Phil Mickelson $40 million in gambling losses
doubledragon
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This just blows my mind, in a four year span, Phil Mickelson lost $40 million gambling.
Phil Mickelson reportedly had $40 million in gambling losses
Phil Mickelson is notorious for his love of sports betting, and now we have an idea of just how much he loves it.
Alan Shipnuck, who is writing a biography about Mickelson, published an excerpt from the book on The Firepit Collective Thursday.
In the excerpt, Shipnuck says some documents reviewed by the government showed that Mickelson lost $40 million during a four-year span from 2010-2014. Shipnuck also says that money contributed to the notorious split between Mickelson and caddie Bones Mackay. Mickelson apparently owed McKay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay by the time Mackay fired the golfer in 2017.
The case that drew scrutiny came in 2012 when Mickelson was investigated for using a stock tip to profit massively. He reportedly used the money to pay off a $2 million debt to a pro gambler. Mickelson was also reportedly tied to a money laundering scheme.
The gambler, Billy Walters, was found guilty on all counts, fined $10 million, and sentenced to prison time. Mickelson was ordered to pay back money from the trading profits but avoided charges.
Mickelson was said to be making around $40 million per year around 2010-2014. But as Shipnuck points out, once you factor in taxes, an agent, support staff (coaches, caddies, chefs), massive gambling losses could have resulted in someone as rich as Mickelson having money problems.
Mickelson’s big betting losses serve as a reminder of Charles Barkley’s legendary quote: it’s not a problem if you can afford it. Could Lefty afford all his reported losses?
Comments
There is no limit to the amount of money you can lose as a gambler if you got a problem.
The thing about gambling is the higher amount of money you wager the better the “Action” is. Meaning if your used to betting a million dollars on a game a “Fun Bet” of say $5000 won’t mean a thing
Michelson could go broke very easy
I am so thankful I never got the gambling bug. I know many have a blast gambling, but I really think it would make me physically ill to gamble away my hard-earned.
the house always wins.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
It’s fun if you set limits and are very strict with them. It’s when you gamble money you don’t have then it can really screw you
I have been taking a break from posting, however, I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents on this topic, as I'm very well versed here.
First...Gambling can get addictive, being in a casino is mesmerizing, and the opulence is paid for by mostly stupid players and slot machines. You may at some point get offers for free nights, and other things to lure you back into the lion's den. Don't ever think your room is free, your next visit may find you losing enough to pay for any perk they may "give" you. There is a formula used by casinos to assess your level of comps, something like A times B = rating. A being average bet, B being hours you maintained that average. Not so much for slot players, your players card in the slot will record you "coin in" amount. Those little old ladies sitting there hour after hour after hour, probably pile up lots of little "freebies", casinos love them. Dangling a "free room" is tantalizing.
Second...Choose a game to play wherein you know it COLD, the best options are blackjack and craps. Basic research will show you the odds you are up against when playing. There are people I know that play blackjack for a living, I don't fall into this bracket, nor would I ever. Trying to live off of casino winnings would quickly become incredibly boring and lose its luster in short order.
Third...KNOW WHEN TO WALK!! Don't chase losses, IOW set a win/loss limit. I play blackjack at Harrah's Cherokee casino in Cherokee NC, its not the best game rule-wise, but its the only game near me. I go to socialize with a buddy, spend a few hours and drive home, its a 6 hour round trip for me, so I don't do it very often. Thankfully its a fairly scenic drive. I generally take $1,500, if I lose it, I'm gone, if I double it, I'm gone. I always play on a $25 minimum bet table, sometimes on a $50 table.
You kinda develop a stomach for it. I almost never play on a $5 table, too much silliness and poor players, I have seen some amazing stupidity!! There is no hot or cold table, no brain inside those cards. If you choose blackjack and have the willpower to spend the time and effort to learn card counting, that will reduce the house odds against you. I play basic strategy, almost like a robot, whatever the dealer has versus my hand, I just know what my move is...ALWAYS I was once RFB at the Mirage hotel in Vegas. That means I played at a level where my Room, Food and Beverages were comped. Admittedly nice perks, but I was still pushing serious money onto the table, wins were great, losses not so much...don't get to that level. I might suggest you take $3-500 to play on a $5 table if you can handle that. Understand clearly, that if losing that would impact your life even a tiny, tiny bit, or your wife will have you hung, stay away!!!
