The man who lost £2m in an afternoon

A lesser man would have quit gambling after sustaining such losses. But not Harry Findlay.

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Findlay: backing the wrong horse can be a very painful experience
(Image credit: 2008 AFP)

As someone who's had the occasional flutter, I've known the pain of big losses including one that ran into four figures. However, I'm not in the same league as professional gambler Harry "The Dog" Findlay. He has enjoyed wins of £20m while gambling on games and races that "enthralled him" and he has met his sporting heroes from Roger Federer and Martina Navratilova to Lester Piggott and Jimmy White, says Donald McRae in The Guardian. Findlay, who has recently published his memoirs, will however be most remembered for losing a multi-million-pound bet on the result of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

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