![]() ![]() One of the most prolific games of the lot is blackjack.Īs one of the most popular card games in the world, we know that there is a certain extent of curiosity surrounding how the game came into being. Even to this day, card games dominate the casino floors, bringing entertainment to millions every year. It wasn’t until the inception of playing cards in Europe in the 1370s that an explosive variety of games made their way onto the scene. The crudest methods of gaming included bone/wooden dice and other simple accessories. Since, its inception, the types of games played, along with the paraphernalia used to play them has seen a vast evolution and growth. You know what a massive come down that is after being in the dizzy heights of a day at the races with Kerry.Gambling is one of the oldest pastimes, traceable back to the earliest written records of human history. "So after that day, I went to Canterbury the following Saturday and held $300,000. On the final day of the Australian Jockey Club carnival, McHugh had turned over $100 million - far more, he believes, than the on-course totalisator. Out with bricks and back with the amounts'." In the mid '80s, the amounts that Packer was wagering with McHugh were extraordinary. "So on the first race, it was five bricks to a brick but I became concerned and contacted the chief steward about the codes and after some thought, he said, 'Kerry Packer's no different to anyone else. "After they went down, Kerry came over to me … it was … rather daunting … seeing this huge man looking down over his glasses and saying, 'This is no f- fun any more, I'm changing the rules and I want an even $6 million on the next favourite in Melbourne'." Packer became annoyed at the media interest of his huge wagers and asked McHugh if they could establish a code declaring every million dollars a brick. He agreed and on the first race at Flemington that afternoon, he had $2 million to $500,000, another $2 million to $600,000 in Brisbane and an even million dollars on the first favourite in Adelaide. Let's put a limit on bets that only allows you to back one to win $2 million'. "I said, 'Kerry, I'm going to go broke or you're going to have a heart attack. "I think in a way Kerry was a little dyslexic when it came to figures like $8.5 million to $2 million and often we'd have problems with settling because of Kerry's figures but at the end of the day, we had a good strong relationship." After 18 months of this gambling, the bookmaker contacted Packer on a Saturday before the Randwick races. Weeks later, the betting battle had risen to more than $10 million turnover in a day. He loved his rugby and his cricket and between those two sports, he'd make his way to the races," McHugh said. You must understand Packer didn't go to the races very often. "The horse got beaten but it didn't stop Kerry. Even his clerk whispered, 'I never really knew how many noughts were in a million anyway'. "But once he realised that, he screamed to the crowd around him, 'We've got to put a stop to this'. Dad used to have a whisky between each race, so coming up to race nine, the penny took a while to drop. 'Bruce … I said I wanted a bet in Sydney what about it.' So I quickly had a brainwave that my father was betting on Sydney, so I dispatched a clerk over to Dad and put down a bid in the ledger of $1.1 million to $800,000 on the horse. To that, I replied, 'I can't help you Kerry I only bet interstate'. "At the end of one carnival, I think I'd won $1.4 million over the four days and was quite proud of myself and after the last race, Kerry came over and said, 'Bruce I want to back the last favourite in Sydney'. You know there were two Kerry Packers, the one before he sold Channel Nine would limit himself to back a horse to win $500,000 but the Kerry Packer after he sold the network, it seemed the sky was the limit," McHugh recalled. McHugh agreed, but little did the Sydney bookmaker know that for the next five years, the pair would duel in figures not seen on racecourses. Packer then looked to his left and challenged bookmaker Bruce McHugh for the bet. He immediately challenged former Melbourne bookmaker Mark Read for $40,000 to $20,000 on the favourite in the hurdle. One race day in the early 1980s, Kerry Packer strode through the Rosehill interstate betting ring keen to have an investment on the opening race in Melbourne.
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