Having the occasional drink or two during a gambling session isn’t the end of the world. You can still keep your wits about you and avoid making foolish decisions with limited alcohol consumption.
However, the chances of making bad gambling choices increase exponentially with each drink. Players especially take huge risks with drinking and gambling when playing for high stakes.
Many high-stakes gamblers have gotten drunk and blown fortunes in both casinos and poker rooms. Here are seven of the most famous cases involving drunken gamblers losing big to the house. You can let these players serve as cautionary tales.
Terrance Watanabe
Terrance Watanabe spent most of his adult life in his family’s business, Oriental Trading. His grandfather started the famed direct-merchant company in 1932.
Eventually, Terrance took control of the business in 1982 as the CEO. Under his guidance, Oriental Trading got huge and started earning hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Watanabe was certainly rewarded for his efforts. He sold Oriental Trading for a nine-figure fortune in 2000 and stepped down as CEO.
After retiring from the business world, Watanabe began focusing his attention on gambling. He frequented Las Vegas and played many different games.
Watanabe differed from the average high roller because he didn’t just focus on games with high RTP like baccarat and blackjack. He was also willing to play keno and slot machines—two of the lowest-paying games in the casino.
Given his bankroll and willingness to play any game, Watanabe became the apple of the Vegas gaming industry’s eye. Casinos courted him with lavish comps, such as private jet flights, high-roller suites, and top-shelf liquor.
The latter got Watanabe into major trouble. He drank frequently and even used illegal drugs on casino properties. He’d then proceed to gamble away millions of dollars.
In 2007, Watanabe hit rock bottom after losing $120 million in one year. He also wrote bad checks to cover markers.
Caesars Palace sued him for almost $15 million in bad checks. Watanabe launched a countersuit, claiming that Caesars “plied him” to gamble with alcohol and lavish comps. He and Caesars settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Leonard Tose
Leonard Tose was once living the high life as a trucking industry magnate and owner of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1969 to 1985.
He used his considerable wealth to gamble for big stakes at Atlantic City casinos. Tose especially loved blackjack and would play for $10,000 per hand.
Regulations surrounding casinos were a bit looser in the ‘70s and ‘80s. In fact, some gaming establishments even instructed cocktail waitresses to keep Tose liquored up.
The results were disastrous. He lost $20 million at Resorts International casino and another $14 million at Sands.
Rose eventually had to sell the Eagles for $65 million to cover $25 million in gambling debts. His downfall didn’t stop here, though, as he continued spewing out money in casinos and was eventually evicted from his seven-bedroom mansion. He died in 2003 at age 88 with no money to his name.
Ilari Sahamies
Born in Helsinki, Finland, Ilari Sahamies became one of the world’s most famous poker players. He rose to the top of the online poker scene and won millions of dollars playing at Full Tilt Poker (now defunct).
Sahamies was up by around $7 million according to tracking sites by the end of 2009. These profits made him one of the biggest online cash-game winners of all time.
Unfortunately, the Finn would lose around $6 million of this amount in the following years. He attributed about $3 million of these losses to playing drunk.
Sahamies went out to Helsinki bars, came back home drunk, and started playing high-stakes poker. This habit once cost him $700,000 in a single day.
Apart from the estimated $3 million he lost while drunk, Sahamies also dropped $1.7 million when playing with a huge hangover. Lucky for him, he was able to go on a $3 million run afterward. But his winnings could’ve been even better if not for the hangover session.
Mark Johnston
Mark Johnston is far from the only high roller to lose a half million or more in Vegas. However, he made international headlines after suing the Downtown Grand to avoid paying $500,000 in losses.
Johnston claimed that the Downtown Grand took advantage of him by serving numerous drinks. The Vegas casino also offered him more credit to gamble with.
The 52-year-old said that he was drunk when he started the fateful gambling session in 2014. The Downtown Grand allegedly made matters worse, though, by serving him another “20 drinks” throughout the lengthy session.
A car dealership owner and real estate mogul, Johnston took fault for consuming drinks before gambling. However, he felt that the casino jumped on the situation.
“Look, I had some drinks at the airport,” Johnston explained. “I had a drink on the plane. You know, at some point that’s my responsibility, okay. But the unfortunate part about it for them [Downtown Grand] is that they have a bigger responsibility than I do.”
