A group of super-wealthy high rollers has upset gambling convention after a run of success at Crockford's in Mayfair resulted in the casino - rather than the client - losing its shirt. Stanley Leisure, the Liverpool-based gaming and betting conglomerate which owns the casino, yesterday issued a warning to the City that the losses would wipe out 15.6 per cent of its expected profits of about £28m.
The £4.5m run of luck - secured over a series of separate visits by individuals - sparked fevered speculation about just who from the ultra-secretive and ultra-opulent world of high-stakes gaming has managed so spectacularly to trash the wisdom that the gambler ultimately loses. Top players - including the man who holds the title as the biggest of the world's 180 "whales" or big-spending gamblers, the Australian billionaire Kerry Packer - lose millions a night without blinking.
 |
| Crockford's casino private gaming room |
The Crockford's gaming magnates have built up their fortunes since January playing at the casino's roulette and blackjack tables during several private visits, gambling up to £250,000 a time.
But in a world where privacy is a necessity rather than a virtue, their identity last night remained a closely guarded secret. Bosses at Crockford's, housed in an elegant Georgian mansion complete with glittering chandeliers and a Wedgewood ceiling, insisted on total discretion for their clientele, doubtless for fear of losing their custom. Michael Riddy, the finance director of Stanley Leisure, said the Mayfair winners were "several high-rollers from the Middle East and the Far East".
There are just three global high rollers who are generally known to the public: Mr Packer, 63, who holds the record for the largest known gambling loss in Britain he dropped £7m in three weeks at Crockford's in September 1999; the Sultan of Brunei, the world's richest royal; and Saudi Arabian entrepreneur Adnan Khashoggi. The remaining whales are recruited almost exclusively from the Middle East and, in recent years, from the new money of China, Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong, where there is an historic voracious gambling appetite.
Along with the brash allure of Las Vegas and the James Bondesque sophistication of Monte Carlo, premium Mayfair casinos remain a prime destination for the private jets of the gambling playboys.
Crockford's, on Curzon Street, has a reputation for understated luxury, offering its highest spending clientele private salons and a dining room stocked with free Krug champagne, lobster, Beluga caviar - and chips. Other top Mayfair gaming joints, including the Colony Club and the Ritz Casino, offer menus to reflect the international nature of their clientele with sushi, Moroccan tagines and stir-fried pork. The finest wines, such as Chateau d'Yquem and Petrus, also flow freely. Stanley Leisure, which said there was no suggestion that foul play had caused its swinging losses, said a £4.5m deficit was not unusual over the course of a year.
The chief executive Bob Wiper said: "The losses occurred as we near the end of the financial year. In normal circumstances we would expect the figures to even out and such a loss would not have been made public. "However, we are obliged to issue the profits warning because there is no guarantee that this loss will be recovered before the end of April. This is the nature of the gaming industry." Experts raised the prospect of a different level of intrigue, however, after it was revealed that high rolling gamblers have previously been a curse as much as a blessing to London's elite casinos.
London Clubs International, owner of Les Ambassadeurs casino on Park Lane, saw its profits halve two years ago by what it described as "the exceptional luck of less than five people". The winning streak cost the company £15m in 1999 but, observing the industry's unwritten rule of total client confidentiality, the casino declined to name those involved.
As recently as last month, Rank Group, which operates the Grosvenor Casinos chain, was forced to write off £5m in bad debts, most of it relating to one individual's unpaid losses. A senior industry figure, who declined to be named, said: "A winning streak is not unusual but coming after Les Ambassadeurs and Grosvenor questions are being asked about just who is winning all this cash? "Security is exceptionally tight and elaborate at the top casinos so the chances of individuals beating the system should be minimal but the conspiracy theorists are wondering whether it is more than luck."
Other observers dismissed suggestions of a pattern to the losses, suggesting that far larger sums were available abroad compared to those under restrictive UK gaming legislation. Keith Fagan, of Casino International magazine, said: "The really big players - the Sultans of Brunei, the Kerry Packers - head to Monte Carlo and Las Vegas where they can gamble £1m a hand. "It is also not unusual for individuals to come away from Mayfair casinos with large wins. It is just that most go unreported - what you tend to hear about is the losses."
With membership to the top casinos costing a minimum of £4,000 and attracting just 150 gamblers a night, the identity of the Crockford's winners is likely to remain a secret. A Stanley Leisure source said that such was the nature of the top players that the names of the lucky Crockford's high rollers would probably mean little or nothing to the man in the street anyway.
The source said: "These are not people who have high public profiles."
To find out whether or not that is the case would require sharing a table with a whale - a situation only available to a fellow whale. Anonymity seems assured.
