Think your bad beat story belongs in the book? This might not be as bad as the time you went all-in within ten minutes of hitting town and came in third after two one-outers caught a miraculous river and chopped up your entire play bank; but, it’s the biggest money bad beat. The spiral down lasted a year and cost Terrance Watanabe $127 million. The 52 years old Watanabe spent most of 2007 at Harrah’s Caesars Palace and Rio casinos drinking and gambling and losing enough money to buy a couple of hundred condos at CityCenter.
When his sister finally came to town and rescued Mr. Wanatabe from himself he had gone through almost 127 million dollars. Apparently, he still has millions but not nearly as many. He’s paid close to $112 million to Harrah’s, but, has now decided to renege on the remaining $14.7 million in markers. The law here in Las Vegas considers unpaid markers to be the same as a bad check and if you don’t pay you might be spending a few years in Nevada in a comped small room far away from the bright lights of the strip. In Mr. Watanabe’s case the stay could drag out to 28 years.
In his defense, Mr. Wanatabe filed a civil suit in Clark County District that seeks to place some of the responsibility for his record setting loss on Harrah’s. He is claiming he was supplied with alcohol, drugs, and encouraged to gamble in a drunken state for hours on end. Unfortunately for Mr. Watanabe, this line of reasoning hasn’t worked well with Nevada juries. After all, the casino didn’t make you drink the booze. His trial on the criminal charges is set for Summer 2010.
Read a detailed account of Mr. Watanabe’s bad beat story according to Alexandra Berzon for the Wall Street Journal.
Next time you’re in Las Vegas thinking about to go on tilt because some soccermom commandeered a case deuce to beat your quads!…just remember Mr. Watanabe’s Vegas story.