Fourth...DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME ON SLOT MACHINES. These monsters are the cash cows of casinos. I do admit to playing with my wife on a $1 triple diamond machine just to spend time together on occasion. Attached pics will show you a jackpot on a slot machine and some cash winnings I've made along the way.
Fifth...If you can, and have the desire, go with a buddy who plays the game you've chosen. You will then get a "feeling" for the protocol of playing with total strangers, what to do and what not to do. There is a distinct difference from playing a pitch game where the dealer hand deals cards, and a shoe game where the cards a dealt from a box like device, often holding 6 decks of cards. Slightly different rules apply to these games...not hard to learn, buy you GOTTA know what you're doing.
Do not be intimidated by other players...trust me, you will see and hear things over time that will amaze and challenge your patience. Some people have more money than you could possibly fathom as they bet an inch high stack of purple chips ($500 each), like it was nothing. I watched Michael Jordan do this at the Mirage...amazing! You just have to be a good observer and have patience with some of the lunacy and dumb plays others will make over and over and over.
Go to the gift shop and buy a basic strategy card...LEARN IT COLD,,,LIKE ROCK SOLID These are the rules I play by and can literally "see" that card in my mind. I'll attach a pic.
GL if you take the plunge, it really is fun and enjoyable. Limit your money, play smart!!
Gambling??.... I thought about it, laughed about it, then forgot about it!!
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
@MCMLVTopps I can second everything that was said. What a great post to explain the whole scene to novices and even those with quite a bit of exposure.
I was a 7Star player with Harrah's/Caesar's from 2008-2013, and a diamond player for years on both sides of that. Blackjack is also my game. Once the 2008 crash hit, along with the enormous debt Harrah's had taken on to both build that observation wheel on Vegas and acquire Caesar's, the excessively generous perks for the top players quickly began to dwindle to the point that I don't even bother trying to maintain any kind of player status. Just stack my chips and take the cash, now.
Perhaps if the Diamond/Laurel lounges were open at all properties, I'd be more enthusiastic. Now that El Dorado bought Caesar's, I've been told that they don't intend to ever reopen the VIP lounges here in KC. Once you've been spoiled with what they gave before, the little freebies now don't amount to diddley.
@MCMLVTopps great post Al
You know, I've never been to a casino in my entire life, never stepped foot inside of one. I get my fix on ebay, the card hobby is my addiction, I love it, the feeling I get when I find a rare card is overwhelming. My wife is always wondering about the mysterious packages constantly arriving at our door, I hide the cards from her, I don't want her to know how much I spend on cards every month, these little cardboard pieces of paper with pictures on them. I'll never reveal the truth to her about my secret card hobby addiction, never!
This guy looks like a gambler if I ever saw one!! 😂 🤣
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
casinos are one thing sports gambling is for idiots.
The proliferation of sports betting ads is what drove me away from sports talk radio. Tell me about the games please and shut the ###K up about over unders, point spreads , fantasy points fantasy players, betting apps , .
its nauseating to list to some fat slobs discussing and taking calls from losers about their fantasy team on Sunday.
OK sports betting ads are only half of it , the neverending testosterone replacement ads trying to market magic manly man potions are irritating too.
Its depressing when you all of a sudden realize you are almost in the age bracket they are going to market depends adult diapers at you.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂👍🏼👍🏼
I got a casino literally 5 minutes from my house, slots, tables and sports betting
Yes, I can confirm this, Mustache Jones is a gambling man!
....
I am an admitted sports radio junky. I am fully aware of the reasons to not listen to it. And I know people who fall for the trap of letting their opinions about their teams rise and fall like a rollercoaster based on whatever show they just listened to.
Problem probably started hustling for $5 a hole at the local clubs.
He has been chasing for his entire career.... losses are worse than 40 mill. in his lifetime.
