At round 3 a.m. one evening in Las Vegas, Terrance Watanabe bought a yearning for In-N-Out Burger. The issue? It was closed. Most individuals on this scenario would stumble again to their resort for a late-night room service burger. Not Terrance Watanabe. Decided to get his Double-Double, Terrance supplied the employees $50,000 to reopen the restaurant only for him — and to prepare dinner sufficient burgers for the on line casino sellers working his desk. They did.
That sort of transfer wasn’t uncommon when Watanabe was on the town. The Nebraska-born businessman turned the middle of gravity in any on line casino he entered. He was soft-spoken, well mannered, and obscenely beneficiant — a person who handed out $25,000 chips to strangers in elevators, tipped thousands and thousands, and frequently turned probably the most extravagant VIP choices into one thing that also wasn’t fairly sufficient.
At his peak in 2007, Terrance personally wagered $825 MILLION. By the tip of that 12 months, Terrance had misplaced extra money in a single 12 months than anybody in Las Vegas historical past.
Behind the non-public jets, the penthouse suites, the seven-course meals served on the blackjack desk, and the surreal spending sprees was a person within the throes of habit — to playing, to alcohol, to opioids — and to the sensation of being somebody in a metropolis that rewards extra.
As soon as price lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars}, at the moment Terrance has no cash and lives on Social Safety… and he simply gave his first interview ever…
First Interview Ever
Lengthy-time CelebrityNetWorth readers most likely acknowledge Terrance’s story as a result of we have referenced it plenty of occasions in numerous articles. His net worth profile page tendencies each few months when his story is retold by a giant account on TikTok or Twitter. Nonetheless! Final week, Terrance gave his FIRST interview ever.
Terrance sat down with a YouTube channel known as WagerTalk TV. Within the interview, Terrance instructed his story for the primary time outdoors of a courtroom and dropped some bombshell revelations nobody beforehand knew. For instance, Terrance revealed for the primary time that on the top of his playing, he was affected by an undiagnosed bipolar dysfunction. He additionally revealed that his playing losses had been even bigger than had been reported earlier than. I am going to embed the interview on the finish of this text. I’d embed it right here, however the thumbnail offers away one of many greatest new bombshells. For now, let’s again up a minute and clarify how Terrance even got here to have lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to gamble with within the first place…
A Billion-Greenback Plastic Trinket Fortune
Terrance was born in 1957, the eldest son of Harry Watanabe, a Japanese immigrant who based Oriental Buying and selling Firm. What started as a modest reward store promoting novelties and trinkets ultimately grew into one of many largest mail-order celebration provide companies within the nation. Harry based Oriental Buying and selling in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1932 and shortly expanded to 17 shops all through the Midwest. Sadly, throughout World Conflict II, he was compelled to shut all however the unique Nebraska location when Japanese import restrictions hit the corporate exhausting. Imports resumed in 1954, and the corporate launched its first catalog in 1956.
Like many first-generation enterprise households, the Watanabes lived and breathed the corporate. Terrance began serving to out when he was simply 5 years outdated — sweeping flooring, sorting stock, and watching intently as his father ran the operation. By his teenage years, it was assumed he would in the future take over.
In 1977, at simply 20 years outdated, Terrance was named CEO. He set about increasing the corporate’s catalog and distribution, embracing the early wave of direct-mail retail advertising. Underneath his management, Oriental Buying and selling exploded in scale — serving faculties, church buildings, nonprofits, and occasion planners nationwide.
In 2000, Watanabe orchestrated the sale of Oriental Buying and selling to a Los Angeles-based non-public fairness agency known as Brentwood Associates. The precise value was not disclosed, but it surely was massive sufficient for Terrance to stroll away with lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in liquid money.
In 2006, Brentwood Associates offered the corporate to a personal fairness agency known as Carlyle Group for $1 billion. Maybe because of the 2008 financial downturn, Oriental Buying and selling went bankrupt in 2010. In 2011, it was acquired by yet one more non-public fairness agency, KKR, for $250 million. And a 12 months later, KKR flipped the enterprise to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway for $500 million. In 2013, Berkshire acquired a toy maker known as MindWare and subsequently positioned the rebranded “OTC Direct Inc.” underneath the MindWare umbrella.
However let’s get again to Terrance. In 2007, he walked away from the household enterprise with lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} and no clear plan for what got here subsequent. In public, he stated he wished to give attention to philanthropy and “have extra enjoyable.” Privately, the construction that had outlined his life since childhood was gone — and with it, the aim that had saved his most self-destructive impulses in verify.
