The Man Who Lost $204 Million On A Trip To Vegas

in 2007 20 of Caesar's Palace casino revenue work came from one single person Terence Watanabe born 1957 in Omaha Nebraska Terence began life as the son of Harry Watanabe who founded one of the most successful Carnival suppliers in American history called the Oriental Trading Company at the age of 15 Terence began working for his father and by the age of 20 Terence had been given the role of CEO after which he'd add an incredible amount to the business by Shifting the focus toward party products Terence was able to grow the business from 17 local stores to a company generating 25 million dollars per month the only problem was Terence had spent most of his life doing so and had therefore experienced almost nothing outside of work the job was all-consuming say former Associates he traveled for long stretches of time examining merchandise in Asia he never married his sister and others who know him say they don't believe he ever had a significant romantic relationship this was his life that company it engulfed him having burnt out by the age of 43 Terence put his share of the company up the sale eventually selling for an undisclosed amount in October 2000. after which the goal was to have a charitable and fun retirement Mr Watanabe said his plan was to throw himself into his philanthropic work and have more fun if it's not fun it's not worth doing Mr Watanabe told his hometown newspaper the Omaha World Herald in 2000. he then created the Terry K Watanabe charitable trust before donating Millions to AIDS in cancer research as well as various political causes however having worked all day every day for over 20 years in a complex business Terence found little satisfaction in this new line of work donations from his foundation grew but he soon became Restless several business ideas including opening a restaurant went nowhere he didn't know what to do with his time says his sister and as the old saying goes an idle mind is the Devil's Playground with nothing else to do Terry began a new hobby of spending large amounts of cash purchasing one of Omaha's largest most notable homes which feature nine bedrooms 18 bathrooms a gourmet kitchen a custom Wine Cellar and a three-story elevator but it was rather a venue near this mansion that became his biggest Financial danger Terry began to travel across the border from Omaha to Council Bluffs Iowa so he could gamble at the Caesar's Horseshoe Casino which is self-described on its website as a true gambler's Paradise featuring an expansive round-the-clock casino floor and 18-table Poker Room a full service Caesar Sportsbook and one-of-a-kind gaming areas Terence became quote one of the casino's top customers and began devoting himself to gambling full time as his primary income and livelihood Source however with his level of disposable income hosts at the Iowa casinos encouraged Mr Watanabe to play at the Rio and other horazo casinos in Las Vegas having struggled to launch any new businesses Terence began to frequent Las Vegas beginning in 2005 where his existing gambling habit was intensified and joined with a drinking habit satisfied only buy a luxury vodka brand called Jewel of Russia which retailed at over 200 per bottle in that very same year billionaire Steve Wynn opened the luxury Win Las Vegas and by 2006 one year later Terence had spent so much money at the venue that the two arranged to meet remarkably Steve concluded that Terence was a quote compulsive Gambler and alcoholic leading Steve to ban Terry from the casino however given this was no fix for Terry's addiction this simply became an opportunity for other venues in the area Terry decided to take his money over to Caesar's Palace where a marketing executive promised to give him substantially more advantageous Arrangements than the win with respect to player comps rebates and other incentives after which the casino created specifically designed incentives to keep Terry gambling at their venue he was given tickets to The Rolling Stones 12 500 a month for airfare and five hundred thousand dollars in credit at the Gift Stores harass also offered 15 cashback on table losses greater than five hundred thousand dollars special high limit game and other incentives Mr Watanabe resided for free in a three-bedroom suite at Caesars had access to his favorite bartender and was constantly surrounded by attendance to serve his every need such as a seven course meal from the casino's Bradley Ogden restaurant delivered to him while he was gambling with these attendants later telling legendary stories about his behavior while gambling alde Leon and Christian kunder two of Mr watanabe's personal handlers at Caesars say he had thousands of Tiffany gift boxes filled with 50 gift cards or hundred dollar gift coins that he would hand out to bartenders nightclub operators security guards and others they say he once told a security guard to go to a supermarket and buy every cut of steak and then proceeded to hand them out to employees Caesar's Palace high rollers of this magnitude are often given exclusive loyalty program status called Seven Star where members are wowed by all the Fantastic benefits afforded to them with additional rewards and all-round bigger and better perks yet the casino then literally created a new tier above this called chairman men of which only Terence Watanabe had the status of joining having been handed what you might call the ultimate life Terry decided to stay in Vegas yet with no intervention and nothing else to do the severity of his habit began to get out of control several employees