Harry Kakavas wanted to be a professional gambler when he began borrowing money from friends to bet a few thousand dollars at Crown Casino.
Eleven years later, the "pathological gambler" ended a 16-month $1.5 billion gambling spree in 2006 by losing more than $2 million in just 43 minutes.
Driven by an "addiction" to Baccarat, that began not long after Melbourne's first casino opened in 1994, Kakavas suffered losses of $30 million, and according to his lawyers was left broke.
Mr Kakavas is suing Crown Casino in the Victorian Supreme Court for $20.5 million.
He claims the casino allowed him to continue gambling despite knowing he was a pathological gambler and that he was banned from interstate casinos.
Should they lose the case, Crown could be liable not only for the $20.5 million Mr Kakavas claims he is owed, but also for $700 million it is claimed Crown owes Victorian taxpayers for failing to enforce an interstate exclusion order made against Mr Kakavas.
Mr Kakavas, 42, a Gold Coast property developer, took to the stand on Tuesday describing how he began gambling at about the age of 25 in about 1992.
He said he would bet on sports matches at a betting agency then located in the Rialto Tower near his job in real estate.
Intent on a career of full-time gambling he moved the Gold Coast in 1993 where he bet at Jupiters and met Howard Aldridge who would go on to become a senior figure at Crown.
He followed Mr Aldridge back to Melbourne in time for Crown's opening.
Mr Kakavas told the court he began by placing "relatively small" bets of up to $20,000, borrowing money from friends to place the bets.
He quickly found his way to the Mahogany Room where he rubbed shoulders with Crown developer Lloyd Williams and got to know his stepson John Williams, who was then a gaming attendant.
"By 1995, Your Honour, I became hooked on a game called Baccarat ... quite a simple game to play, really takes no skill at all," Mr Kakavas said.
That addiction, he said, led him to commit a $286,000 fraud against a finance company, which led to him being jailed for four months.
Mr Kakavas described "standard operating procedure" during his addiction as going to a casino, gambling and losing all his money.
He said he eventually sought help and was referred to Bernard Healy, a psychologist who is an expert in dealing with problem gamblers.
Mr Healy described him as a "classic pathological gambler".
Earlier, Crown's lawyer Neil Young QC rejected accusations that Crown had taken advantage of a compulsive gambler.
"There was no effort in any sense of the word to lure Mr Kakavas to Crown," he said.
The trial before Justice David Harper continues on Wednesday.
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