Terry Watanabe in 1995 (copyright Omaha World-Herald)
A Harmful New Pastime
Together with his fortune secured and no extra enterprise to run, Terrance Watanabe discovered himself with an abundance of time, cash, and restlessness. For a person who had spent a long time micromanaging product strains and warehouse operations, early retirement was disorienting. He donated thousands and thousands to AIDS analysis and Omaha-based charities, and he bought a sprawling 18,000-square-foot mansion in one of many metropolis’s wealthiest neighborhoods. However with out the day-to-day calls for of labor, he started looking for distraction — and located it simply throughout the river.
In Council Bluffs, Iowa, a brief drive from Omaha, Harrah’s On line casino supplied simply sufficient noise and neon to maintain his thoughts occupied. At first, playing was merely a novelty — a method to kill just a few hours, like taking over golf. However it did not keep informal for lengthy. The employees took discover of his spending early, and Watanabe shortly turned considered one of their most valued visitors.
By 2003, the native on line casino wasn’t only a diversion — it was a routine. Sellers knew his title. Hosts ensured his favourite video games and drinks had been all the time prepared. He performed blackjack and roulette, however largely he appreciated to be in motion, to really feel the stakes. The road between “enjoyable” and “compulsion” blurred quick.
Quickly, Council Bluffs wasn’t sufficient.
Welcome to Las Vegas
When Terrance Watanabe first started visiting Las Vegas within the early 2000s, on line casino executives did not but understand what had walked by means of their doorways. He wasn’t flashy. He did not include an entourage. He did not demand consideration. However what he lacked in theatrics, he made up for with a willingness to wager — and lose — extra money, extra shortly, than anybody they’d ever seen.
What began as sporadic journeys quickly turned a near-permanent residency. By 2005, Watanabe was basically dwelling full-time in Vegas, rotating between the Wynn, Caesars Palace, and the Rio. He was quiet, beneficiant, and harmful to himself — the proper excessive curler. The proper whale.
At first, he settled into the Wynn, the place his conduct ultimately caught the eye of proprietor Steve Wynn himself. After just a few non-public conversations, Wynn reportedly turned involved that Watanabe was each an alcoholic and a compulsive gambler. In a uncommon transfer, he banned him from the property fully — fearing regulatory penalties if the on line casino continued permitting him to play whereas visibly intoxicated.
However Las Vegas shouldn’t be a one-casino city. And what Wynn rejected, Harrah’s Leisure (now Caesars Leisure) eagerly embraced.
Watanabe was welcomed again to Harrah’s with open arms and unprecedented perks, together with:
- A 3-bedroom suite
- $500,000 line of credit score in reward outlets
- $12,500 month-to-month for airfare
- 15% money again on massive table-game losses.
- He was given a customized model of Russian vodka, flown in only for him, and attended by a rotating employees of casino-provided assistants and safety.
He did not simply gamble. He moved in.
Preserve Him Playing
At Caesars and the Rio, Terrance Watanabe wasn’t only a visitor — he was the home’s golden goose. On line casino executives knew his face. Workers had been instructed to make him glad in any respect prices. His photograph was reportedly posted in worker backrooms with a transparent message: hold him playing.
And he did. For hours. Typically for twenty-four hours straight.
Watanabe would frequently play three blackjack palms without delay, every with a $50,000 restrict. His video games had been catered affairs — gourmand meals delivered to the desk, servers bringing his favourite drinks, bodyguards posted close by. Over time, his line of credit score ballooned to $17 million, and he was given near-unlimited entry to the highest-limit tables on the Strip.
However because the bets grew, so did the darkness beneath them.
As simply revealed in his first-ever interview, the on line casino employees did not simply serve him drinks — they allegedly supplied him with prescription painkillers like Lortabs, typically in bulk. His private safety staff, assigned by the on line casino, was stated to assist put together cocaine and ship drugs at his request. One host even allegedly handed him a field of opioids as a “reward” after he slipped and injured himself within the bathe.
By that time, Watanabe wasn’t simply playing. He was spiraling — in full view of the very folks taking advantage of his collapse.
$30 Million in Suggestions
Regardless of the staggering quantities of cash he was dropping, Terrance Watanabe was adored by lots of the folks working the on line casino flooring. Sellers, servers, safety — anybody who crossed his path — typically walked away with excess of only a good story.
