Billionaire Australian businessman James Packer has turned his back on Scientology as the religion faces growing opposition from online campaign group ‘Anonymous’ for its controversial teachings.
Packer’s closest confidants have told Fairfax the media and gaming mogul believes he no longer needs the religion he was introduced to by high profile Scientologist and friend Tom Cruise.
Packer began practicing the religion, becoming its richest member, at one of the lowest points of his life - when he had lost $350 million on the failed One.Tel business, had broken up with wife Jodhi Meares and was overweight.
Packer may have also had trouble reconciling his ballooning casino empire with Scientologist beliefs which frown on gambling.
Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, has denounced gambling in the past.
"An obsessive gambler is a psychotic just like a drug addict or an alcoholic," Hubbard wrote in 1977.
Scientology has been under increasing attack in the last year by an online group called ‘Anonymous’.
The group labelled Scientology as a cult and has carried out hacker-style attacks on its websites as well as physical protests at its churches around the world.
The group accuse Scientology of brainwashing, charging exorbitant fees for its teachings, of having a policy of disconnecting adherents from their families and of harassing opponents of the belief system.
In recent years Scientology’s campaigns against psychiatry and videos of celebrity practitioner Tom Cruise extolling the virtues of the religion have also brought negative press to the religion, especially in the United States.
By co-incidence the leaking of Packer’s disillusionment with the religion coincides with another international day of protest by ‘Anonymous’ today.