gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

, breaking the bank refers to a player winning a large sum of money from a

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

. The literal, extremely rare, situation of breaking the bank, is winning more than the house has on hand. The term can also be used for the act of winning more

chips ''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. After the final first-run telecast on NBC in May 1983, the series went into reruns on Sundays fr ...

than there are at the table. In

blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...

card counting Card counting is a blackjack betting strategy, strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low valued c ...

can facilitate a

winning streak A winning streak, also known as a win streak or hot streak, is an uninterrupted sequence of success in games or competitions, commonly measured by at least three wins that are uninterrupted by losses or ties. In sports, it can be applied to te ...

that eventually breaks the bank.

Mark Bowden Mark Bowden (; born 1951) is an American journalist and writer. He is a former national correspondent and longtime contributor to ''The Atlantic''. Bowden is best known for his book ''Black Hawk Down (book), Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern W ...

reports in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'' that blackjack player

Don Johnson Don Wayne Johnson (born December 15, 1949) is an American actor and singer-songwriter. He played the role of James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s television series '' Miami Vice'', for which he won a Golden Globe, and received a Primetime Emm ...

broke the bank in 2011 winning nearly $6 million at Atlantic City's Tropicana casino after previously taking the Borgata for $5 million and Caesars for $4 million. The Tropicana refused to continue playing with Johnson on the terms the casino had negotiated after Johnson won $5.8 million, the Borgata cut Johnson off at $5 million, and the dealer at Caesars refused to fill Johnson's chip tray once his earnings topped $4 million. Johnson had reportedly negotiated terms with the Tropicana that included a hand-shuffled six-deck shoe; the right to split and double down on up to four hands at once; and a " soft 17" whittling the house edge down to one-fourth of 1 percent so in effect, Johnson was playing a 50–50 game against the house, and with the 20% "loss rebate", Johnson was risking only 80 cents of every dollar he played. In 2005, British investor Paul Newey nearly broke the bank at

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

's Genting Casino Star City, where he won £3 million and forced owner

Stanley Leisure Stanley Leisure is a British casino firm. History The company was founded in the 1950s as a bookmakers in Belfast. It was originally run by Leonard Steinberg, Baron Steinberg. In 1977, Steinberg moved the business to Liverpool after an attempted ...

to issue a

profit warning A profit warning is a warning declaration issued by a listed company to investors through a stock exchange. It warns investors that the profit of the company in the coming quarter will significantly decline when compared with that of the same quart ...

and caused the casino value to decline by 12%. Breaking the bank occurs only if the house fails to cap the total amount payable on a winning bet in a way that bears some reasonable relationship to the total amount of money in play. In contrast,

parimutuel betting Parimutuel betting, or pool betting, is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the ''house-take'', or ''vigorish'', are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among a ...

by its very nature does impose such a cap, and hence the bank cannot be broken.

References

{{reflist Gambling terminology