We don’t believe that the UK plans for supercasinos were sunk by the idea that that the rich needed to be protected from themselves but given the financial crisis, maybe there’s something in it. And for the anti-supercasino crowd this case will be grist to the mill.

Imagine spending 20 years building up the family business to a size where it could be sold for nine figures. The sort of feat that probably requires some self control and more than a little business acumen. Imagine then being exposed to a lethal mixture of boredom, intoxication, addiction and some fine sales techniques that literally blows most of your acheivement.

The WSJ reports that during a year-long gambling binge at the Caesars Palace and Rio casinos in 2007, 52 year old Terrance Watanabe managed to lose nearly $127 million.

The run is believed to be one of the biggest losing streaks by an individual in Las Vegas history. It devoured much of Mr. Watanabe’s personal fortune, he says, which he built up over more than two decades running his family’s party-favor import business in Omaha, Neb. It also benefitted the two casinos’ parent company, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which derived about 5.6% of its Las Vegas gambling revenue from Mr. Watanabe that year.

But Mr Watanabe does not accept sole responsibility for losing massive amounts of wedge.

In a civil suit filed in Clark County District Court last month, Mr. Watanabe, says casino staff routinely plied him with liquor and pain medication as part of a systematic plan to keep him gambling.

But Las Vegas authorities don’t like those who refuse to pay their gambling debts.

In April, the Clark County District Attorney’s office charged Mr. Watanabe with four felony counts in district court for intent to defraud and steal from Harrah’s, stemming from $14.7 million that the casino says it extended to him as credit, and that he lost. Although Mr. Watanabe has paid nearly $112 million to Harrah’s, he has refused to pay the rest. He denies the charges, alleging that the casino reneged on promises to give him cash back on some losses, and encouraged him to gamble while intoxicated. If convicted, Mr. Watanabe faces up to 28 years in prison.

And prosecutors don’t seem to rate such arguments – "Uniformly, the rule is nobody made you drunk."

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