A disowned brother, a suicidal mistress, four heart attacks, a sporting icon, and the man who bet $100 million on the toss of a coin.
It’s nearly 20 years since Australian media mogul Kerry Packer died of kidney failure. Gone but not forgotten.
Packer was an anomaly; an astute businessman, a gambler, an academic failure, a ruthless negotiator; a generous man who put loyalty ahead of all else.
For many years, the richest man in Australia. If you thought the HBO drama Succession was over the top, take a look at the Packer dynasty.
Today, the family legacy wanes. Kerry Packer’s heir and son James invested heavily in casinos after his father’s death, but has severed all links with the betting business.
He may be the only investor to largely miss out on the online casino revolution of the last 20 years.
Still, the Packer name remains synonymous with gambling, this is its story.
Kerry Packer and Gambling
Kerry Packer was savvy and savage in the boardroom, but like many businessmen, he loved to gamble.
At the casino, he faced the same odds as any other player. The key difference was that Packer had pockets deeper than the Mariana Trench.
A lucky run for Packer could be a disaster for any casino bold enough to take his money.
Even so, every serious casino wanted Packer at its tables. The Ritz Hotel in London set aside a private room for Packer to use exclusively.
There he would play blackjack, with a minimum bet of £10,000 a hand. Legend has it that Packer lost £19 million at the Ritz in a single weekend.
Here are three classic Kerry Packer tales from the tables.
The Tip Guy
If you’re a Las Vegas cocktail waitress or valet, Kerry Packer is the whale you want to catch.
Always one to maintain impeccable casino etiquette, there are several reports of Packer giving six figure tips to casino staff. On one occasion he bumped into a cocktail waitress, spilling her drinks, and apologized by paying off her mortgage.
Another time, he gave the keys of his car to the parking valet and told him to keep it.
Packer also famously wanted to tip a blackjack dealer $80,000 worth of chips after a good run, but was told by the management that the tip would have to be pooled and shared with the other staff.
Packer told the casino to fire the woman. He then gave her the tip. He told them to rehire her.
The Texan
Arguably the single most famous Kerry Packer story took place at the Bellagio.
Packer was playing blackjack alone and a boisterous Texan wanted to join him at the table. Packer said ‘no’, but the loudmouthed Texan persisted, insisting: ‘I’m a big player too. I’m worth $100 million’.
Packer coolly turned to him and said: “If you really want to gamble, I’ll flip you for it.”
The Texan retreated quietly, now officially considered in Texan parlance ‘all hat and no cattle’. The story was confirmed by Mirage Resorts boss Bobby Baldwin.
The End of the Desert Inn
Last year, golf legend John Daly was interviewed on a podcast, where he revealed that Kerry Packer was responsible for hammering home the final nail in the coffin of the Desert Inn.
The iconic hotel is famous for Sinatra’s Las Vegas debut gig, as well as being the 1960s home of the Rat Pack.
Daly was at the Desert Inn competing in a pro-am golf tournament. Kerry Packer and Greg Norman arrived.
Daly saw Packer lose more than $8 million on the first day. Packer went to the cashier to pay his debt and offered to write a check. The cashier said the casino wanted cash. Packer obliged.
The following day, Packer’s fortune changed. He won more than $50 million. Once again, he headed to the cashier who offered him a check. Packer declined and demanded cash.
The Desert Inn had to borrow money to pay him. According to Daly, this is where ‘Steve Wynn popped in there and built the Wynn’.
Packer’s gambling was insane, as was his temper. He smoked heavily, had four heart attacks, died for seven minutes, and then tipped the emergency staff.
He would play $300,000 hands of baccarat and blackjack and had a $20 million credit line. He lived hard and fast.
The Packer Gambling Philosophy
Here’s an insight into Packer, and why he gambled so voraciously, in his own words, from a candid interview recorded in 1978.
“My father was a gambler. Every man who ever created anything was a gambler. I am, also, but there’s a difference. What I risk on World Series Cricket is not going to put this company into jeopardy. It’s not going to send it broke. I could close it down and the place would not even hiccup.
“What my father did was to take everything he had, all the prospects of everything he ever had, and put it on one roll of the dice. And what happens with great men and creators is that they work so hard with so little. They’re always undercapitalized at the beginning and they take the most outrageous risks.
