The man who bet his entire life savings on a single roulette spin has revealed what he was thinking as the ball was thrown in.
When he was 32-years-old, Ashley Revell decided to make an absolute gamble (by every means of the world) and sold all of his possessions – from his home to his clothes – to take a load of cash to the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, USA.
Back in 2004, the bloke had Sky One reality TV show, Double or Nothing, following him as he took his case of £76,840 to the casino cage and withdrew the money in chips.
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And then he only had one decision left to make: red or black?
The Londoner decided to leave this until he actually got to the table, talk about the eleventh hour.
Looking back on the moment for Discovery UK, Revell said he was walking along, hoping for some ‘divine inspiration’ but he simply ‘wasn’t getting that’.
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His friends and family were all stood watching on, with a decent crowd gathered to witness what could be a life-changing choice.
“It was a huge, huge decision,” he pointed out. “I looked round and was like, well, ‘red or black, what am I going to do?’
“I didn’t know. One would be the right answer – I just had to pick that.”
Well, yes, that tends to be how these things work.
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“I had nothing else to think about, it was the biggest decision of my life,” he continued.
In the end, he decided to go with red, having to make his decision within the ball doing two circuits of the wheel.
“For some reason, I asked to kiss the ball,” Revell explained. “He span the ball and I immediately just said red and pushed all my chips on red.”
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Then, everything went silent with him feeling like he was ‘in a vacuum of silence’.
It was at this moment the man realised he ‘had nothing’ as the reality was if it went on black he ‘would be without anything, in Las Vegas, pretty much destitute’.
“I could lose everything,” Revell recalled thinking.
But luckily for him, the ball landed on red and he returned from his daze into a ‘euphoric moment’.
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“It was just crazy,” he said. “In that moment I had doubled my money.”
And of course, he was simply thinking ‘thank god’ with the understandable: “Don’t do that again, that was a silly thing to do.”
With many questioning why he didn’t go for a second try, he added: “I shouldn’t have done it again, I shouldn’t have done it in the first place.”
Plus, looking back at the show, Revell just sees an ‘arrogant twit’ who he kind of ‘hope loses’.
Please gamble responsibly. For help, support and advice about problem gambling, contact the National Gambling Helpline anytime on 0808 8020 133
Jess Battison