According to Baldwin: ‘The said, “I’m a big player too. He didn’t take too kindly to the Australian’s rejection. Packer was playing at one table and a loudmouthed Texan, playing at the next table, wanted to join in. Mirage Resorts boss Bobby Baldwin confirmed the story to casino roundsman Norm Clarke in the Las Vegas Review-Journal in the days after Packer’s death. He then turned to the manager: ‘Now rehire this woman immediately.’ The most celebrated story has Kerry Packer playing cards at a table in the Bellagio, which opened in 1998 as the flagship property of casino king Steve Wynn’s Mirage Resorts group. ![]() When the manager complied, Packer handed her the chips. Packer called the manager and insisted that he fire her on the spot, on the threat of taking his business elsewhere. The croupier blushed and explained that she couldn’t accept it all tips had to be pooled and shared among the staff. Garry Linnell reported yet another mortgage-magic act in Vegas, where Packer pushed US$80,000 worth of chips towards a deserving croupier.īOOKS: Real story behind Leyland BrothersĬrown Casino croupier Neroli Burke at Blackjack table watches as boss Lloyd Williams give businessman and casino's major shareholder Kerry Packer a form to join Crown Senior Citizens Club in 1997. And it seems Kerry Packer was as determined in his generosity as he was in everything else. Packer asked for her name and address and saw to it that her US$130,000 mortgage was immediately mopped up. It was for US$150,000.’ A similar story told in Whale Hunting in the Desert: Secrets of a Las Vegas Superhost has Packer accidentally bumping a cocktail waitress, causing her to spill her drinks tray. She said yes, and he said, “Bring it in tomorrow and I’ll pay it off for you”. ‘He liked the service the girl was providing. Packer’s tipping of casino staff became so well-known that, as one insider put it, ‘There was no-one sicker than a croupier genuinely taken sick when Packer was in town.’ In the Las Vegas Review Journal in 2005 Mirage Resorts president Bobby Baldwin confirmed a well-known story, about an extremely generous tip given to a lucky cocktail waitress at the MGM Grand. He lost and won big money.’ From those shifty wagers with backstreet bookies and illegal casinos, Packer’s gambling career would blossom well beyond Australia. ‘Kerry moved within it, and then he moved above it. ![]() ‘Sydney was a tough town, it was run largely by gangsters, through all these backstreet meetings and dens of iniquity. ‘He inhabited that town when Sydney wasn’t all sparkling like it is today,’ Linnell says.
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