“Against all the odds, and with luck, they survive. Then, eventually, they get to an age where they’ve built something and they sit back and say: “I’ve done it!” And the next risk comes along, that thirty years ago they would have pounced on, and they say, “I don’t want to put everything on another roll of the dice”; and they get conservative.”
Kerry Packer died of kidney failure in 2005. The heart attack that had left him clinically dead for seven minutes 15 years earlier had given him a preview of what was to come.
He said to a hospital visitor: “I’ve been to the other side, and let me tell you… there’s nothing there. There’s no one waiting there for you, there’s no one to judge you, so you can do what you bloody well like.”
Kerry Packer’s Family
Before the gambling and near-death experiences, the Packer fortune was made in media.
The family’s legacy starts in 1879, in Tasmania, with the birth of Robert Clyde Packer; the son of professional musicians Arthur and Margaret.
‘R.C.’, as he was known, was a journalist who worked his way into senior editorial positions, before co-founding the tabloid newspaper Smith’s Weekly.
The tabloid was hugely popular and made the Packer family wealthy. When he died, aged 54, on a ship in the Mediterranean, R.C. left his son Frank Packer all his publishing interests which also included significant holdings in Australian Associated Newspapers.
Frank Packer was the man to carefully nurture the seeds of a media empire. He made it grow.
Frank Packer spent four years as a cadet journalist on the family newspaper, before becoming a company director. He established several publications, formed the Australian Consolidated Press, and became a significant network shareholder when television arrived.
Like Father Like Son?
Frank’s son Kerry Packer remembers a man who was brutal and focused.
“What was my father? What were my feelings towards him? I was a bit scared of him. He was a strong man. He was a just man. He wasn’t a family man – he was a creator and he paid the penalty of all those who create. He devoted up to twenty hours a day to his business until he had built it.”
Frank Packer had two sons: Clyde and Kerry. The older brother Clyde was the heir apparent. He worked with his father but politics and personalities killed the relationship.
Packer senior was a staunch conservative. He would publicly abuse and belittle his son Clyde who was a liberal.
At the time, younger brother Kerry was disregarded as a viable heir; nicknamed the ‘boofhead’ and ‘the family idiot’ by his own father.
Clyde could take no more. Fed up with the internecine family warfare, he split completely with his father. In 1972, he headed to California, took up surfing, dabbled in movies, politics and magazines; sold his quarter-share of the family business and married a model. He did good.
Kerry Packer’s Net Worth
With his brother out of the picture, Kerry Packer inherited the entire family estate in 1974, with an estimated value of $100 million.
Packer freely acknowledged that he was not a ‘self-made man’. The business he inherited was created by both his father and grandfather. “I know full well that I couldn’t have done what my father did – build a great enterprise from nothing. I don’t have those talents.”
Packer is too modest. One of his first successes was the launch of women’s magazine Cleo in 1972.
Cleo was sexy, sassy, and controversial; featuring nude male models and intimate advice.
His father was vehemently opposed to the magazine launch, but within two years 30 percent of Australian women aged between 13 and 24 were buying it every month.
Packer’s business dealings were a mix of hit and miss. Fortunately, the hits were substantial. He founded World Series Cricket and the World Rugby Corporation. Making both sports professional and lucrative; attracting huge revenues and audiences..
Add to this the fact that Packer owned the Nine Network and Nine’s Wide World of Sports which would broadcast the games.
In 1987, Packer sold the Nine Network to disgraced businessman Alan Bond for $1.2 billion; only to buy it back from him three years later for just $250 million; less than a quarter of what he paid.
This is still considered one of Packer’s most legendary deals. It also gave rise to his best-known quip:
“You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime and I’ve had mine.”
Next Generation: James Packer
Kerry Packer’s inheritance went to his two children, James and Gretel. Gretel takes after her uncle Clyde, making significant contributions to the arts, education and environmental science; a philanthropist and one of the most influential women in Australia.
But it’s James Packer who has really ridden the rollercoaster for the Packer dynasty.
Instead of playing at the tables of casinos, James Packer built and bought casinos from Melbourne to Macau with the Crown Resort Group. But mismanagement and bad business decisions made Packer a liability.
Having sold his share of the casino business, Packer is estimated to be worth $2.8 billion.
In the television drama Succession, the Roy family is torn apart by greed and ambition. Maybe, it is time for the Packer dynasty to take a back seat and enjoy the simple things.
But, if you want me to park your car or fetch you a drink…