Just when you thought you might have had a terrible week...

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/000829/1/ahlek.html

Wednesday August 30, 12:55 AM

CANBERRA (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 20 million dollars (13.8 million pounds) 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 favourite card game baccarat.

The sources said the burly Australian lost at least 17 million dollars
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 dollars 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 dollars
believed to be the biggest single loss in British gambling history --
Packer, 62, is believed to have lost up to 40 million dollars 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 (3
billion pounds) 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 dollars 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 dollars.

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


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