He was a simple guy with simple tastes: Kenny Rogers for ambience, hot dogs and Coke for sustenance. This in the single most opulent space in the United States, the Bellagio hotel and casino of Las Vegas. But that's how Paul Weintraub remembers it.
Kerry Packer used to come in three or four times a year, from Sydney or London or Argentina. The butlers would round up the country music tapes and two baccarat tables were readied for plunder.
In the history of Las Vegas, according to the city's paper, The Review-Journal, only the Sultan of Brunei and Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer, were regarded as gamblers of like magnitude.
The rules of baccarat date back to 15th-century Europe, although the American version was popularised in the casinos of pre-Castro Havana. In essence, it's a guess backed by a bet. In the case of Kerry Packer, invariably a very big bet.
"There really isn't much expertise involved in the game," said Weintraub, the baccarat executive at Wynn casino, who has also overseen the high-roller rooms at the Golden Nugget, Mirage and the Bellagio.
"The attraction is that it's the game you can bet the most money on - our maximum was $150,000 a hand and certainly that was not a problem for Mr Packer."
Packer and the casinos of Las Vegas were sympatico in ways other than the obvious. He was a billionaire and was prepared to bet, if not all of it, more than just about anyone else in the world; a select few of the casinos were prepared to swallow hard and accommodate his wagers, the magnitude and speed of which meant that an hour's play could easily generate a seven-figure win or loss.
At least as important: he was, paradoxically, a mass media proprietor who was obsessive about privacy - and casinos will go to any length to keep knowledge of the wins or losses of their biggest punters out of general circulation.
As to who finished in front, only Packer's accountant and a couple of casino executives could give an accurate reckoning. Published accounts suggest Packer's losses would probably be more than $US50 million ($A66 million). The biggest of his reported wins was $US20 million, in May 1995.
Packer played both baccarat and blackjack (the card game known in Australia as pontoon), betting as much as $US250,000 a hand on the former and $US75,000 a hand on each of six hands at a time with the latter. Resolution of a baccarat hand could be reached in as little as 10 seconds. The more challenging blackjack would take a couple of minutes.