When media tycoon Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (1937~2005) passed away at age 68, he was the richest man in Australia, worth some A$7 billion. As the Economist reported in his obituary, “Swashbuckling ruthlessness typified Mr. Packer’s life. He was an iconoclast, a playboy and a man with an impressive instinct for when to buy, when to sell and when to get nasty.” He was also one of gambling’s biggest whales ever.
An Inheritance Earned
Packer was born into wealth. His mother, Gretel Joyce Bullmore, was a Sydney socialite who came from a well-to-do doctor’s family. His father, Sir Douglas Frank Hewson Packer, KBE, was responsible for putting together a media empire that included not only the Sydney Daily Telegraph, nine provincial papers and 60% of the country’s magazines but also two TV stations and five radio stations.
But that didn’t mean the son’s life was an easy one. He was sickly as a youth. Stricken with polio, he spent nine months in an iron lung at age eight. Because the boy performed poorly at school, his father called him “the family idiot,” and it was widely assumed that the eldest son in the family, Clyde, would inherit the family business.
So Kerry Packer had to begin his working life at the bottom of the corporate ladder. He unloaded newsprint, cleaned machines, filled ink drums and stacked newspapers. He grew strong in both body and will, took up boxing and polo as pastimes, and strived hard to improve his grades in school. He also began to take an interest in wagering, not only on sports but also at card tables.
Frank Packer viewed Kerry primarily as lazy and a gambler. However, a falling out with Clyde in 1972 opened the way for the second son to become the media mogul’s successor. The new heir-apparent quickly persuaded his father to sell the Telegraph to rival Rupert Murdoch, on the premise that newspapers were the past and television was the future. Two years later, the transition of power was made complete, as the father passed away and the brash 37-year-old became chairman to a business empire worth A$100 million.
A Whale with a Tale
During his three decades at the reigns of Australia’s biggest media conglomerate, Packer would change the face mass media in many ways. For example, he almost single-handedly transformed cricket into a spectator sport viewed worldwide. He would also raise a family of his own with his wife Roslyn Weedon, including a daughter Gretel and a son James born in 1966 and 1967, respectively.
Throughout his career, Packer was known for his “titanic” wins and losses at casinos around the world. It was said the “whale” would have preferred to wager in his native country, but “no Australian casino could handle his wagers.” In 1999, he allegedly went on a three-week losing streak at London casinos that set him back almost A$28 million. It was touted as “the biggest reported gambling loss in British history.” But he was also identified as winning as much as A$7 million a year during annual holidays in the U.K.
During one noteworthy visit to the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas in 1997, Packer supposedly won between $20 million and $40 million at the tables. Being generous, he apparently tipped a doorman $1 million. He also paid off the mortgage on a cocktail waitress’s house. One story has been told of him winning 20 consecutive hands when playing high stakes baccarat, with each hand worth $250,000.
But perhaps the most telling story of Packer’s gambling exploits was revealed during an encounter at the Stratosphere Casino in Las Vegas. According to the tale, an oil investor from Texas wanted to challenge the Australian billionaire to a poker showdown. The Texan bragged, “I’m worth $60 million!” In response, Packer took a coin out of his pocket and replied, “Okay. I’ll toss you for it. Heads or tails?”