“Paddock was clearly laundering money over long period of time.”
That is not clear to me.
He was a professional gambler. He was not a card player type, but a machine type.
There is no path to a positive payoff of gambling machines, unless you work for the house.
$100 in = $60-80 back (but clean) at best with machines.
His real estate investments were financed by this cash flow. Wherever it came from.