Have to wonder how his wife feels about the gambling. During the next major later this month be interesting to see if this news and the Arab golf league dust up will be brought up by the TV broadcast teams. They do seem to shy away from mentioning image damaging news.
In these types of situations, whether we are talking about him, Jordan, or others, the gambler (and others) will often justify the gambling by saying that it is in their nature to be aggressively competitive, and that their nature has produced all of these riches as byproducts. But underneath it, it is just an addiction. An itch that is being scratched.
Some rare people might have both the economic means and the natural personality/temperament to keep their degenerate gambling from spilling over into who they are as a husband, father, etc. It's complicated.
Interesting analysis, especially the "it's complicated" part. Hiding anything from your wife is just asking for some serious blowback, at some point you'll will get introduced to her attorney and undoubtedly get deposed and then you're off to the races of hell on earth. In my case, my wife is cool with what I do and how I do it...life is soooo much easier that way.
I have a buddy, the one I go hang with now and then in Harrah's Cherokee. Well, between he and his wife, they're pushing over $500k per year in income. The thing with him is enough is never enough, he plays with another guy or two, me not being one of them, and they exchange signals while playing a certain couple of games. Yup, I'd call it cheating. So, one day it all caught up with him. They were up $14k but, oh no, let's get more! Stupid as a bag of rocks. They end the night up another few $k and are smug with their winnings. The night is late and he goes to his room...room key doesn't work. Not being too smart, he used the house phone at the elevator area and calls the desk. Yes sir, we'll be right up to help you. In about 5 minutes, 3 suits show up and tell him he has 10 minutes to pack and vacate the casino. They take him downstairs, and perp walk him out the front door...big show for all to see. He gets a trespass warning and is threatened with arrest if he ever shows up again, he has been 86'd. So much for being an Advantage Player.
Try as I might in the past to tell him to play smarter, he just doesn't get it. No doubt he's in the Griffin book (casinos who's who book of persona non grata), and is banned at certain properties nation wide. Told him not to stay where he was gonna play, don't park the rental with the valet or in the parking lot, don't kill the game. Told him to think of it like a farm, take a silo and a few cows now and then...au contraire, he wants everything, including the farmer's wife. This is a classic example of letting gambling to excess get to you and how you can think you know more than they do...WRONG.
When I play, I gladly hand over my player's card, I'm always polite to the suits and dealers, I'm NOT a good tipper though, just occasionally and I don't tip when I'm losing. When the suits come by, I kinda chat them up a bit, but never ignore them.
Gambling will always be thought of by many as some degenerate thing to do. Well, in many cases that's true, but I personally find playing blackjack and enjoyable passtime, I know what I'm doing, I don't play stupid and I'm happy to win $1k or more, I'm not greedy, I always want to be welcomed back. But, you can bet your house that I'm not there to loose, I'm well focused on getting as many chips out of their chip tray and into my stack in front of me, but I do it with respect.
As stated, gambling to me is an occasional passtime with built in limits of wins and loss levels. I never get emotional, but am of course happy to win. If you can't afford to live without what you put on the green baize, best stay with golf, which I do not play.
Thank you for your reply. I also found it interesting. And please, let me make something clear. I do not consider gambling to be a "degenerate thing to do". When I referenced their "degenerate gambling" I was saying that they are gambling in a degenerate manner. I'm serious when I say that I want you to understand what I am saying and to not take offense to what I wrote.
I do not gamble. But I do participate in gambling conversations here. And I am very into sports, and keep with odds, etc because it all ties together. I had a father with a gambling addiction. He was a good man, not rich, and it hurt his family. He died when I was five, but I know the stories of him, good and bad. When my Mother was about 55, she remarried. My stepdad likes to gamble. He only plays slots. Low money. And just does it when they go on vacation for fun. He's a baseball lifer, loves sports, mostly but doesn't vet on them at all. I understand there are two sides to the story and lots of in between.
I'm serious when I say that I want you to understand what I am saying and to not take offense to what I wrote.
