From Los Angeles correspondent Robert Lusetich...........

KERRY Packer, one of the world's biggest gamblers, is reported to have lost at least $US20 million ($34 million) in a three-day gambling spree in Las Vegas last month.

Coupled with a three-week losing streak last September on the blackjack tables at Crockford's casino in London – at £11 million ($28.2 million) the biggest single loss in British gambling history – Australia's richest man is believed to have lost almost $US40 million in 10 months.
Gaming industry sources in Las Vegas told The Australian that Mr Packer took one of the biggest baths in the town's history in mid-July at the high-end Bellagio hotel, playing his favourite card game, baccarat.

All the Las Vegas casinos combined made just over $US500 million from baccarat last year.

"It's mind-blowing to think one guy drops 4 per cent of that basically in a day," said an observer familiar with the events.

On July 14, according to sources, Mr Packer gambled away at least $US17 million.

"By the end of that Friday, he was already down between $US17 million and $US20 million and then coming out of the weekend, he didn't recover," a well-placed source said.

Word of Mr Packer's losses first appeared in an article by gambling columnist Dave Berns in the Las Vegas Review Journal on Monday, July 17.

The Australian last night contacted the Packer organisation in Sydney but received no response.

One estimate in Las Vegas put Mr Packer's losses at "at least what he took the MGM for" in 1995.

Then, Packer swooped on Kirk Kerkorian's giant emerald-green palace on the Strip and walked away with $US20 million from the MGM-Grand Hotel in what industry observers described as his usual hit-and-run style, in which he plays all six hands on a table at the maximum bet (up to $US250,000) but doesn't stay for long enough to give the house a chance to get its money back. As a result, Mr Packer was banned from the MGM-Grand and all its sister properties.

However, he soon found a home at gambling impresario Steve Wynn's Mirage hotels, which include the Bellagio, during his three to four annual visits to Las Vegas.

Although Mr Packer can be dangerous to a casino's bottom line – Hilton Hotels Corp denied a rumour in 1996 that its quarterly profits were 19 per cent off because of a Packer lucky streak – there are no shortage of properties wanting his business. It is believed his travel expenses, around $US100,000, are reimbursed and that at the Bellagio – now owned by the MGM after Mr Wynn recently sold his company for about $US500 million – he was afforded one of the hotel's $US4 million top suites.

Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, the Las Vegas identity who was the inspiration for Robert DeNiro's character in Casino, says Mr Packer is regularly given a "rebate" to help offset any losses as part of the casino's inducements.

"If he loses, the casino returns 10 per cent," he said.

Other Strip sources said that because one casino, believed to be the Venetian, was offering gambling's "whales" a 20 per cent rebate, Mr Packer could have demanded a matching deal from Bellagio before his losing streak.

There are an estimated 150 whales in the world of high-end gambling, some 80 per cent of them Asian, all of whom have instant credit lines of between $US1 million and $US5 million.

Rosenthal ranks Mr Packer the world's No 1 whale, calling him the "undisputed champion anywhere on this planet". Others say only the Sultan of Brunei and international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi can match his appetite for super high-stakes gambles.

Certainly not a wealthy Texas oilman playing baccarat who once rebuked Mr Packer and his entourage for being noisy. The man reportedly told the Australian he was worth $US100 million. Mr Packer then offered: "Toss you for it."

Mr Packer's legend is fuelled by such stories, as well as his generosity with tokes, as tips are known in Las Vegas.

In the presence of several Warner Bros Hollywood executives whom he'd flown to Vegas for the night a few years ago, Mr Packer handed a cocktail waitress about $US125,000 after she mentioned she had a mortgage to pay.

"Now you don't have a mortgage any more," he said.

A former Warner Bros executive confirmed the legend to The Australian. "These are men who are very wealthy and very powerful and even they couldn't believe the stuff Packer was doing that night," he said.

"He tipped, I don't know, maybe a million."

That corresponds with an account in a gambling newsletter at the time which said Mr Packer tipped croupiers about $US1.25 million after a large win at the Mirage.

"The money was divided among the 500 dealers who worked that day," the publication quoted a casino source as saying. "Each dealer made $US2500."