The origins of this superstition had been lost in time, and there’s certainly no limits to it. With that said, you won’t only be hearing this in the gambling community.
$50 bills are often frowned upon by people and they tend to exchange it for others.
While it’s popular to non-gamblers as well, it’s likely that it started from the gambling industry such as poker players, bettors, and more.
It is often confused whether if $50 bills were just considered unlucky that resulted to them being unfamiliar and in turn, making them suspicious enough to be part of superstitions that gamblers know now.
Another version is that the series of events happened conversely. There are many stories that we’re currently aware of on how this superstition happened.
One version is that there was a bit of discrimination with fifty-dollar bills which goes back to the Civil War due to opposition for Ulysses S. Grant, and we all know it’s his face that appears on the front of the bill.
This only tells us that the “unlucky” fifty-dollar bill isn’t as superstitious as possible, and there are reasons to think so.
There’s another explanation that ties the superstition to Las Vegas. Although it’s not exactly recorded in any legitimate database, there was a legend that the Mob once ran the town and a someone didn’t have much luck with them and that they’d buried the body along with a $50 bill. This is perhaps the closest theory connected to gambling.
Another story which is probably similar to this is that Bugsy Siegel, a very famous mobster, when he was gunned down by the bosses of the Genovese crime family, had some $50 bills on him at that moment.
Yet again an alternative of this story is that Bill Hickock had only fifties on him, nothing more, the time when he got shot playing the “dead man’s hand” (a hand nicknamed from Hickock’s death) in the Deadwood saloon in 1876.
Besides the death of famous figures, $50 bills are also known for being easily or boldly counterfeited. That’s why gamblers avoid using fifty-dollar bills, but perhaps the tradition carried on until now.
Regardless whether this is true or not, it would probably do you better if you choose to avoid $50 bills when playing or tipping. Even if it’s not exactly connected to luck, it would be difficult for you to get to the good side of people in gambling facilities.