say Mr Watanabe would stay at the tables for up to 24 hours sometimes losing as much as 5 million in a single bin he was allowed to play three Blackjack hand simultaneously with a 50 000 limit for each hand and if he won Mr Watanabe says he regularly handed out to Caesar's employees bundles of hundred dollar bills that could total as much as twenty thousand dollars in the meantime Terry was visited by a former Casino Host from his hometown who explained that Terry appeared disoriented and couldn't remember the conversations they'd had in the past he'd add that Terry was often seen stumbling around the casino or falling asleep at tables placed right beside loud nightclub music yet the most notable observation regarded the type of machines that Terry liked to play according to one of his former assistants Terence rejected any skill-based casino game like poker and instead gravitated toward games with low odds including roulette and Slots who was considered a house player because slots are roulette are house games they have terrible odds for the player and the way he played blackjack he made it a house game he made such bad decisions on the blackjack table but it was only when his brother and sister came to visit for Thanksgiving 2007 that he talked about just how much these bad choices had cost him in the 11 months since the beginning of the year Terence Watanabe had lost 127 million dollars under the assumption that Terry had more money somewhere the casino then gave him a 17 million dollar loan although this by itself should have been a sign that he was almost out of money on the 23rd of January 2008 just weeks after telling family about his losses Terence put his Omaha Mansion up for sale while continuing to chase his losses in Vegas he managed to sell the home for a price of 2.66 million however at this point it was already too late Terence watanabi was completely out of money he'd wagered 4.2 million in 2005 81 million in 2006 825 million in 2007 and when his family brought him back to Omaha in early 2008. Terry had lost more than anybody else in Las Vegas history with a three-year trip costing him a total of 204 million dollars to make matters worse Terence had no job or income yet still owed the casino 14.7 million after which Terry put the blame back onto Caesars stating that his losses were their fault Mr Watanabe alleges that during this period harass not only didn't make him leave when he was drunk but applied him with alcohol and prescription drugs to encourage him to stay and gamble leading Terry to launch a lawsuit against the casino court documents explained as Caesar served Mr Watanabe two to three 750 ml bottles of Jewel of Russia vodka per day every day no Caesar's employee ever limited or cut off Mr watanabe's drinking despite the fact that he was almost always visibly severely into intoxicated when he was being served while gambling on at least one occasion at Caesar's in 2007 a concerned companion of Mr watanabe's Stuart Mitchell brought aside his cocktail waitress and pled with her to water down Mr watanabe's drinks the cocktail waitress refused and currently responded Terry gets whatever he wants Mr Watanabe had at least two drinks at his table at all times so that he could be kept in a constant state of intoxication while gambling Mr watanabe's photographs were posted in the employees only section of the casino in order to ensure all employees recognized him and never refused him anything Caesar's employees never attempted to limit or cut off Mr watanabe's drinking or restrict his gambling because they understood that any interference with his drinking or gambling could cost them their jobs in response to the lawsuit a spokesperson for the casino stated were in the gambling business we had no reason to believe that Terry Watanabe was anything other than a big player with huge resources who made an adult decision to bet the money he did are we going to provide an environment that keeps him very happy of course we are the casino then launched criminal proceedings against Terry meaning that on top of everything he was now facing up to 28 years in prison for the unpaid 14 million an article was then published in the months that followed announcing that both Carrie and the casino had H dropped their lawsuits however Terry's life never recovered afterwards my name is Terry Watanabe I've been diagnosed with prostate cancer on the 29th of July 2017 Terry announced that he had cancer hoping to raise a hundred thousand dollars on GoFundMe for treatment with a description reading I've accepted my situation and do not pity myself but my hope is that you'll find it in your heart to forgive me for my past and help me live long enough to help others in the future attached was a video talking about how bad things have become I unfortunately don't have the funds to survive I am almost homeless I have no medical insurance although despite this he was unable to reach his goal yet still managing to raise an impressive twenty eight thousand dollars in January 2020 Terry joined Twitter before stating today I try to live a good life and be a good man despite my past flaws and mistakes I've always sought to do good and help people I hope I can still have a positive impact on those in the future by sharing my story both highs and lows funny and sad moments showing that Terry quite impressively now took full responsibility for his own mistakes

Channel: SunnyV2

Views: 4,648,546

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Id: XU5P87LnrUk

Length: 10min 20sec (620 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 17 2023