Most of us panic when we misplace a few bucks. But back in 2004, one man risked everything, and we mean everything, on a single spin of a roulette wheel.
Ashley Revell, a 32-year-old from London, became a real-life high-stakes gambler when he sold literally all his possessions, from his house to his clothes, just to place one massive bet in Las Vegas.
With over $130,000 in hand and a Sky One documentary crew filming his every move (Double or Nothing, anyone?), Ashley walked into the Plaza Hotel & Casino with one plan: go big or go home, except, well, he’d already sold his home.
So what was going through his mind as he stood at the roulette table with his entire net worth in chips? Speaking to Discovery UK years later, Ashley looked back on the moment that changed his life forever, and honestly, it sounds like something out of a movie.
“I was walking along trying to get some divine inspiration,” he said. “But I just wasn’t getting that.”
No signs from the universe. No gut feeling. Just pressure. Behind him, a crowd of family, friends and curious strangers watched as he teetered on the edge of financial ruin or instant wealth.
“It was a huge, huge decision,” Ashley, now 53, admitted. “I looked around and thought, ‘Red or black, what am I going to do?’ I didn’t know. One was the right answer, I just had to pick it.”
And in the purest definition of a last-minute decision, he waited until the actual moment the croupier spun the ball. With the ball making its first of two circuits around the wheel, Ashley made his choice.
“I asked to kiss the ball,” he remembered. “Then I just said, ‘Red,’ and pushed all the chips on it.”
Then, silence. The world faded out. Ashley described it as stepping into a “vacuum of silence.” Just him, the wheel, and the terrifying realisation: if the ball landed on black, he would be left with nothing. No money. No plan. No backup.
“I could lose everything,” he thought in that moment.
But the ball landed on red. Instantly, the silence broke into pure chaos. Relief. Elation. Euphoria. And possibly a minor heart attack.
“It was just crazy,” Ashley said. “In that moment, I’d doubled my money. I was just thinking, ‘Thank God… and don’t ever do that again.’” Which, to his credit, he didn’t.
While many asked him why he didn’t ride the high and go again, Ashley didn’t hesitate: “I shouldn’t have done it again. I shouldn’t have done it in the first place.”
And now, when he watches that old footage back, he doesn’t see a brave risk-taker. “I just see an arrogant twit,” he laughed. “Part of me kind of hopes he loses.”
Spoiler: he didn’t. But he definitely wouldn’t recommend it.