Kerry Packer – The Extraordinary Billionaire’s Life
Kerry Packer was one of the biggest and most influential businessmen in Australia and an enthusiastic gambler. He was also the one who founded the World Series Cricket in 1977. The life of the Australian billionaire was anything but ordinary. It is one for the books, or TV shows, or as it turns out, both. Read this article to find out more about the impressive real-life story of Kerry Packer.
Who Was Kerry Packer- Early Life
Who was Kerry Packer and how did it all start? Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer was born on 17th December 1937 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. His father, Sir Douglas Frank Hewson Packer, was an Australian media proprietor. He owned controlling shares of the Australian Consolidated Press and the Nine Network. The two businesses were later merged into the now famous Nine Entertainment media company.
| ✔️ Full Name | Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer |
| 📅 Date of Birth | 17th December 1937 |
| 🏘️ Birthplace | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| 👴 Father | Sir Douglas Frank Hewson Packer |
| 👵 Mother | Gretel Bullmore |
| 👨 Brother | Robert Clyde Packer |
| 🏠 Died | 26th December 2005 |
| 💰 Occupation | Media Magnate |
| 👰 Spouse | Roslyn Packer |
| 🧒 Children | James Packer and Gretel Packer |
| 💸 Net Worth | 6,500,000,000 AUD |
Despite his wealthy upbringing, Kerry Packer did not always have it easy. His father did not think a lot of him, and the two had no close father-son relationship. At the age of eight, Packer got sick with poliomyelitis and was confined to an iron lung for nine months. Thankfully, he managed to pull through and recover from the cunning disease. It is also believed that the famous gambler had dyslexia which made his school years difficult.
He had an older brother, Clyde Packer, who was supposed to inherit the family estate and business. However, shortly before his death in 1974, his father, Sir Frank Packer, and his brother got into a conflict and, sadly, never reconciled. This led to Clyde being left out of the will and to Packer inheriting his father at the age of 37.
Kerry Packer and his wife, Roslyn Packer, were married for 42 years right until the businessman’s death in 2005. They had two children together – a daughter, Gretel, and a son, James. Enough said about Packer’s early life. We are now going to discuss his passion for gambling and how he founded the World Series Cricket.
Kerry Packer’s Gambling Stories
One of Packer’s biggest loves was always gambling. Some say that this was his way of coping with self-esteem issues, but the truth of the matter is he loved the thrill gambling brought to his life. At the time, Packer did not play at the top gambling sites in the UK. He played in some of the best land-based casinos. Kerry Packer was a notorious high-stakes player, both feared and beloved by many casino owners.
He preferred playing popular roulette games, such as American Roulette and French Roulette, blackjack, and sports betting (more specifically horse race betting). The gambler was frequently disappointed by what he believed were low betting limits in Australian casinos. Therefore, he preferred to gamble in Las Vegas, London, and other cities having some of the best and most popular land-based casinos.
Packer had been described as a larger-than-life gambler. There are many Kerry Packer gambling stories about him winning and losing massive amounts of money. Reportedly, he lost the whopping $33,300,000 in one of the most popular Las Vegas Strip hotels and casinos, Bellagio, and a similar amount in London by playing blackjack. According to another story, Packer had a private gambling room at The Ritz in London.
At The Ritz, he was able to play blackjack at a minimum of £10,000 per hand. According to one of the Kerry Packer gambling stories, he lost $19,000,000 there all in one night playing blackjack. He was, however, wealthy enough to keep betting even after such unimaginable losses. Bear in mind that he did not always lose. On the contrary, there were times he won huge amounts, and some casino managers even barred him from playing at their establishments.
Apart from Kerry Packer’s gambling adventures, the famous businessman had invested in Crown Resorts Limited – the biggest Australian gaming and entertainment group, founded in 2007. The Kerry Packer casino shares were later inherited by his son, James Douglas Parker. We can safely say that Kerry Packer’s life was always related to gambling, in one way or another.
Kerry Packer World Series Cricket
Another thing we are going to discuss in this article is the Kerry Packer cricket involvement. He founded the World Series Cricket back in 1977. This was a private cricket tournament featuring many of the leading cricket players in the world. According to the World Series Cricket Wikipedia page, there were a couple of reasons for its founding.
The first one was the fact that cricket players were not receiving fair wages at the time. The second one was that with the development of coloured television and the popularisation of watching sports events on TV, the potential of cricket was not being fully realised.
Unfortunately, Kerry Packer’s cricket involvement was short, since the World Series Cricket was discontinued for a range of reasons after only two seasons – one in 1978–79 and another one in 1979-80. Still, Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket tournament changed cricket and helped in shaping the sport in the form we know today.
Final Years of the Famous Gambling Enthusiast
Throughout his entire life, Kerry Packer had health issues. He suffered four heart attacks and had a chronic kidney condition. In 1999, he received a kidney from his long-term helicopter pilot, Nick Ross. Unfortunately, not long after that, in 2005, Kerry Packer died of kidney failure at his home in Bellevue Hill, New South Wales, Australia.
A state memorial service was held on 17th February 2006 at the Sydney Opera House. Among the people present were Russel Crowe, Tom Cruise with his ex-wife, Katie Holmes, and popular names from the Australian political scene like the former Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
Kerry Packer TV Shows and Books
It is hardly a surprise for anyone that Kerry Packer was a huge figure not only in Australia but worldwide. He was famous for his business, passion for gambling, and the World Series Cricket. He is the subject of many books, including The Rise and Rise of Kerry Packer by Paul Barry, released in 2008, and The House of Packer: The Making of a Media Empire by Bridget Griffen-Foley, released in 2000.
In 2006, the documentary The Big Fella: The Extraordinary Life of Kerry Packer came out telling the story of the prominent businessman. In 2012, the mini-TV series called Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War was released in Australia. There are several other more or less known attempts to tell the enticing story of Kerry Packer.
This is not surprising given that the gambling topic appears to be quite interesting for viewers like, for example, the most popular gambling movies on Netflix. At the time of this death, the Kerry Packer net worth was estimated at 6,500,000,000 AUD.
Kerry Packer – A Legend in Australia and Worldwide
Kerry Packer remains one of the most famous businessmen and gamblers in the world. The stories of him continue to travel far and wide even after his death. Packer left this world before his time but lived to the fullest while here. It was a life well-lived.
Among everything else, he was an owner of a media giant, founded the World Series Cricket, famously won and lost playing roulette, blackjack, poker, and other casino games. He was also one of the founders of the popular monthly women’s magazine, Cleo. Short-tempered at times and even described by some as a brute, Packer was known for being loyal to his employees and partners.
He told me he’d kill me, yeah. I didn’t think he was completely serious, but I didn’t think he was entirely joking either. Look, he could be pretty scary. He did threaten to kill me, and I said to him: ‘Well, you’d better make sure that your assassin gets me first because, if he misses, you better know I won’t miss you.’ He could be a complete pig, you know. He could charm the birds out of the trees, but he could be a brute. Malcolm Bligh Turnbull for The Sydney Morning Herald
Frequently Asked Questions About Kerry Packer
We hope you found this article and the story of Kerry Packer’s life as interesting as we did. We tried to tell it as best as we could and include as many details as possible. If you still have any questions, please have a look at the helpful FAQ section below, in which we have included the most common queries we encountered online.
