Justice Burbridge

Forgotten money, scandals and the people behind them. From the archive.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@aucllid He only had one spin. There was no “next” $10 million

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

Terrance Watanabe says he lost about $350 million gambling. Caesars later said his play made up 5.6% of its gambling revenue in 2007.

In the video below, he tells Wise Kracks why he kept going: "I thought I was going to be able to get it back in."

By his own account, the losses came over years, with a fortune built by his father's family business in Omaha. He says he ended up drinking and using drugs, and went to rehab 12 times.

At one point, he says, he told his sister: "I can't deal with this anymore."

Wise Kracks reports that Caesars and Harrah's gave him comps and high limits. Watanabe says he tipped big and helped pay off a friend's house.

Would you have walked away after the first $10 million, or kept going?

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@equalizer_dev That's a substantial amount of money

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@dawyykx Most people wouldn't understand their arrangement, but staying together for over 30 years says something about how well it works for them.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@PureAI_qq The wildest part is that Musk saw his own mistakes as a bigger threat than any competitor.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@marekknc Making $200 million is insane, but reportedly burning through it while still owing your former manager millions is even crazier

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@getmoat Agreed. The decision was reckless either way. Winning only changes the story people tell about it.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

Before taking Ashley Revell's $135,300 bet, a Las Vegas casino official told him on camera it would "never knowingly condone or accept" a wager of someone's entire life savings. Then it took the bet.

In the video below, wait for how he picks the color.

It was 2004. Revell, 32, from London, had sold everything he owned, down to his clothes. Sky One filmed it for a reality series, "Double or Nothing." The casino he first planned to use pulled out. The Plaza took it.

At the table he still hadn't decided. "What color then?" "I don't know. Oh man, too many decisions." Then he asked to kiss the ball.

Red 7. $270,600.

Fifteen years later he went back to the Plaza, but only after it opened a single zero wheel. "Why would I come back and bet on a double zero table?" he asked the casino's CEO.

His 2004 bet was on a double zero wheel, where red wins 47.4% of the time. On a single zero wheel, it's 48.6%.

The case for Ashley: he risked only what he owned, and used part of the winnings to start a company.
The case against: the casino said it wouldn't knowingly accept that bet, then took it for a TV show, and the odds were against him.

A reckless gamble that paid off, or a TV stunt that happened to work?

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@vektorrtrades Yeah. One spin is pure variance. Refusing the worse wheel is the only decision that was actually under his control

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@KupresTilz16899 A $19 billion deal born from a parking lot conversation with Buffett is the kind of business story you couldn't make up

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@zerodoubts0 Saving a historic diner sounded like a passion project, but the timing of the bankruptcy and divorce is brutal.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@adelltells Most people would’ve quit after 100 failures, but Dyson kept going for 5,126. That’s insane persistence.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

PATRICK MAHOMES ONCE CALLED OUT HIS ENTIRE OFFENSE INCLUDING THE STARS.

Tyreek Hill recalled a moment when the Chiefs were struggling and the entire offense was playing badly. Mahomes gathered everyone together and went after them individually Hill, Travis Kelce, Mecole Hardman and the rest.

He didn't care about status. He looked them in the eyes and told them exactly what they were doing wrong. Hill said his first reaction was basically: I want to fight this guy, but then something changed.

He wanted to prove Mahomes wrong. He wanted to get better. And the next game, the offense started clicking again.

That's the difference between having a teammate who wants everyone to like him and having a leader who is willing to have the uncomfortable conversation.
Sometimes the best leaders don't motivate you with praise. They make you realize you can do better.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

https://t.co/SqrMWYqP6D

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

🚨THE WORST CALL OF THE NFL SEASON SO FAR

WHAT ARE WE DOING?!

That is OFFENSIVE PASS INTERFERENCE. Period.

And the craziest part? IT WOULDN’T EVEN MATTER. Josh Wallace picked this ball off anyway. The penalty would’ve been DECLINED.

Instead, the flag changes everything and potentially costs the RAMS THE GAME.

Absolutely ATROCIOUS officiating. 🤯

You cannot make this call in a game this important.

NFL refs need to answer for this one. 🚨

#Rams #NFL #NFLRefs

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

JOHNNY MANZIEL LOST $100,000 BEFORE HE REMEMBERED IT WAS DEBT.

After the Cleveland Browns cut him, Manziel says he discovered casino credit: take a marker, walk to the table, and gamble with money that does not feel real yet.

“Start with 10, lose it, another 10, 20,” he recalled. “You look up by the end of a weekend… and you just fly through a hundred grand.”

Then he went on another trip and forgot about the marker entirely.

Until the call came.

He says the casino gave him 24 hours to repay the $100,000 or face serious legal consequences. “We got to get 100 grand to this Cosmo right now or all hell is about to break loose.”

That is the trap of easy money: it feels like a game when you take it, and a crisis when you have to return it.

Casino credit is not free money.

It is debt with bright lights around it.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

https://t.co/SqrMWYqP6D

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@DesireeAmerica4 Giving your kids money can change their lifestyle. Teaching them how to earn it can change their entire life. The real inheritance is the ability to create wealth without depending on yours.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@katsuxbt The most dangerous part is how quickly $100K can stop feeling like real money when it’s casino credit. By the time reality hits, the debt is already waiting for you.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

RYAN REYNOLDS TURNED SMALL BRANDS INTO BILLION-DOLLAR EXITS.

The day after Mint Mobile sold to T-Mobile in a deal valued at up to $1.35 billion, Reynolds sat beside T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert on Mad Money. Reports estimated his stake at roughly $300 million. He had bought into the wireless company only four years earlier.

It was not his first move. In 2020, Diageo acquired Aviation Gin in a deal worth up to $610 million. Reynolds had bought a stake just two years before.

His strategy was simple: find a small brand nobody is paying attention to, make the advertising impossible to ignore through Maximum Effort, then sell the story to a giant once the business reaches scale.

No traditional private-equity playbook. No generic celebrity endorsement. He treated brands like scripts: find the character, write the lines, make people care, and build an audience before the market catches up.

This is Ryan Reynolds on Mad Money with Jim Cramer and Mike Sievert, breaking down the Mint deal and hinting that he may already be working on the next one.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

https://t.co/SqrMWYqP6D

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@devb332 The lesson isn’t that Musk was wrong in 2011. It’s that judging a company by its current product can make you miss what it’s capable of becoming. The biggest opportunities often look unimpressive before they scale.

[Justice Burbridge @LostRecordsss]

@lorneseth The interesting part is that Peter didn’t maximize his inheritance, he converted it into a career. Berkshire could have made him richer, but he chose to use the capital to build something of his own.