Hollywood Exec Ron Meyer is ‘Biggest Craps Player Ever,’ Lost Over $100M, Sources Claim

Someone appears to have it in for former Hollywood executive Ron Meyer. Earlier this month, the 75-year-old resigned from his $25 million-a-year job at Universal after he was purportedly blackmailed about an affair he had in 2012 with the 20-year-old British actress Charlotte Kirk. Now, “sources” have blabbed details of his gambling habits to The Daily Mail website.

Ron Meyer
Unnamed sources describe former VP of NBCUniversal Ron Meyer as one of the most sought-after whales in the American gaming industry. (Image: Matt Winklemeyer/Getty)

And if these sources are telling the truth, which Casino.org has been unable to confirm, it’s a pretty prodigious habit. According to “people close to the legendary former talent agent,” Meyer is the “biggest craps player ever” and has blown more than $100 million on dice games over the years.

“[Meyer] would stay at the penthouse suite at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York while on business, and the vice president of marketing at Caesars Atlantic City would send a helicopter to take him to his casino,” the source claimed.

“He would blow between $5 million and $7 million at Caesars,” the source continued. “Once he exhausted his credit line there, the VP would take him to Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut where he would blow $3 million to $5 million as well at each place.”

Mega Whale

Another source described Meyer as “probably in the top three most sought-after whales in the gaming industry,” before describing the penthouse suites and the hundreds of thousands of dollars in comps and promo chips casinos would lay on to try to induce him to gamble.

There have been whispers about Meyer’s gambling before. It was rumored that he won $400,000 from Ben Affleck in the private high-stakes Hollywood poker games that became the basis for the book and movie Molly’s Game.

Incidentally, Meyer’s daughter, Jennifer Meyer, was at the time married to Tobey Maguire, who was a major fixture in those games.

Deep End of the Pool

In his 2016 book, Powerhouse: The Inside Story of CAA about the talent agency Meyer co-founded in 1975, James Andrew Miller describes how Meyer, at some point in the 1980s or 1990s, was in the hole to mobsters for several million dollars because of his gambling.

“This wasn’t some casino on the Strip,” the book says. “The ‘guys’ Meyer was on the hook to only swam in the deep end of the pool.”

The Daily Mail source claims that Meyer, recently divorced and has now left his job at Universal, is once again facing financial difficulties.

When he finally filed for divorce, his wife had no idea he was blowing this money,” the source said. “He had to sell his $125 million dream house in Malibu. It wreaked havoc in his life.

“In the divorce settlement, his wife asked for forensic accounting, because she thought he was hiding the money. But he wasn’t hiding the money. He just blew it.”

Philip Conneller
Philip Conneller Senior Reporter

In Philip Conneller’s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation.

Philip was the original features editor for poker’s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites.

His news stories for Casino.org/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others.

Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John’s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic.

He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist.

Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC.

Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.

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  • DA
    Don Anderson September 12, 2020
    There were times in the early 90s at Caesar’s Vegas that we would have 3 or 4 dice players of that caliber on property at… There were times in the early 90s at Caesar’s Vegas that we would have 3 or 4 dice players of that caliber on property at one time. Myer very impressive but not biggest of all time
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