Gambling

Gambler turns down massive cash out to pursue $1 million parlay and . . . it doesn't pay off

May 11, 2022

Gambling Twitter was treated to a real-life game of "Deal or No Deal" on Tuesday as one man faced the classic parlay dilemma of whether to cash out or let it ride. As gamblers, we've all been there. Just probably not with these kind of stakes on the line.

Marco Piemonte, however, is a really, really high roller. And his latest big wager was a four-way parlay that he staked $40,000 on. Yep, that's 40 Gs. On a parlay. Wild.

Of course, you know where this story is heading. Marco hit the first three legs on Monday with the Memphis Grizzlies covering the spread and the Boston Celtics and San Francisco Giants winning their respective games. So it all came down to Wednesday night's Game 5 between the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks. If the Mavs won, Marco would win over $1 million. Not too shabby.

But neither was the cash out offered by DraftKings for $364,344. But again, you know where this is going. Marco went for the $1 million by letting his 2-to-1 moneyline leg on the Mavs ride. Talk about going for glory.

After a nice start, the Suns clawed back to take a three-point lead at halftime. At that point, the offer was reduced to $230K.

Still pretty nice. But again, you know where this is going. NO DEAL! And as you probably know, the Mavericks wound up getting blown out in the second half.

Of course, it doesn't matter what we would have done (We all would have taken the money, right?) because Marco clearly has money to burn if he's risking $40K on a parlay. But we all would have taken the money and run . . . right?

Anyway, on the (slightly) bright side, Marco made a small hedge at halftime to guarantee getting his original stake back at least. Well, and a couple grand. So he's not a total mad man.

And also on the bright side, he just saved himself some money on next year's tax bill.