A lot of people want to get rich in Las Vegas. Terry Watanabe had the exact opposite of a bad dream: he lost more money gaming than most people will ever see in their whole lives.
If you become addicted to gambling, his story is a stark warning of how quickly your good luck can turn bad.
Terry Watanabe fall from grace wasn’t gradual. The former CEO of a successful party supply company went on a gambling binge and lost an amazing $204 million.
He was one of the biggest losers in Las Vegas history. His story shows the bad side of high-roller society and makes us think very hard about how responsible casinos should be.
From Party Supplies to Personal Fortune
The year 1957 in Omaha, Nebraska, was the start of Terry Watanabe work life. Harry Watanabe, his father, started Oriental Trading Company in 1932.
It grew into a huge mail-order party supply business. Terry joined the family business when he was only 15 years old and learned everything from the ground up.
Watanabe was 20 years old when he became CEO of Oriental Trading Company. The company changed its focus from selling party supplies to carnivals to selling them to churches, schools, stores, and private customers while he was in charge.
This change in strategy worked out so well that the company was making over $300 million a year at its peak.
Terry Watanabe built and grew the business that his father had started for more than twenty years. Oriental Trading Company became well-known for selling cheap party goods and fun things.
By the year 2000, Watanabe had grown a small carnival supplier into a big player in the party goods business.
That year, he sold his share to the Los Angeles-based private equity company Brentwood Associates, which seemed like a smart business move.
He made a huge amount of money from the sale and no longer had to run the business every day. He had no idea that his newfound wealth and freedom would bring him down.
The Descent into High-Stakes Gambling
Terry Watanabe started playing at Harrah’s Council Bluffs, which is close to his home in Omaha, after he got his money from Oriental Trading Company. What began as fun gaming turned into something much more dangerous very quickly.
By 2005, Watanabe had moved up to the Las Vegas Strip, where he got much worse at gaming. He became a regular at Caesar’s Palace, The Rio, and other Harrah’s Entertainment sites. He liked blackjack the most, but he also played roulette and slot machines.
The numbers from Terry Watanabe gaming binge are crazy. He is said to have bet $825 million and lost $127 million at Caesar’s Palace and The Rio in 2007. His loses were so big that they made up 20% of Caesar’s Palace’s entire income that year.
For their most important customer, Harrah’s Entertainment put out the red carpet. To keep Watanabe at the tables, they gave him a personal staff, a 15% refund on big losses, $12,500 a month in airfare credits, and a $500,000 gift shop credit. The VIP treatment did work, but it cost a terrible lot.
Terry Watanabe lost about $204 million in gaming by the time it was over. The man who had built a huge business empire was kicked out of Wynn Las Vegas for gambling too much and owed a lot of money in gaming debts.
Legal Battles and Aftermath
Things got bad for Watanabe when his loses got too big for him to pay. Harrington’s Casino charged him with fraud and theft after he failed to pay off the rest of his gambling debt. No matter what happened that caused the huge losses, the gambling giant wanted their money.
There was no way Watanabe was going to give up. He put in counterclaims saying that Harrah’s had helped him with his gaming problem and taken advantage of it.
His lawyers said that the casino broke responsible gambling rules by giving him drinks and prescription drugs while he was clearly impaired.
The case brought up important questions about how casinos should handle problem gambling. The New Jersey Gaming Commission finally fined Caesars Entertainment $225,000 for letting Terry Watanabe keep gambling while he was very drunk.
In July 2010, a deal was made between both sides that got rid of all civil and criminal suits. The terms of the deal were not made public, but it ended a public, bitter court case that had been going on for years.
Life After the Fall
After a family intervention in late 2007, Terry Watanabe went to a residential treatment center and allegedly hasn’t gambled since.
He had to pay a huge price for the recovery: he had to sell his house in Omaha for $2.66 million and move to San Francisco.
In 2017, Watanabe finally admitted he was broke when he started a GoFundMe page to get $100,000 for surgery for prostate cancer.
The man who used to run a $300 million business but lost $204 million gambling was now asking for help paying for his hospital bills.
A media business called Foundation Media Partners became interested in his story and bought the rights to Terry Watanabe life story in 2022.
They want to turn his story into a movie, a book, and a documentary that look at gaming addiction and the culture of excess in Las Vegas casinos.
A Cautionary Tale for the Ages
Terry Watanabe story is still one of the worst examples of how gaming addiction can ruin a person’s life. His story of going from being a successful businessman to a broken gambler shows how dangerous it is to bet without limits and deal with shady casino employees.
His case also led to important talks about how to gamble responsibly and how casinos help people become addicted.
Even though Watanabe made his own decisions, the ways that he was kept gambling bring up moral issues that the business is still figuring out.
When someone talks about winning the house in Vegas, remember Terry Watanabe. He showed that the house doesn’t always win; sometimes it takes everything.
Conclusion
The story of Terry Watanabe is a stark warning of how dangerous it is to let a gambling addiction get out of hand and how badly it can damage a person’s life.
His case shows how important it is to spot the signs of gaming addiction and get help before things get out of hand.
Even though the idea of living in a casino may be appealing, Watanabe’s story shows how bad things can get when you do that.
In the end, his story isn’t just about loss; it’s also a warning about how important moderation, responsibility, and support systems are for dealing with addictive habits.
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