Punting Profiles: Kerry Packer
It was early on, soon after he took over the family empire and soon after he started sending shivers down the collective spine of Sydney bookmakers, that he was nicknamed The Big Fella. It was iconic racing scribe Max Presnell who dubbed Kerry Packer same but it was soon the term most racing folk came to know him by. It was an apt nickname, conveying perfectly not only his ample stature (in both a physical and social sense) but his bet sizes. In Las Vegas, he was the Big Whale, for a period of time the biggest of the big players. He could shake not only a casino but a town, a place supposedly built for big time gambling. Kerry Packer was a behemoth of the gambling world. And boy, did he love a punt.
He probably had no choice. It was in his blood and in his bones. He was destined to fall in love with those two beasts that have charmed Australians for time immemorial; sport and the punt. It was only his empire and the size of his wagers that separated KP from the common man. Only money. And that money and that empire all started with one small wager, made by his grandfather Robert, over a century ago. Robert Packer, who fancied himself a racing man and a scribe as well, found a ten shilling note on a Hobart street corner. Feeling lucky, the money was placed on a local nag who did the right thing and got the money. Packer the elder used the winnings to buy a ticket to the mainland, looking for work at a newspaper. The rest is history, the Packer family becoming Australia’s richest on the back of their media conglomerate started by Robert and that nag down Tassie way.
Kerry’s father Frank was also a keen racing man, betting big and sitting on the committee of the Australian Jockey Club. He was also into horse ownership, winning plenty of good races including the Caulfield Cup with Columnist.
So Kerry really had no chance. He was a born gambler, a man born to money and risk and the game. And destiny he did not disappoint. The “most feared modern gambler”, they said.
He first came to public prominence as a bettor on Sydney racetracks, where he would engage in some gigantic battles with the biggest bookies. Not a Saturday went by when Packer would not call his racing writers, like Keith Robbins, and his contacts and discuss each race. He was studious and information-hungry. He would then hit the Sydney ring like a tank, constantly unleashing massive wager after massive wager. Some day’s he won. Some day’s he lost. But he was never broken. The same cannot be said for all those who took Packer’s bets.
The tales of Packer’s horse track deeds are plentiful but it was the his attack over the 1987 AJC autumn carnival that best paint the picture of Kerry Packer, Horse Player. Packer was betting large early in the carnival and the bets kept getting bigger. Keen on his own young speedster Christmas Tree in the Golden Slipper after a dominant win in the Pago Pago, Packer let loose with an $8 million throw on the brilliant youngster. Christmas Tree finished fourth and the papers headlined with Packer’s heavy losses. Packer’s luck did not change in the Sydney Cup when hammering bookies with a $7 million bet on boom three year old Myocard at 4/7. Myocard beat all but one home that day, downed by a steed named Major Drive. The Kerry Packer owned Major Drive. His own horse had cost him a fortune. It was reported that Packer bet over $100 million that carnival and after some bad early defeats, clawed his way back to victory.
His last famous plunge, though he bet until the death, was on Jezabeel in the 1998 Melbourne Cup. Packer backed Jezabeel to win $6 million, seeing the New Zealand mare tumble into favouritism on race afternoon. It was a mighty go. And when she won, there were plenty of bookmakers flushed with the cold sweat of defeat.
Packer’s gambling was not limited to the racetrack. The Big Fella loved both blackjack and baccarat and would regularly take sojourns to Las Vegas or London or other betting Mecca’s to gamble. These gambling trips were certainly not for peanuts and amusement. They were for incredible amounts of money.
Packer both won and lost on these trips and while it is tough to establish total sums wagered, some anecdotal evidence certainly shows the levels that he operated at. Popular word has it that Packer won $26 million in three days playing blackjack at the MGM Grand in 1997. He was subsequently barred from the joint with a number of MGM executives fired after the Packer winning splurge sunk quarterly profits. This is regarded as likely the biggest win in Vegas history. Packer lost big too. He lost $20 million in one sitting at the Bellagio in 2000 and in a 3 week run of Baccarat at Crockfords in London, losses reportedly reached $16.5 million. He would bet up to $200,000 a hand and often have every slot on the table in action. Once, when irritated by a loud mouthed oil Texas Baron who kept on about his $60 million worth, Packer told the gentleman he would “toss him for it”. The Texas cowboy quickly retreated.
While he had a mixed relationship with casino management, dealers and waitresses and performers loved him. He would tip dealers up to $100,000, once purchasing a house for a dealer who explained that she was not home with her husband and kids because she “had a mortgage to pay off”. In touch with the common man to the last.
His contribution to gambling and sport from a commercial perspective is also well worth noting. Packer took his two sporting loves, cricket and rugby league, into the era of professionalism. He was the man that took cricket to the next era with World Series Cricket and through his involvement in both broadcast rights and the Super League war, helped make rugby league the profitable and professional game it is today. Packer bought big-time legal gambling to Australia through his ownership of the Crown and Burswood casinos and he was at the forefront of the punting game when he helped establish Betfair in Australia. Commercially, Packer did tremendous things for sport and gambling in Australia.
Kerry Packer died on Boxing Day 2005, Australia’s richest man and biggest gambler. He was a giant, a man who bet to his frame and bet to his destiny. If all the punters referred to as big were such, there is no word that truly captures the wagering of Packer. Behemoth, mammoth, gigantic would not be suitable enough definitions. He was that big.
This story was first printed on Punting Ace in 2008
