James Douglas Packer (born 8 September 1967 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian businessman and currently Australia`s seventh richest man.

Packer is the son of the late billionaire media mogul Kerry Packer and grandson of Frank Packer. He inherited the family company, Consolidated Press Holdings Limited, which controls investments in Crown Limited, Consolidated Media Holdings and other companies He is the former Executive Chairman of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), which owned some stations of the Australian commercial television network Nine. His indirect shareholding in Nine through Consolidated Media Holdings is now 0.074 per cent.

Packer was educated at Cranbrook School in Bellevue Hill Sydney. After obtaining the Higher School Certificate (HSC) at Cranbrook, Kerry decided it was time to toughen his son up to prepare him for the world of business. He was sent to his father`s extensive Newcastle Waters cattle station in the Northern Territory, where he worked as a jackeroo. His father dismissed the idea of sending young James to university by saying "Why would he want to go there [to University]. To go learn to smoke marijuana?"

Besides his father, his toughest mentor has been Albert J. Dunlap. Dunlap is known in American business circles for shedding massive numbers of company workforces to improve the finances of corporations; his tenure at Sunbeam is a specific example.

James Packer was a director of Australian Telecommunications company One.Tel, which was declared insolvent during May 2001. The collapse of One.Tel cost PBL AU$327 million. Packer admitted at a PBL Annual General Meeting that he had learned "painful lessons" from the collapse of One.Tel. Later at the liquidator`s inquiry over the collapse he denied that he was apologising for his own personal conduct; instead he claimed, "I was making an apology for accepting the bona fides of Mr. Rich and a Mr. Heaney, and the executive directors of One.Tel."

Since his father`s death, James has moved away from the family`s traditional media businesses, and focused on creating a worldwide gambling empire. The purchase of the Burswood Entertainment Complex in Perth, Australia adds to PBL`s gaming business. James now wishes to add further gaming assets in Macau, in partnership with Lawrence Ho. He is also teaming up with Damian Aspinall, son of John Aspinall, in creating a group of casino complexes in Great Britain called Aspers. He already has a stake in casinos in London`s West End, Swansea, and Newcastle.[citation needed] Unfortunately for Packer, his bid for a UK "supercasino" based in Cardiff fell through when only one licence was granted to the northern city of Manchester.[5] PBL also owns 50% of the online gambling company Betfair. Packer also owns Melbourne`s Crown Casino, Australia`s largest casino. Packer reportedly toyed with the idea of building a competing website to Wikipedia, however when Jimmy Wales was in Sydney in April, he scoffed at the idea.

James Packer was worth AUD$7.25 billion in 2007, however due to poor investment decisions and falling profits, a television report on Thursday 21 June 2007 revealed that Mr Packer has lost in excess of $1 billion over the previous six months. As a result, the 2008 BRW Rich 200 listed Packer as the third richest person in Australia with a personal wealth of AUD$6.1 Billion, behind Fortescue Metals Group chief executive Andrew Forrest and Westfield Group`s Frank Lowy. This