I do not gamble. But I do participate in gambling conversations here. And I am very into sports, and keep with odds, etc because it all ties together. I had a father with a gambling addiction. He was a good man, not rich, and it hurt his family. He died when I was five, but I know the stories of him, good and bad. When my Mother was about 55, she remarried. My stepdad likes to gamble. He only plays slots. Low money. And just does it when they go on vacation for fun. He's a baseball lifer, loves sports, mostly but doesn't vet on them at all. I understand there are two sides to the story and lots of in between.
I assure you, I would never take offense to anything you might write, never give that a second thought.
It saddened me to read about your dad. Here is a classic case of serious addiction and it hurt your family by spending money that was obviously needed elsewhere. As for your stepdad, well, he plays for fun, and that's fine. I play for fun too, but I have some seriousness to it as well, I play to win as stated way above. Slots are slots, they're just not for me for any length of time.
Perhaps the key to all this is being able to control emotions. It's pretty easy to get "indoctrinated" into thinking one more pull might do it, or, as I've heard and overheard a zillion times, this machine is hot. Most slot players have not a remote clue about random number generators, permutations or anything else. I have a neighbor who'll drive hundreds of miles to a casino to play penny slots, he thinks getting a free room is a big deal and thus he's been hooked. He never wins much at all, but keeps watching all those crazy things spin round and round for hours on end. I just can't do that.
And yes, I've seen the desperation on strangers faces when they tap out and walk away looking like their dog just died. I've seen people make plays and win, when they really should have lost making crazy plays. I've seen the happy, happy, the really pissed off, the clueless, the card throwers and card rippers. I just stay in my little bubble and play to the best of my ability and above all, I KNOW when to reach for my car fob and head home. Never, never, never take money you can't afford to lose!!
I'm curious. No one mentioned Texas holdem ( I think that's what it's called). Seems to be very popular social game.
Wsop. Phil Ivey, helmuth, Doyle Brunson
Texas Holdem is the most popular, if not thee poker game now played in most casinos and home games.
The basic gist of it is each player gets 2 cards, then a "flop" comes which consists of 3 cards that are common to all players. Now we have one more card, called "the turn", again a common card, then the last card called "the river" also a common card. Best 5 card hand wins the pot unless you tie someone else. There is much more to the game, but you get the general idea. Google the game for specifics. Lots of bluffing in this game.
If you play Texas Hold 'Em in a casino environment, you learn pretty quickly whether you're truly any good or not. You may think pretty highly of yourself because you watch the poker shows and read the books, and perhaps you almost always win the basement games, and even an online tournament or 2. You'll never really know until you test you're skills in live action, against people you've most likely never met before, with real amounts of money on the line. So much more goes into it than just the math.
Like Kenny Rogers says, "Every hand's a winner, and every hand's a loser..." To a certain extent, the cards really don't matter at all. It's the interplay with the amounts of the bets, and when those bets occur. You can win hands with complete trash, and totally mess up hands where you're the overwhelming favorite at every point until you nervously fold.
I readily admit that I learned long ago that I'm not a good enough player to play poker in the casinos. I probably haven't sat down at a table there in close to 20 years. I stick with the basement games, if I play at all anymore.
In the casinos, I play blackjack only, with rare occasions where I visit the craps table. The OP was spot on. That's where your best chance lies to leave with money.
Texas Hold Em is a great game but like any other card game you need Cards & Luck to go along with skill.
That is a FACT, trust me I’ve played a lot of Hold Em.
A very rare moment in Texas Holdem for me. I coudln't believe it when the queen came on the river!!! I think I may have posted this some time ago, but worth another peek. For those who follow the game, or play regularly, it was quite a rush. Last Tuesday night's game had a guy flop four 10s!!
Yep I remember you showing that hand!
My girlfriend bought me a professional poker table back in 2017 and the very first hand played I had the same Straight Flush.
I had about 10 guys over and literally the first hand deal to me was a Straight Flush in Diamonds
I remeber you posted that Paul...crazy feeling for sure!!!
In my case two other guys were in the hand, both had two pair, but I didn't know it of course. Instead of keeping my cool, I went all in and won of course, but could have won more for sure.