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Rest In Peace, Alan (xtcxtc)

Horse Racing Guru Alan Woods Dies
January 28, 2008

The world's most successful horse-racing gambler, Australian Alan Woods, died in Hong Kong on Saturday night.

Woods, 62, recently diagnosed with appendiceal cancer, is believed to have suffered a pulmonary embolism. He had begun chemotherapy treatment two weeks ago and passed away in the intensive care unit of the Sanitorium Hospital at Happy Valley in the presence of family and friends.

Born in 1945 in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, Woods showed an early aptitude for mathematics at school but was a losing punter in his earliest days at university and gambling played little part in his life until his 30s.

Working as an actuary in the late 1970s, Woods learned to count cards at blackjack and became a serious gambler for the first time in his life, travelling the world for three years as a professional card counter and undertaking all kinds of disguises and subterfuge to avoid identification by the world's casinos.

But his earnings at blackjack were tiny compared with his subsequent career in racing. Woods turned to horseracing in New Zealand in 1982 then shifted his life and focus to Hong Kong, and its big pools, in 1984.

A founding partner in the earliest computer betting team in Hong Kong, which split after a dispute between the partners in the early 1990s, Woods established his own hugely successful betting operation, with employees based around the world and had built a fortune estimated at more than US$600 million before his death.

Even as Woods grew to the point of dominating the Hong Kong betting scene in recent years, even over and above other successful computer teams, he also enjoyed his wealth and was famed in Hong Kong racing circles for his bacchanalian parties and celebrations.

Once a regular in Wan Chai's bars and nightclubs, Woods had become more reclusive and relocated to Manila several years ago, but his operation continued to annually lay out between one and two per cent of Hong Kong's entire racing turnover (which totalled US$64 billion in the last completed season).

He is survived by two ex-wives, two sons and a daughter.

"My father achieved great success at something so many people dream of doing well and fail to achieve but, along the way, he also provided jobs and support for so many friends - he kept them close to him and brought so many people together," said his daughter, Victoria, yesterday.

http://www.eog.com/news/full-article.aspx?id=34662
 
Thank You Alan for giving us a Safe Haven and probly saving unknown lives in the process. I am fairly new to BL was Alan a user or just a great person you could talk to? (No offense meant) I don't want that to come across as that Users are not great people which they are, I just didn't know if he was a type of counselor or something.

@--'--- May Angels be by your side Alan

Blessed Be,
Roxxie
 
^^^ This is just too weird for me.

Just this week we were discussing xtcxtc in the Lounge thread 'Who owns Bluelight?', and I expressed concern over how the site would continue once he passed away. I had no idea that when I posted that, he just had. I definitely believe in either ESP or synchronicity now.

Edit: for chicpoena
 
Thank you Alan.

Our online communications were brief, but you always had something interesting to say.

You did so much for Bluelight. Some of us remember what this place was like before you started funding it. We were always looking for money. The admins of the time took donations, ran fundraising projects, and so on. The site, let's be blunt, sucked - no gallery, threads were limited to 100 posts to ease the load on the poor overworked server, and we encouraged people not to use the search engine, it slowed everything down too much. Thanks to Alan, we got past that stage to become what you see now.

I'd say rest easy, but I don't think that's your style. I hope you're enjoying the company of some real angels now <3
 
RoxieQueen said:
Thank You Alan for giving us a Safe Haven and probly saving unknown lives in the process. I am fairly new to BL was Alan a user or just a great person you could talk to?

Alan Woods = xtcxtc

He always wanted to be treated like any other user. That's why you wouldn't have known him from anyone else.

When I was a moderator I worked with him on few topics, and we talked on occasion. I can't say we we're close, but I will say that I like him. Alan had a bent of crazy that I love. He was the kind of guy that I hang out with, and think it's dangerous to do so.

At times he was a challenge to the staff. He spoke with the voice of the people, but at the same time held the power of the funding. It was an odd paradox, but it worked. Alan wanted the best for the site. He paid for it with one hand, and fought for its freedom with the other. I don't know how he treated other staff members, but he never pulled his trump cards on me. He respected me, and what I was trying to do. At anytime I think he could have booted me from my moderator spot, but he didn't even when we disagreed.

Sometimes he got all loaded and surly, and it was hard to understand what he was even getting at. Then other times he’d say things that had insight beyond the smartest people I know. I haven’t talked to Alan for over two years, and it breaks my heart to think that I won’t talk to him again. I only saw a small portion of who Alan was, but it’s a small portion that I will miss.
 
