He was educated at the Tudor House School in Moss Vale and the Cranbrook School 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 massive 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 [to University]. To go learn to smoke marijuana?" [citation needed]

In October 1999, he married swimsuit model Jodie Meares (who has since changed her first name to Jodhi), but in June 2002 they separated. He is currently seeing Australian model Erica Baxter [1]. Past girlfriends have included Tania Bryer, Kate Fischer and Joan Severance.

The purchase of the Burswood Casino in Perth Australia adds to PBL's gaming business. James now wishes to add further gaming assets in Macau in partnership with Stanley Ho. He's also teaming up with Damian Aspinall, son of John Aspinall, in creating a group of casino complexes in Great Britain called Aspers.

One.Tel collapse

Main article: One.Tel

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 the executive directors of One.Tel."

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.

Packer and Scientology

In 2002 Packer began courting the Church of Scientology, taking courses on the Church's Dundas campus. It was reported in the Australian media that Tom Cruise had urged Packer to join Scientology and begin auditing sessions. The Sydney Morning Herald said "the bond between the two men strengthened in the wake of the collapse of telephony company One.Tel last year and his separation from wife Jodhi in June". During this time Packer traveled extensively to the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles.

It has been reported by the Australian Daily Telegraph that Packer was an extra in Cruise's film The Last Samurai.

Death of his father

James Packer's father famously once said 'I've been on the other side - and there's no fucking thing over there'. However, on the death of James' father, James said 'I hope there is something out there, because just the way before, and after he died; and just the atmosphere of the room totally changed'.