Some men are born to greatness, some have it thrust upon them and still others have daddy's business to sell and then gamble away the vast fortune the old man worked so hard to amass.
Terrance K. Watanabe, heir to the Oriental Trading Company which he sold in 2000, lost an astounding $112 million in 2007 at Harrah’s casinos, including $94.1 million at Caesars Palace and $12.2 million at the Rio. Ignorance such as this usually manifests itself in the twitters of movie stars or the dinner conversations of Vice President Joe Biden.
Watanabe nearly broke even but he passed on the million to one shot of a woman having twins by two different men.
In his defense, Watanabe paid off all but $14.7 million and he was drunk at the time. Being drunk is now a perfectly acceptable excuse for nearly every act formerly considered wrong. You can make anti-Semitic rants and then get your girlfriend pregnant when drunk. You can shoplift, punch paparazzi and do all kinds of things. Surprisingly you can go to school commando in a short skirt on photo day and feign surprise when the yearbook photo page captures a bit too much smile all while perfectly sober.
Watanabe says the casinos plied him with liquor and drugs forcing him to make bad choices. Perhaps the bad choice was to guzzle gallons of booze from the cleavage cart with millions in chips in front of him.
Time to go lay some more flowers on the grave of personal responsibility.
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