Australian tycoon loses $20 million in Las Vegas

August 30, 2000
Web posted at: 10:18 AM HKT (0218 GMT)

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Australia's richest man, Kerry Packer, known as one of the world's biggest gamblers, was reported on Wednesday to have lost at least US$20 million in a three-day gambling spree in Las Vegas last month.

Citing gambling industry sources in Las Vegas, The Australian newspaper said the billionaire media tycoon took one of the biggest baths in the town's history in mid-July at the Bellagio Hotel, playing his favorite card game baccarat.

The sources said the burly Australian lost at least $17 million on July 14 during one of his three to four annual visits to Las Vegas.

"By the end of that Friday, he was already down between $17 million and $20 million and then coming out of the weekend, he didn't recover," an industry source told the newspaper.

Coupled with a three-week losing streak last September at blackjack tables at London's Crockford's casino -- at $16 million believed to be the biggest single loss in British gambling history -- Packer, 62, is believed to have lost up to $40 million in 10 months.

However losses of this size would only make a small dent in Packer's wallet. His personal worth in 1999 was estimated at A$8.2 billion ($4.6 billion) in a survey of the country's top fortunes by Australia's Business Review Weekly magazine.

Packer's media group Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd owns Australia's largest casino, Melbourne's Crown Casino, as well as the leading Nine Network television station.

Stories about Packer's huge wagers are folklore.

"Packer is known as one of the biggest, as we call them, whales in the world," Las Vegas journalist Dave Bern from the Las Vegas Review Journal told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.

"He likes to gamble as much as $100,000 to $150,000 per hand on games and sometimes may have two hands going at once."

Bern said Packer had a reputation as a hit-and-run gambler, which meant after a win he did not stay around for casinos to get a chance to win back their money. Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, the Las Vegas identity who inspired Robert DeNiro's character in the film Casino, told The Australian that Packer headed the global list of about 150 whales, some 80 percent of whom are Asian, with instant credit lines of between $1-$5 million.

It was said only the Sultan of Brunei and international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi could match Packer's appetite for super high-stakes gambles.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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