Kerry Packer: Australian Billionaire & Risk-Taking Gambler

After inheriting the family fortune, Kerry started gambling for very high stakes.

So high that it wasn’t uncommon for him to win or lose millions of dollars within just a matter of minutes.

He seemed fearless at the tables, never setting limits, and always risking more than what people thought he should.

On top of his gambling endeavors, Kerry’s a businessman at heart, as he always ceasing opportunities to increase his wealth.

Although Kerry Packer is no longer with us, we still like to remember the man who launched one of Europe’s most viewed sporting events: The World Series of Cricket. To learn more about Kerry and his accomplishments, please feel free to continue reading.

Kerry Packer was born in Sydney, Australia on December 17^th, 1937. He was raised in a standard middle-class family of four, being blessed with a hardworking father, a stay at home mother, and a crazy older brother who didn’t want anything to do with the family or the family business.

His father owned two well-known companies: Nine Network and Australian Consolidated Press. In addition to that, Kerry and his family owned a ski resort, several coal mines, diamond stores, and much more.

Kerry started working for his father at a very young age, loading newspapers for The Telegraph, another small company that his father owned.

Kerry especially benefitted from working, as school was very difficult for him due to an undiagnosed case of dyslexia. He also suffered from a rare case of Poliomyelitis, which caused him to miss school due to moments of temporary paralysis.

Kerry’s father passed away in the early 1970s, leaving him all of his assets, which amounted to $100 million. Kerry even inherited the investments in television and casinos that were well hidden from government regulation.

Since he had the necessary bankroll, Kerry started gambling for very high stakes and it wasn’t long before he became addicted to gambling. He inherited his love of gambling from both his father and grandfather who used to take him to the races when he was young.

Unfortunately, luck was generally not on Kerry’s side when it came to gambling. His worst streak of bad luck occurred in the late 1990s, lasting for over three weeks and costing him $28 million.

However, it wouldn’t be fair to say that Kerry has never been lucky when it comes to gambling, as there have been some instances where he has won a significant amount of money through gambling. Kerry’s expertise is certainly in sportsbetting, especially when it comes to horseracing and cricket.

His most financially rewarded venture was when he spent an entire week at the MGM Grand Casino. By the time the week was over, he accumulated over $33 million from playing various slot and table games.

He also once won twenty consecutive hands of baccarat in only a matter of twenty minutes, winning $115,000 each hand.

Kerry has had to deal with two different break-ins at the Packer Family Business Headquarters in Sydney, Australia over the course of the years. During the first break-in, twenty-five bars of gold were taken, along with a good-sized jar full of tiny golden nuggets.

After the first incident, their security systems were updated which kept the headquarters secure for almost eight years. During the second break-in, only one item was stolen: a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol.

No one was ever convicted of these break-ins, but since the people who broke in seemed to know their way around the facilities and because the items they stole were very specific, the police concluded that it was probably an inside job.