Name Akio Kashiwagi | ||
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Similar People Samuel Isaac Joseph S, Nicholas of Japan, Takahashi Korekiyo, Saito Makoto, Sakae Osugi | ||
Gruesome and Grotesque: Akio Kashiwagi, and the death from 150 Samurai Sword strikes!
Akio Kashiwagi (柏木昭男, Kashiwagi Akio, also known as "The Warrior"; 1938 – January 3, 1992) was a wealthy Tokyo-based real estate investor who was known for the large amounts of money he wagered at Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos.
Contents
- Gruesome and Grotesque Akio Kashiwagi and the death from 150 Samurai Sword strikes
- Casino Whales Big Money Big Bets Big Everything
- Business background
- Gambling habits
- Murder
- References
Casino Whales - Big Money, Big Bets, Big Everything!
Business background
Kashiwagi owned a home and office in Tokyo, out of which he ran the Kashiwagi Shoji Company. He stated that he was the sole principal of his real estate and investment business. He claimed an income of a hundred million dollars a year, and a billion dollars in assets. His finances were so secretive that a credit review for casino officials declared his profession only as 'business'.
Gambling habits
Kashiwagi regularly played baccarat for large sums, betting $100,000 or $200,000 a hand, for hours at a time. He later got into a legal wrangle with the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City in 1990 over a deal in which Kashiwagi was to bet $12 million. Kashiwagi left the casino with two million dollars in chips, having lost ten million. He claimed the casino had failed to hold up its end of the deal. The character of K.K. Ichikawa (played by Nobu Matsuhisa) in the film Casino was based on Akio Kashiwagi. Kashiwagi's gambling successes at Donald Trump's Taj Mahal casino, followed by his recorded losses there and in other establishments, are narrated in Adam Curtis' documentary HyperNormalisation. Based on a story published in Politico magazine, it is alleged that his violent, unsolved murder caused Trump to lose millions of dollars in unrecovered gambling debts.
Murder
On January 3, 1992, Kashiwagi was killed, stabbed as many as 150 times with a samurai sword. His body was discovered in his home in Japan near Mount Fuji. At the time of his death, Kashiwagi still had casino debts in millions of dollars. The murder was never solved.