Johnston likened the situation to somebody pickpocketing a “drunk walking down the street.” He also claimed to have difficulty seeing the cards due to his intoxicated state.
Downtown Grand was successfully able to argue that Johnston didn’t appear to be overly drunk before or during the session. The Nevada Gaming Commission sided with the casino and allowed them to legally pursue the $500k in losses.
Allen Iverson
Selected first overall in the 1996 NBA Draft, Allen Iverson would go on to have a stellar career. He was an 11-time NBA All-Star, three-time NBA All-First Teamer, and won four scoring titles.
As Good as Iverson Was on the Court, Though, He Was Equally as Bad in the Casino
“The Answer” combined two vices—gambling and drinking—to lose his basketball career and fortune. Of course, Iverson likely didn’t have many more years left when he exited the NBA in the late 2000s. He possessed the talent, though, to keep playing longer if he had been into the game mentally.
Casinos in Atlantic City and Detroit welcomed Iverson’s gambling business. However, they eventually banned him for his drunken behavior.
AI, who made $154 million in basketball earnings alone, would soon blow his entire fortune in casinos and elsewhere. He’d also burn through part of a $46 million lifetime contract with Reebok.
The good news for Iverson is that the Reebok contract will keep bearing fruit until 2030. His ex-wife Tawanna, however, will get half of this money as part of a divorce settlement.
William Kassouf
William Kassouf is an interesting case compared to the rest of this list. He didn’t directly lose massive amounts of money to a casino when drunk. Instead, Kassouf stole chips from friends while playing roulette, lost a lucrative sponsorship deal, and made himself look like an idiot in the process.
The Englishman earned a sponsorship with Grosvenor casinos due to his infamy in the poker world. He played and trash-talked his way to fame. Kassouf first landed on the mainstream poker radar at the 2013 EPT London event. He ran his mouth so much against famed pro Vanessa Selbst that she eventually folded.
Kassouf continued annoying opponents while making a deep run in the 2016 WSOP Main Event. His run included a notable hand with Stacy Matuson, where the latter was bluffed into folding superior cards. It’s at this point when Kassouf flipped over his weak holdings and said, “9 high like a boss,” which became his calling card.
His grating personality would finally get him into trouble in 2018. Kassouf and his buddies were playing roulette and drinking at a Grosvenor casino on a September night.
The group celebrated after one of the friends won a huge wager. Kassouf took this moment upon himself to palm some $100 chips off his buddy’s stack—only to get caught by the group while doing so.
Angered, his friends complained to Grosvenor about their so-called “friend” stealing chips. The incident quickly circulated around poker circles and social media.
The Grosvenor Group not only revoked Kassouf’s sponsorship but also banned him from their properties for life.
Kassouf wrote an apology regarding the “drunken night” of playing roulette with his buddies. However, his reputation still suffered permanent damage from the incident.
Gladys Knight
Gladys Knight is one of the most famous singers of all time. The “Empress of Soul” won seven Grammys and was a soul icon from the 1960s to 1980s.
Once her music career slowed down, Knight found more time to hit the casino tables. She especially enjoyed playing baccarat and blackjack.
These games weren’t kind to her, though, as she’d often lose tens of thousands of dollars per night. Gladys estimates that she dropped around $6 million total through casino games.
The losses weren’t only attributed to her using bad strategy. Instead, they often came as a result of drinking too much.
Knight realized that she’d reached the bottom after an all-night, drunken gambling session where she forgot to take her boy to school. Afterward, Gladys turned to Gamblers Anonymous and kicked her habit.
Conclusion
The successful and wealthy have a right to gamble just like anybody else. However, they should keep the alcohol in check while doing so because they have a lot to lose.
Terrance Watanabe, for example, lost at least $120 million that’s known. Leonard Tose is another of the biggest losers, having racked up tens of millions of dollars in debt to casinos.
The other gamblers on this list lost fortunes as well, both financially and reputation-wise. Drinking and gambling can do lots of damage, even to those who seemingly have endless pockets.
Michael Stevens
Michael Stevens has been researching and writing topics involving the gambling industry for well over a decade now and is considered an expert on all things casino and sports betting. Michael has been writing for GamblingSites.org since early 2016. …
