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Kerry Packer
Kerry Packer is best known for his contributions to the world of cricket and his enormous wealth, at the age of 68 years old he died the wealthiest man in Australia. He was also an incredible card player and famous gambler who was totally proficient in many casino games.
Packer's Roots
Kerry Packer was born into wealth. His father and grandfather before him established the Australian Consolidated Press which he joined in 1956 at the tender age of 21 after having a hard childhood. Kerry Packer was dyslexic and did not do well at school. In addition, he also suffered from many illnesses and spent 9 months in an iron lung to try and control his breathing problems. His father did not pay much attention to him especially as he did not do well at school, until his older brother was banished from Australia. Despite the fact that Packer was born into wealth, he still managed to succeed and invest cleverly to make his father's and grandfather's company even more successful. In 1974 after nearly 20 years of working for his father, Kerry Packer took over the running of Australian Consolidated Press when his father passed away.
Packer's Influences
From 1974 until the day he died in 2005, Kerry Packer was most definitely considered to be the wealthiest and most outspoken businessman in Australia. Not only was he a good businessman but he also loved cricket and was known to interfere with the apartheid restrictions through his media connections and sometimes even the running of TV stations when he did not like one of the shows that were on. Sometimes Packer, by making a short phone call, would get the televised cricket to carry on over the original programming until it was finished or there were times when a program would abruptly end as Packer did not like what was being shown and he demanded that it was stopped immediately. Packer had power and pull, not to mention brains and money.
Kerry Packer the Famous Gambler
Packer's forceful personality was also evident in his much loved Poker and other casino games that he played. There is one story told that Kerry Packer won 20 consecutive hands of Baccarat when playing high stakes in a Las Vegas casino, each hand was $250000. Another story tells of how in 1999 Packer suffered a 3 week losing streak and lost over $28 million but in the same story it was also reported how he won Australian $33million at the MGM Grand Casino. However, the famous gambler Packer has not always been successful; he lost $16.5 million at the Crockfords casino in London, although this barely dented his $8 billion fortune.
Whether he lost or won, Kerry Packer was considered a great gambler and supporter of Australian gambling. He had many investments in casinos and owned outright the Crown Casino which is Melbourne's best. Thanks to his many contacts in government, he was able to control the regulations that the government enforced in the gambling world, to his advantage and even when he had clashes with the Australian Tax authorities, he came off relatively lightly.
Controversy over Kerry Packer
Some say that had Kerry Packer not had such a great start in life he would not have achieved the fame and wealth that he did, others dispute this and believe that despite his difficult childhood he would always have made it. From media mogul to cricket connoisseur to professional gambler, Kerry Packer gave a lot to the community of Australia and in return died a very wealthy and content individual
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