Željko Ranožec: The Gambler Who Mastered the Odds

Željko Ranožec was born in Australia in 1961 to a family of Croatian emigrants. His father was a frequent visitor to Wrest Point, the first legal casino in Australia. Ranožec started playing for real money in 1978 after enrolling in the University of Tasmania.

Ranožec and his friends focused on blackjack, developing strategies that ensured they couldn't lose mathematically. They were so successful that they were banned from all Australian casinos by 1984 due to their unusually large wins. In 2011, Ranožec was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame, recognized as one of the most successful and innovative advantage players.

Ranožec and his team moved to Las Vegas in the early 1990s, where they also made significant profits from blackjack. However, they soon shifted their focus to horse racing and the lottery game keno. In 1994, Ranožec and his partners won a $7.5 million jackpot, a record at the time. The Punters Club, as his team was known, won 40 out of 44 jackpots in Australia in one year. The team had exclusive agreements with bookmakers, including TabCorp, which returned 8-10% of each bet to Ranožec. The Punters Club had up to 300 employees, including financial analysts, programmers, mathematicians, and professional players. Ranožec and his partners were sued by Australian tax authorities in 2008, who claimed they owed around $600 million including penalties.