That time a gambler tipped someone their mortgage

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In the world of gambling Kerry Packer is a veritable legend, an eccentric and flamboyant personality Packer thought nothing of gambling away literally millions of dollars on a single bet. Something that earned Packer the not unimpressive moniker of greatest gambler in history. 

While nowadays Packer spend the majority of his time being dead, when he was more alive he could often be found in the fanciest casinos in the world gambling away his limitless reserves of cash. A business magnate and media tycoon, Packer was a titan of business worth in excess of $6 billion making him one of the richest and most powerful men in Australia, if not the world.

With practically unlimited funds at his disposal Packer there was little Packer couldn’t afford and he seemingly had no qualms about tossing millions of dollars of his own money away in frivolous bets. Packer had so much money and gave such a profound lack of shits about how it was spent that he straight up ran several casinos out of business by winning too much money. A fact that resulted in many casinos banning him outright when he started to win too much out of fear he’d do it to them too.

Packer, like many wealthy businessman, hated having his time wasted so saw to it that his army of assistants would call ahead to any casino he planned to visit to ask how much money he’d be allowed to bet at one time. If this number wasn’t to Packer’s liking, he’d go to another casino and bet a shit-ton of money there because Packer wasn’t about that life. Sources are conflicted about how much Packer was allowed to bet at one time during his various visits to casinos but stories tell of him betting as much upwards of half a million fucking dollars at a time.

As you can imagine with the amount of money Packer would routinely win from casinos with bets this beg, he was an almost comically generous tipper. As an idea of how much Packer would gift to waiters, croupiers and various other people who’d do random shit for him a popular adage in Vegas was that – nobody is more ill than a person who calls in sick when Kerry Packer is in town.

In addition to the usual big-dick baller moves of casually flicking thousand dollar chips at people who brought him drinks and shit, Packer would reward especially attentive waiters and the like with enough money to buy a fucking house. Packer, being a businessman, naturally hated taxes and so to it that anyone he tipped got to keep as much of the money he gave them as possible. For example, on one occasion upon learning that a waitress he’d taken a liking to while betting had to split any tips she received with everyone at the casino, a furious Packer called over the casino’s manager and issued an ultimatum. Fire the waitress on the spot or he’d never gamble there again. The manager immediately complied and fire the stunned waitress at which point Packer handed her an $80,000 tip and ordered the manager to rehire her.

On another occasion Packer tipped his golf caddies $75,000 each and rather than just leaving them to it, saw to it that they were all issued cheques from a casino he visited so that they wouldn’t have to pay any tax. Thanks to this, one of the caddies was able to buy a house with the money, tax free, for a single afternoon of work.

Speaking of houses, Packer’s favourite hobby beyond gambling way paying off peoples’ mortgages. For example, during one gambling session Packer got talking to a croupier and asked them if they had a mortgage, when the croupier said they did, Packer casually enquired about the amount. When they responded that it was around $80,000 Packer slid over a pile of chips roughly equal to that amount and walked off like his dick was attached to nearby ceiling fan.

During another gambling session Packer bumped into a waitress, knocking over a tray of drinks she was carrying. Rather than be angry about it like you’d expect a temperamental billionaire to be, Packer asked the waitress for her contact info while helping her clean up. The next day she found out that the billionaire had paid off her mortgage. After yet another gambling session ended with Packer being raced to hospital after a fucking heart attack, he made sure that the paramedics who’d saved his life woke up to a cool million in their bank account. Because Packer was an equal opportunities tipper and presumably because he didn’t give one iota of a fuck.