The Worst Case of Compulsive Gambling

How did one man lose over 200 million dollars from gambling? Find out all about it in this video!

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The Worst Year
American businessman Terrance Watanabe is estimated to have lost over $220 million dollars from gambling. In 2007 alone he lost roughly $127 million dollars at Caesars properties in Las Vegas!

Family Business
Let’s first get into how Terry had all that money to lose in the first place. Terry Watanabe inherited Oriental Trading Company, one of the first wholesaling companies established in the US. But this isn’t the classic trust fund kid blowing his inheritance story.

A New Life
After selling the company, Terry’s plan was to throw himself into his philanthropic work and have more fun. In a newspaper interview in the Omaha World-Herald, he’s quoted as saying “If it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing.”

Wynn Discretion
Terry’s gambling didn’t get out of control all at once. It was when he began going to Las Vegas beginning in 2005 when the wheels started falling off. His drinking and gambling started getting more intense.

Special Formula
What Caesars executives discovered was that he gambled like no one else they had ever seen. In fact, according to court documents, they came up with a special algorithm to come up with offers that they would only give to Terry, and no one else!

Balance Due
It all came crashing down when Caesars took Terry to court. He was charged with four counts for intent to defraud and steal from Caesars. But Terry wanted Caesars to take some responsibility too for his losses.

Line Drawn
For Terry, it seems like his allegations were right. Several Caesars employees had said that their managers told them to let him continue betting, even while he was in no shape to play.

Past Precedents
For example, In 1993, the former late owner of the Philadelphia Eagles Leonard Tose failed to get any money back when he sued Hollywood Casino over his gambling losses.

Same Treatment
Caesars maintained that they treated Terry just like any other player. The only difference was that he was their BIGGEST player. But this is most likely not true. Probably THE biggest reason why Caesars wanted him to play was because he was a bit unusual in his gambling.

Prodigal Giving
Most of the gambling was done when Terry was drinking. Obviously, there wasn’t an OFFICIAL written out corporate policy to keep him drinking. But staff knew just how much money he was dumping to the casinos because he was literally their #1 customer that year.

Caesar’s Policy
As for Caesar’s alcohol policy at that time, the company tells its employees to ask people who have clearly had too much to drink to only refrain from gambling, as required under state regulations.

Aftermath
After his record losing year, Terry was back in Las Vegas gambling for a period in 2008. But ever since then he got help that year and hasn’t entered a casino since. For what it’s worth, Caesars was fined $225 grand because they allowed Terry to keep gambling even though it was clear he was drinking too much.