Akio Kashiwagi

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Akio Kashiwagi (柏木昭男, Kashiwagi Akio^?) a.k.a. "The Warrior" was a wealthy Tokyo-based real estate investor who supposedly had ties with Yakuza, and a wealthy gambler who frequented Las Vegas casinos throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He was a big fan of baccarat. Unfortunately by the end of the 1980s, Kashiwagi had used up his casino credit, owing many casino executives, among them Donald Trump, millions of dollars. In February 1990 he made history books when he won over $6 million at an Atlantic City baccarat table. In doing this Kashiwagi put a significant loss in the casino's bottom line for a month. He did this while playing in Atlantic City's Trump Plaza Casino betting $200,000 a hand. Before playing, Donald Trump and Kashiwagi made an agreement that Kashiwagi would gamble $12 million until he had either lost it all, or doubled it. The Warrior reportedly wagered at a rate of $14 million per hour with this deal, and at one point was ahead almost $7 million. But in May 1990 Kashiwagi made the record books for the second time, losing close to $10 million in six days. This time while playing in Atlantic City Kashinwagi unfortunately had a "freeze out" agreement that was ultimately aborted over a credit dispute. Media reports on the incident report that Trump triumphed to the tune of $9 million. Kashiwagi holds the record for the largest loss at a baccarat table in casino history.

On January 3, 1992 Akio was killed by being stabbed as many as 150 times in his home at the foot of Mount Fuji. At the time of his death, Akio still had casino debts at least $9 million. With $5 million and $4 million still owing to the Las Vegas Hilton and Trump Plaza respectively^[1]. The Statute of limitations ran out on January 3, 2007.

In the film Casino, the character of K.K. Ichikawa (Nobu Matsuhisa), the Japanese high roller, is based on real-life Akio Kashiwagi.