Las Vegas is opening up. The casinos are getting cramped, restaurants are busy, and there’s massive traffic on the Strip again.
You know what that means? A lot of people are boarding their planes at Harry Reid International Airport (Its name changed from McCarran International earlier this year) broke!
Yeah, gambling tables can be your friend when the cards, slots and dice are in your favor, but when the results turn, and you realized you just blew a mini fortune for no reason, it’s a pretty humbling and maddening feeling.
But no matter how bad things may have gone on one of your trips to Vegas, it pales in comparison to what these three people went through.
Three of the biggest losers in the history of gambling…
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- 1. Terrance Watanbe
Terrance loved gambling. He was able to fund his monstrous hobby by inheriting Oriental Trading Company way back in 1977. He sold it in 2000, and that’s what launched his over-the-top gambling appetite.
Easy come, very easy go! Since he had no idea what it took to work for the fortune he had, it was probably easier for him to kiss it goodbye than it would be for someone who built a business on their own.
Watanbe had what is commonly known as a “gambling problem.”
He just didn’t know when to quit, and back in 2007 his losses stood at $127 million at Caesar’s Palace and The Rio.
He became legendary in Vegas, for losing. As he stared at nine figures of gambling debts, he came up with the ingenious plan of suing casinos. Nice try. It didn’t work though, and he was ordered to pay his debt in full.
How’d he lose that much money? Blackjack and Baccarat. He ended up paying all but $35 million that he owed after facing felony charges in 2009, but if he doesn’t come up with that final $35 million he’s facing 28 years in prison.
2. Harry Kakavas
This gambler dealt in pure volume. In a 16-month span, Kakavas spent a total of $1.43 billion playing baccarat at casinos in Melbourne. He was essentially a full time gambler for over a year, and during that time from 2012-2013 he lost over $20 million.
Again, realizing his debt was real, and he needed to do something, he tried to take the casino to court, blaming them for his “pathological urge to gamble.”
The judge was less than impressed, and Kakavas is all paid up.
3. Maureen O’Connor
Losing fistfuls of money gambling is not just a man’s sport. Maureen O’Connor proved she could lose cash as good as almost any man, and she rang up $13 million in losses playing video poker.
Oh, did I mention she was the mayor of San Diego, and her gambling habits took over her life and forced her to resort to desperate measures?
O’Connor gambled over $1 billion, so losing ‘only’ $13 million is kind of impressive.
In order to pay her gambling debts, she was forced to borrow $2 million from her second husband’s charitable foundation.
The most interesting part of O’Connor’s bio is something that had nothing to do with gambling. She was married to Robert Peterson, the founder of Jack-in-the-Box restaurant chain.
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