Motocross star Carey Hart, above, and singer Pink, below, are preparing for their wedding in Costa Rica.
Billionaire media mogul Kerry Packer, who died Monday, was the king of big tippers.
When it came to electricity and James Bond-esque buzz, no one quite lit up Las Vegas like Australian whale Kerry Packer.
According to published reports, only the Sultan of Brunei and Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer, were regarded as being in the same league.
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If you were a dealer at one of Packer's favorite gaming salons, a Packer visit was not to be missed.
Four years ago I wrote about a Bellagio dealer who returned to work a day or so after breaking his leg, because the billionaire media mogul was in town.
Packer, who died Monday at age 68, was the king of the big tippers.
"I've personally watched the man wager $200,000 for the dealers on one hand. And they won, several times!" a dealer said in an e-mail about six years ago.
It wasn't just dealers who benefited from Packer's legendary generosity.
In Steve Cyr's recent "Whale Hunt in the Desert," co-written with Deke Castleman, Packer's $26 million score at the MGM Grand in the 1990s included a $130,000 toke to a single-mom cocktail waitress.
Legend has it he was playing blackjack for $200,000 a hand, six hands at a time, during his scorching run at the MGM Grand. An Australian newspaper claims he won 20 consecutive hands during the streak.
But Packer wasn't always so easy to deal with.
After I reported he had lost $20 million on a subsequent visit, he came to town with a giant chip on his shoulder.
Upset that his media rivals put his stunning losses in big headlines, Packer was out to get even when he came to Las Vegas in early September of 2001 -- get even with the dealers, whom he suspected had leaked the information to me.
As retribution, he demanded that hotel reps dealing with him sign a nondisclosure agreement to keep his table action in confidence.
"As a further show of his wrath, he refused to tip the dealers in his two weeks of play," a Bellagio employee told me. Dealers are angry, he said, because Packer "punished dealers for a leak which could have come from a number of departments."
He wasn't any happier by the time he left. Because of the Sept. 11 terrorist acts, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights, forcing Packer to stay an extra week.
Several sources told me he lost $29 million, and I printed it. Bellagio boss Bobby Baldwin, who got an earful from Packer over the item, summoned me to his office and disagreed with that number.
Packer reportedly lost $16.5 million at Crockfords casino in London in 1999, said to be the biggest loss ever sustained in the UK.
PASSING THE TORCH
Longtime lounge star Freddie Bell replaces Sonny King on Friday as host of the Bootlegger Bistro's Friday-Saturday entertainment format.
King, who has been recovering from serious health issues, has for years hosted the Friday-Saturday gig which encouraged entertainers to come out of the audience and join the show.
Bell's New Year's Eve show on Saturday starts at 10 p.m.
Bell and the Bellboys were regulars at the Sahara, Sands and Riviera lounges, when Louis Prima, Keely Smith and Sam Butera and the Witnesses were icons of the dance-till-dawn years.
THE SCENE AND HEARD
As Robert Goulet serenaded a houseful of friends with Christmas carols near midnight on Christmas Day, there arose such a clatter. Upon opening the door at his Sierra Vista Rancho Estates, Goulet saw a not-so-jolly scene. It wasn't Saint Nick. Four fire trucks were responding to a four-alarm fire that engulfed the nearby residence in a neighborhood that includes such famous residents as Wayne Newton, New Frontier owner Phil Ruffin, Pat Cooper and rap mogul Suge Knight.
Motocross star Carey Hart and singer Pink are preparing for their wedding in Costa Rica. He recently celebrated his bachelor party at the Hard Rock Hotel's penthouse.
THE PUNCH LINE
"The Letterman Christmas is sort of like the Sunnis and Shiites getting together, but with tinsel." -- David Letterman.
