Las Vegas gunman was high-stakes gambler

Before he opened fire late Sunday on a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, Stephen Paddock was living out his retirement as a high-stakes gambler in a quiet town outside Las Vegas.

Paddock, 64, would disappear for days at a time, frequenting casinos with his longtime girlfriend, neighbors said.

'My brother is not like you and me. He plays high-stakes video poker,” Eric Paddock said outside his Florida house. 'He sends me a text that says he won $250,000 at the casino.”

Eric Paddock said he showed the FBI three years of text messages from his brother and said he had no information on whether Stephen Paddock may have had gambling debts or was financially troubled.

Eric Paddock said his brother previously worked as an accountant but also had real estate investments, including houses and apartments around Orlando. He said Stephen Paddock had no kids and plenty of money to play with.

The Paddocks' father was once on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. He was a fugitive bank robber and rarely around for either son.

Eric Paddock said he knew his brother owned a couple of handguns but was shocked at the rapid-fire weapon apparently used in the shooting.

He said their mother was bewildered, too, why Stephen Paddock had shot and killed so many.

'We know nothing. If you told me an asteroid fell it would mean the same to me. There's absolutely no sense, no reason he did this,” he said. 'He's just a guy who played video poker and took cruises and ate burritos at Taco Bell.”

Stephen Paddock lived in a number of retirement communities. In addition to a Reno home, he and girlfriend Marilou Danley had another home in Mesquite, Nev., said neighbors, where he most recently lived.

Stephen Paddock moved to Nevada from Melbourne, Fla., and had previously lived in Texas and California, where he had married once and later divorced.