Kerry Packer, The Worlds Highest Roller
Australian Kerry Packer was a media baron and casino owner. He was also a truly high roller.
Kerry Packer Biography
In 2004, Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer was listed among the richest people in the world where his entire wealth was placed at around US$5.4 billion. Although he never started amassing wealth as a result of his horse racing professional gambling activities, he later on went into this. It is of great interest that Kerry was a school drop out despite the thorough beatings he received from his father who tried everything he could to encourage him to go back to school and finish his education.
While in School he contracted a disease known as infantile paralysis which caused him to stay away from school for a quite a considerable amount of time. A man who was born on December 17, 1937 his stage in youth was spent in loneliness and lots of disruptions primarily due to the ill health he suffered. However, this did not hinder him from being an excellent sportsman especially in sports such as cricket, golf and boxing. Other sports that he also excelled in included rugby and swimming.
Kerry's father never had such a high opinion of him and appeared to prefer his other brother called Clyde. All initial indications were that Clyde was being groomed to take over from his father though when they fell out, things changed. At one point Kerry had turned completely to gambling and smoking in addition to heavy drinking. During the time when he was actively involved in professional gambling, Kerry had a reputation that was quite incomparable to that of most of his peers.
At one point when he had traveled to Las Vegas, he embarked on a three week unbroken losing streak where he lost close to $28 million. On the other hand it was the same Kerry who would also win close to Australian $33 million during the MGM Grand Casino. This was in Las Vegas as well. Every year Kerry Packer would travel to the UK once and participate in several professional gamblers events where he would constantly win no less than $7 million after each event. He dished most of these to charities.
Kerry Packer eventually died in the year 2005 as a result of kidney failure. He has suffered from some kind of kidney problems which had proved to be quite chronic for a very long time. One of his longest serving pilots even donated one of his kidneys to Packer for transplantation. However, even this worked for sometime but eventually he lost the fight and passed away. Way back in 1990 he had been reported to have died for close to eight minutes before he was successfully revived.
Kerry Packer's indulgence in professional gambling may not have been for as long as others but there is no denying the fact that it was quite eventful. He lost and won millions of dollars in equal measure. Rather than spend it on his own needs, he chose to share it with others. Until the time of his death, he was listed as one of the most influential and respected Australians ever. He had been the owner of several print and electronic media houses while he was alive.
