Zeljko Ranogajec
2011
Professional gambler from Australia and a former blackjack professional player.
Zeljko Ranogajec
Zeljko Ranogajec is a professional gambler from Australia who’s never published a book or any information on his strategies or methods, yet he is highly respected (idolized? worshiped?) by professional gamblers all over the world.
In his early years as a card counter in Australia’s casinos, Zeljko used to call Arnold Snyder, publisher of the Blackjack Forum quarterly, and try to convince Snyder to stop publishing gambling information. Zeljko felt that gambling secrets should remain secrets.
When Snyder would defend himself by explaining that he was a players’ advocate who was just trying to help players. Zeljko would accuse him of making the games worse for professionals. “Arnold, are you just going to tell everyone everything you figure out or learn about?”
After realizing he was getting nowhere trying to stop Snyder from writing about blackjack, Zeljko started calling Snyder from exotic locations to tell him about great games he’d discovered. “I’m in South Africa. You should see this game—early surrender, single deck, dealt to the bottom.” When Snyder asked about the location, the city, the name of the casino, Zeljko would say, “Ha! I can’t tell you that, mate! You’ll go and publish it!”
Zeljkoeventually moved from casino blackjack to much bigger games, like the stock market, and is also widely regarded—like Blackjack Hall of Famer, Bill Benter—as one of the most successful horserace bettors of all time. He is said to have made hundreds of millions at the racetracks.
If Zeljko ever writes a book on gambling, buy it. He has gambled and won in so many different areas that to limit his accomplishments as a professional gambler to “blackjack” is shortsighted. If you look him up online, you’ll find stories about his wide-ranging gambling exploits and his just-as-legendary wealth. He says the stories about his wealth are exaggerated. The stories about his exploits are documented by the losers—the casinos, race tracks, and online betting sites where some say he’s made billions.