UFC President Dana White is banned from Las Vegas casino after crazy winning streak
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UFC boss Dana White is worth a serious chunk of change. The 51-year-old maverick has done very well financially over the years through his association with the world's leading MMA promotion.
In fact, if it were not for White, it is unlikely that the organisation would even exist today. Together with childhood friend Lorenzo Fertitta (and his brother, Frank Fertitta), the trio transformed the UFC from a company on the brink of bankruptcy into a worldwide phenomenon.
Selling a majority share in the UFC to WME for $4 billion in 2016, White and his business partners cashed in on their more than 15 years of hard work.
While the Fertittas departed the company after the sale, though, White remained the president of the company - at the insistence of the new owners.
White reportedly earned $360 million as a result of the takeover - and also negotiated a 9% share of future profits made by the organisation.
In addition to these sums, he also receives an annual salary believed to be worth eight figures.
His purchase of a failing UFC brand in 2001 was, undoubtedly, a gamble. However, it was one that paid off in huge style. White, though, doesn't just limit his risk-taking to the boardroom.
Over the years, he has spoken openly about his fondness for the casinos in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas.
With an estimated net worth of around half a billion dollars, White can afford to have some fun at the tables. However, he takes his activity on the casino floor very seriously, once publically referring to himself as a degenerate gambler.
One Las Vegas property, in particular, has seen plenty of business from White in the past, leading to an up-and-down relationship with MMA's most powerful man.
The Palms Resort and Casino once grew so concerned with one of White's winning streaks at the blackjack table that they actually sent him a UFC-style championship belt to congratulate him, together with a note asking him not to return.
White showed off the belt, which is engraved with the words "Palms undisputed blackjack champion: Dana White - $1.6 million prize money," during a tour of his office.
Speaking about his ban, White revealed the reasons behind it:
"I had beat them for $1.6 million," he said, per talkSPORT. "Then as soon as the Palms sold, the people who came in asked me to stop playing there.
"Listen, Vegas is all about losing, not winning, man. They don't like people who f****** win!
"Then it sold again, the new ownership said we want you to come back and I beat them for $1.6 million again. Instead of just asking me to leave the way that they [the previous owners] did, they gave me this [the championship belt].
"Undisputed Blackjack champion. 24-0. This is a cool way to say get the f*** out of our casino and don't come back," declared White.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan has previously suggested that White might have won as much as $7 billion at various locations around Las Vegas. With that said, White himself has also been open about his losses in the past as well.
In an interview with ESPN, he revealed that he had squandered a seven-figure sum on the outcome of a boxing match in February 2008.
"Oh my god. What was the kid's name? Jermain Taylor. And who did he fight? I know this for the ass-whooping I took. He fought the tall, lanky, white kid from Ohio, Kelly Pavlik.
"I bet $1 million on Taylor and he got destroyed. It was the first time I ever bet $1 million dollars because I was so confident Taylor was going to win that fight," admitted White.
While losing that sort of money would be devastating to most of us, to Dana it is just a drop in the ocean. The Palms Casino has yet to reopen following its closure at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, so whether White's ban is still in place when it does so remains to be seen.