He would periodically hand full strangers, folks he had briefly shared an elevator with, a $25,000 on line casino chip for no motive in any respect. On one other event, when on line casino employees talked about they had been craving In-N-Out Burger throughout a late-night shift, Watanabe supplied the fast-food chain $50,000 to reopen in the course of the evening so he might purchase meals for them. They did.
He was recognized to repay staff’ mortgages, give away $100,000 Tiffany reward playing cards, and tip within the thousands and thousands. In response to his personal estimate, Watanabe gave away no less than $30 million in suggestions and items, a lot of it spontaneously. He wasn’t exhibiting off. It wasn’t performative. It was compulsive generosity — the sort that made him beloved at the same time as he unraveled.
However whereas his suggestions saved flowing, his losses piled up quicker.
5.6% of Income
Inside memos later revealed that 5.6% of Caesars Leisure’s whole playing income that 12 months got here from Watanabe alone. That is one man — single-handedly chargeable for propping up a publicly traded on line casino empire.
And but… nobody instructed him to cease.
The Losses
By the tip of 2007, the numbers had been incomprehensible. Court docket filings and on line casino data would later reveal that in 2007, Terrance wagered $825 million. When it was all stated and completed, he LOST $24 million that 12 months, a determine so massive that even his personal authorized staff underestimated it at first.
However that is not even his whole loss quantity. The total amount Watanabe lost during his time in Las Vegas? Over $350 million.
Nobody in fashionable on line casino historical past — in Vegas or elsewhere — has ever misplaced as a lot personally by means of playing.
The Fall
Watanabe was ingesting continuously. He was utilizing painkillers and cocaine. And in the course of this descent, casinos saved elevating his betting limits, permitting him to wager as much as $400,000 on a single hand. When he fell, he fell exhausting — and casinos made certain there was all the time a desk prepared for him to fall at.
Finally, even he knew one thing had damaged. In late 2007, over Thanksgiving dinner, Watanabe admitted the reality to his sister. She had flown in to go to him in Las Vegas and had no thought how unhealthy issues had grow to be. Two weeks later, she returned and packed up his belongings. He left Vegas for good.
In his latest interview, Watanabe shared one thing he had not stated publicly earlier than: he was recognized as bipolar. The compulsive conduct. The grand gestures. The lack to cease. He believes now that his psychological sickness went undiagnosed for years — and was exacerbated by habit, isolation, and limitless entry to all the things.
Since leaving Las Vegas, he has attended rehab twelve occasions, together with an 18-month keep on the Betty Ford Middle. He has misplaced almost all contact along with his rich siblings, and says he has by no means requested them for cash — out of satisfaction.
At the moment, Terrance Watanabe lives on Social Safety.
Epilogue: The Lawsuit, the Settlement, the Legacy
Within the wake of his losses, Terrance Watanabe did not quietly disappear. In 2009, he filed a civil lawsuit towards Harrah’s Leisure, alleging that the on line casino had knowingly enabled his addictions — plying him with alcohol and medicines with a purpose to hold him playing. Harrah’s responded with a lawsuit of their very own, accusing him of failing to repay $14.7 million in credit score markers.
The Clark County District Legal professional took the extraordinary step of submitting 4 felony fees towards Watanabe — an unprecedented transfer in what had traditionally been thought-about civil territory. However the case by no means went to trial. In 2010, all prison fees had been dismissed, and the 2 events reached a confidential settlement by means of arbitration. The precise phrases had been by no means made public.
In the long run, Watanabe repaid $112 million of his debt earlier than the lawsuit was filed — and walked away from the case legally cleared, financially ruined, and publicly humiliated.
For Las Vegas, the fallout was quieter. Casinos by no means formally admitted wrongdoing. However Watanabe’s story — and the headlines that adopted — prompted elevated scrutiny round how high-rolling gamblers are handled, notably those that exhibit indicators of habit or psychological sickness. His case was a catalyst for early conversations round accountable gaming, even because the business quietly moved on.
At the moment, Watanabe’s title isn’t spoken aloud on the Strip. His data stay untouched. No particular person has misplaced extra money in a on line casino than he did — a title he by no means wished, and one that can probably by no means be surpassed.
His story has been optioned for a characteristic movie, a documentary, and a e-book. He says he is telling it now in hopes that it helps another person — somebody chasing losses, or chasing escape, or simply chasing one thing they can not fairly title.
“I assumed I might get it again,” Watanabe says within the interview. “Even after all the things — I assumed I might win it again.” He by no means did 🙁
Right here is WagerTalkTV’s unique first-ever interview with the person himself, Terrance Watanabe:
