If you’ve got the balls to do it, selling all of your possessions can typically open up all sorts of opportunities.
For some, it’s the chance to travel the world while living on cruise ships or to perhaps buy an entire island. And for this bloke, it meant betting his whole life savings on, well, other balls.
Back in 2004, Ashley Revell decided to take the total gamble of placing everything he had on a single roulette game out in Sin City.
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At the age of 32, he was the subject of Sky One’s reality TV show, Double or Nothing. Revell really went the full monty as he sold the likes of his home and his clothes to take a load of cash to Las Vegas’ Plaza Hotel & Casino, with the cameras following him as the nail-biting bet played out.
Why did he do it?
The Londoner was a junior media worker when he pitched the idea to Sky TV, with the broadcaster ending up following him to Nevada.
But he had actually suggested at first that he use a friend as a gambler while he would serve a producer role. However, the pal pulled out and Revell felt he needed to crack on with it himself rather than have the idea cancelled altogether.
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So, Revell sold literally everything, flogging random stuff at a car boot sale and feeling ‘liberated’ in doing so.
“I even sold my name - the gambling company Blue Square paid me £10,000 to change my name to Ashley Blue Square Revell,” he told MailOnline. “Some of the things I now wish I had not sold, the sentimental stuff like my school cricket jumper, a football tie that I got playing for the county.
“I had literally nothing left. I had no responsibilities - all I had was a black or red question.”
All Revell then had was a case of £76,840 in cash which he exchanged for chips at the casino.
What was he thinking when the ball was thrown in?
The bloke still hadn’t decided whether he was going to go with red or black, leaving that to the very last moment.
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Looking back on the moment with Discovery UK, Revell said he was walking along, hoping for some ‘divine inspiration’ but he simply ‘wasn’t getting that’.
His friends and family were all watching on, with a decent crowd gathered to witness what could be a life-changing choice.
“It was a huge, huge decision,” Revell 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.”
He was left making the ‘biggest decision’ of his life and ultimately went with red.
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“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.”
As he watched it go, he remembered thinking: “I could lose everything.”
How did it go?
After locking his decision in, Revell felt like he was ‘in a vacuum of silence’, left with the realisation that if it ended up being black, he ‘would be without anything, in Las Vegas, pretty much destitute’.
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But luckily, he experienced a totally ‘euphoric moment’ as the ball landed on red.
“It was just crazy,” Revell 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.”
The incredible feat was viewed around the world and was even the inspiration for another TV show - Red or Black.
Revell quickly registered to play in the World Series of Poker while in Vegas and made it through to the third day. One of the things he bought with his winnings while back in the UK was a motorbike, which he used to bike across Europe, falling in love with his now wife.
Please gamble responsibly. For help, support and advice about problem gambling, contact the National Gambling Helpline anytime on 0808 8020 133.
Jess Battison