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Jeez what an amazing guy. I thank him for all he has given us. I also wish I could assure him that bluelight will continue to fufill its mission statement even after he is gone, and hopefully after I am gone. How did he die?
 
I didn't begin any correspondence with Alan until a few years ago... and most of it was bitching, asking that he use some of his assumed authority to help make some changes around here.

He always maintained a very definitely clear separation between his patronage and his participation. He paid the bills, but he left the politics up to the people.

The word has lost a great man. A true visionary.

I can only hope that they find a worthwhile actor to portray him in the movie they are sure to make out of the life he led.

Even if those of us known as Bluelighters know of his legend, his memory will live on.
 
chicpoena said:
Yesterday was the first day I stumbled upon his gallery. Then I happened to stumble upon a thread about him in the lounge. This is completely unreal since I had JUST discovered him. Since I spend a lot of my time on BL I thought about him a lot today since I had always wondered who paid for BL. This is insane actually, and is deeply disturbing. Rest in peace :(

That's really weird. Pretty much the exact same thing happened to me. R.I.P.
 
Whether he was a great man or not is a question that I cannot answer. What I do know is that his patronage has probably saved the lives of many people here on Bluelight and I'm sure has helped more than one friendship and perhaps even relationship to bloom.

Whoever he was, he did a great thing, and for that my hat is off to him.
 
What a fucking champion this lad was. There is no amount of gratitude in this world that could possibly thank him enough for the wonderful thing that is BL.
 
Well if Alan was the man who made this site possible, then he was the guy who saved a very close friend's life.

A few years back I read about some PMA pills that were floating about. One night I headed over to a friend's to start the night out, saw his personal stash for the night, recognised the pills and told him about them. We decided it was best to flush them. There were enough there to surely kill him (and he would have got through the lot) so there's no doubt in my mind Bluelight saved him.

And I have no doubt he's not the only person Alan saved over the years.

Much respect sir. RIP Alan.
 
Not to say everyone isn't an interesting individual, but, WOW.

I had a feeling there were some truly incredible people floating around these forums, Mr. Alan Woods and his generous contributions to bluelight surely prove it.

I wonder who else has graced us with their presence?

R.I.P
 
I can't believe every time I am turning on BL now I am greeted with death. First Wesmdow, then Inonzi Prowler, now xtcxtc.

A phlanthropist is a philanthropist, but surely there are not that many who give their money to drug causes. To me, that alone makes Alan Woods special. He has used his wealth to set up what has become the primary harm reduction site on the net.

What a fine, upstanding member of the world community.

Alan Woods I salute you.

Today I will have a spliff, a bet and a shag in your honour. I feel it is probably what you would have wanted.

Rest in peacefulness.

SHM.
 
What a generous, amazing person he is for giving us all the gift of BL.

R.I.P. xtcxtc
 
RIP :(

Over the past 8 years Bluelight has made such an enormous contribution to my life and has helped shape me into the person that I am today, especially the past 4 years when I actually started to post instead of just lurk.

I know I can speak for many by saying that without Bluelight and Alan's generosity to the site that we all love I don't know where or who I would be today, though I'm positive my life is better because of all the information I've learned and the people I've met from the board.

You've touched so many people's lives. Thanks for everything, Alan. <3
 
like lefty mentioned, this was one bl'er i was sincerely interested in meeting at next years meetup. i recall the first time i heard about alan, and it seemed too fantastic to be true. after reading a few posts of his and a few articles, i was shocked at such an interesting character being our benefactor. on a light note, i remember thinking before that revelation that xtcxtc was a young asian chick, and often wondered why she liked posting her sexual escapades pics so often! he will certainly be missed, he obviously led a full and interesting life, and i thank him deeply for his contributions here, and hope he went painlessly, and is resting in euphoric peace <3
 
RIP Alan.

Thank you for your years of support. I always admired someone who could see through systems and make them work for them.

You will be missed, but you contribution will live on and the amount of lives you have changed by your simple acts of generosity will be too infinite to ever fully comprehend.
 
MyDoorsAreOpen said:
^^^ This is just too weird for me.

Just this week we were discussing xtcxtc in the Lounge thread 'Who owns Bluelight?', and I expressed concern over how the site would continue once he passed away. I had no idea that when I posted that, he just had. I definitely believe in either ESP or synchronicity now.

Edit: for chicpoena

Yeah, I remember reading the topic. Agreed on the synchronicity bit. 8o

RIP, Alan. :| Without you, none of this beautiful website we have today might have been possible.
 
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