Len Ainsworth, 81, has a complicated relationship with fate. He has earned his wealth from games that tempt it and was once told that his own was sealed, after his doctor misread some test results and said he had terminal cancer. Last month Ainsworth, chairman of Sydney-based Ainsworth Game Technology, took his chances with the Australian stock market, announcing that he was considering a deal with a Russian venture partner, Boris Belotserkovsky.

Ainsworth insists that the proposed merger of AGT with Belotserkovsky's Unicum Group -- a deal analysts value at about A$300 million ($240 million) -- is not part of a retirement scheme and might not even be his last big play. "Sooner or later Father Time will catch up with me," he says. "But I'm happy with what I'm doing, and I see tremendous potential."

Ainsworth owns 70 percent of AGT, which is worth more than A$165 million. A merger with privately held Unicum will give both companies greater access to capital they will need to pursue new opportunities in Russia and Asia. "Macau will be bigger than Vegas," predicts Ainsworth. He also foresees booming business in China, India, Singapore and Thailand -- countries that are moving to establish their first casinos.

AGT is Ainsworth's second successful business venture. He gave up his first, Aristocrat Leisure Industries, in 1994 after he was mistakenly diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer and told he had less than a year to live. The diagnosis "frightened the hell out of me," he recalls. "By the time they told me they were wrong, I'd already given the business away." He handed over control of the $A5 billion company, which he had started in 1952 and turned into the world's second-biggest slot machine manufacturer, to his seven sons.

In 1995, Ainsworth went back to business, launching AGT. "I had a few ideas I wanted to pursue," he explains. But fate would take one more twist: Within a year of making the bad call, Ainsworth's doctor himself would die of prostate cancer.