From the back roads of Kentucky to the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip, Bill Walters, CEO of The Walters Group, has lived a life of contrasts. He’s done it all, from being a used car salesman to being a professional gambler, from a top visionary developer to a leading community philanthropist. He gives the credit for his success to two special women: his grandmother, Miss Lucy Quesenberry, and wife Susan.
"I was raised in Munfordville, Ken-tucky, a small town." recalls Walters. "It was the Mayberry of Kentucky. My dad died when I was a year-and-a-half old. Our family basically broke up. My grandmother on my mother’s side took me in. This was one of the most fortunate things that ever happened to me. She had such an incredible work ethic and I learned so much from her."
Walters always worked long and hard hours and learned how to hustle. At 4, he learned how to shoot pool; at 6, custodial work; 8, cutting grass, 10, his first paper routes; 13, he started work at 4:30 a.m. at the bakery; 17, the paint store; and at 18, he started selling used cars, up to 45 cars a month and continued with his passion to gamble and hustle as the stakes kept growing ever larger; over the next 17 years.
"In the late 1970s, I decided I would focus all my efforts on being a professional gambler," Walters states in all seriousness. "In 1982, I moved to Las Vegas. I hadn’t accumulated any wealth. In fact, I was broke when I moved here." Over the next few years, Walters developed a successful partnership with championship poker player Chip Reese. Walters taught Reese golf, and Reese taught Walters poker. They became a winning team.
Walters also applied his principles of risk to handicapping, and he and his partners became some of the biggest and most successful sports bettors in the world. "I’ve won and lost it all thousands of times," reflects Walters. "A round of golf for a million dollars. Sure. Many times. It’s all relative.
"One day I decided to put the basic business principles I had learned into starting my own company, Berkley Enterprises. We soon began acquiring assets from the RTC and FDIC. That’s how I got into the golf business. I bought a non-performing golf course in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We did some capital improvements, put in a new management team and turned it around. It became very profitable and we later sold it at a profit."
Today, The Walters Group, formerly known as Berkley Enterprises, is a Las Vegas-based holding company for diversified investments and business ventures in the areas of real estate and recreation. The Walters Golf Division has created a local golfers paradise with four stunning golf properties: Bali Hai Golf Club, Royal Links Golf Club, Stallion Mountain Country Club and Desert Pines Golf Club.
Bill and his wife, Susan, believe in giving back to their local community to top organizations such as UNLV, Opportunity Village and the Nevada Cancer Institute. "The good folks at Opportunity Village (who provide jobs for the physically challenged) are the greatest inspiration in the world to me," Walters smiles. "When I take the tour, I get to see young Alonzo, it takes him over two hours just to put his clothes on each day. He’s in a wheelchair, yet every time I get to see him he has a bright smile and says he is having one of his greatest days. It puts everything into perspective."
Bill Walters, the legendary gambler, golf visionary and business tycoon, made the best bet of his career when he truly decided the best one he could ever make was in betting on himself.
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From the back roads of Kentucky to the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip, Bill Walters, CEO of The Walters Group, has lived a life of contrasts. He’s done it all, from being a used car salesman to being a professional gambler, from a top visionary developer to a leading community philanthropist. He gives the credit for his success to two special women: his grandmother, Miss Lucy Quesenberry, and wife Susan. 
"In the late 1970s, I decided I would focus all my efforts on being a professional gambler," Walters states in all seriousness. "In 1982, I moved to Las Vegas. I hadn’t accumulated any wealth. In fact, I was broke when I moved here." Over the next few years, Walters developed a successful partnership with championship poker player Chip Reese. Walters taught Reese golf, and Reese taught Walters poker. They became a winning team.
