, the company failed to pay its suppliers and asked them to work on deals. Twenty suppliers even filed applications for bankruptcy reorganization with Shenzhen Intermediate People’s court.

Surprisingly enough, the chairman said that he didn’t use Gionee’s money in gambling but also admitted that he may have borrowed the company’s funds. (1, 2, 3)

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7 In 2010, a 22-year-old man in New Zealand lost a bet which required him to change his name to “Full Metal Havok More Sexy N Intelligent Than Spock And All The Superheroes Combined With Frostnova.” He got to know his request for changing the name was accepted five years later after receiving the confirmation letter.

Poker bet
Image credits:: Heini Samuelsen/Flickr

After losing a wager, a New Zealander changed his name to “Full Metal Havok More Sexy N Intelligent Than Spock And All The Superheroes Combined With Frostnova.”

The name is 99 characters long so it technically fits New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs’ 100-character-maximum limit.

Mr. Frostnova applied for changing his name back in March 2010 by paying the required fee, but he only got to know that his request was accepted five years later when his passport expired and he received the confirmation letter.

Nonetheless, Frostnova is allowed to change his name back to his original one or to something else by completing the form with $127 as the fee. It will just take him eight days to complete the entire process. (1, 2)

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8 An anonymous Welshman from Newport bet £30 on a series of cultural events in 1989. His affirmation was that when the new century will start, U2 would still be together, Cliff Richard would be knighted, Eastenders would still be on TV, the two TV shows named Neighbours and Home and Away would still be on British screens. The combined odds for such a bet were given 6,479-1 and in January 2000, he collected £194,400.

Man giving money
Man giving money

The 40-year-old Welshman bet on these cultural circumstances on 30 December 1989 with his local bookies in Newport, South Wales. He bet on five events that will take place at the beginning of the 21st century and collectively had 6,479-1 as the odds of winning.

The five points that he bet to be true as of 2000 were Cliff Richard to be knighted (4-1), the rock band U2 to still be going on the concerts (3-1), Eastender to still be on TV (5-1), Neighbours to still be on British TV (5-1) and Home and Away to still be on British (8-1).

The events happened to be true, and just on the second day of the new millennium, he claimed his £194,400 lottery. The bookmakers took a couple of days to confirm the case but he was paid the amount with no complaints.

The amount of money he was paid is recorded as the biggest novelty bet in the history of the bookmaking industry. (1, 2)

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9 Brian Zembic was famous for his crazy bets, but in 1996 he crossed the limits when he agreed on implanting artificial boobs for a year for $100,000. He got so accustomed to the breasts that he was reluctant to remove them even after the year passed. He mentioned in 2014 that he was just thinking of removing those boobs 20 years later when was 55 years old and had a teenage daughter. 

Zembic was a professional gambler and a magician. He was known for making some outrageous bets such as living in a friend’s bathroom for a month, sleeping under a bridge for a week, and whatnot, but the breast challenge was the craziest.

It started in the summer of 1996 when he was having a conversation in a restaurant with his two friends and his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Zembic mentioned that if he had boobs like his girlfriend’s, he would definitely get as much attention as she does.

Then one of his friends asked him how much money he would like to be paid for actually implanting silicon breasts for a year, and they eventually settled for $100,000.

The implantation took a lot of money, but he managed to get it for free from his surgeon and a gambler friend in New York.

Zembic’s initial intentions of having breasts were just for the sake of winning the bet and taking the money, but he soon got very fond of them. His friend offered him $50,000 to cancel the bet, but he refused. After one year, he won the bet and also got his money, but he refused to remove them. He said the breasts didn’t affect his life much.

He didn’t have any problem meeting new people, his family was cool with it, and he was making a career out of them since he was featured in documentaries, reality shows, movies, etc.

Finally, 20 years later in 2014, he mentioned that he is just then thinking of removing them.

(1, 2)

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10 The Duke of Portland and the Earl of Chesterfield had a bet in 1749 to test the credibility of how gullible the public of London was. They advertised a stage show where a man would squeeze himself in a bottle of wine to check whether or not people actually would pay for such a prank. People did, but the scene turned into a riot in an hour when no performer showed up. 

Representation of the Bottle Conjuror
Representation of the Bottle Conjuror. Image credits: B. Dickinson/Clker via Wikimedia

The “Great Bottle Hoax” was a result of the bet made between the Duke of Portland and the Earl of Chesterfield when they were discussing how gullible the public is.

The proposition was made by the Duke that if he advertises an impossible performance of a man jumping into a wine bottle and gets the people to pay and attend, he would win. The Earl accepted the wager.

The advertisement was printed in the London newspapers in the first week of January stating that a man is going to perform the impossible task of jumping into a bottle of wine at the New Theatre in the Haymarket. The advertisement also claimed that he will play the music of every instrument and will sing while being in the bottle.

The cost of each seat was five pounds, and every seat in the theatre was sold, even the standing room was filled with crowds. The audience kept their calm for one hour even when no performer or any performance showed up.

Finally, people started complaining a little bit, and one among them threw a lighted candle on the stage that put the theatre audience into complete chaos. The mad crowd ripped up the seats and benches, everything was on fire and the box receipt was stolen.

The most notorious prankster of London and the owner of the theatre were suspected of the prank but proved innocent. It was only years later when the little secret of Duke and Earl leaked out. (source)

Also Read:
10 Crazy Reasons People Received Fines

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