Soccer Players That Dealt with Gambling Addictions

Whereas many people might generally list swimming, gardening, or music as their hobbies, to include gambling in your favorite to-do list is no shame. However, you must be ready with a strict financial plan, as well as high discipline levels. Otherwise, you might suffer from addiction.

Unfortunately, everyone is prone to gambling addiction, especially in their failing attempts to regain lost money. The case is similar to professional athletes who, maybe as a result of their result-oriented nature, often engage in gambling with passion and inability to give up. However, the addiction problem hasn’t stopped some sportspeople from making a fortune and taking the vice as a career.

How Bad Can Gambling Addiction Be if Soccer Players
Many soccer players find themselves gambling in their attempt to kill boredom. In this case, injuries and soccer breaks are some of the distractions that the players cite as they seek help out of the gambling addiction problem.

Some sportspeople have ended up losing a summation in a few hours that a good majority might not earn in a lifetime. Several athletes have ended up ruining their careers as a result of gambling addiction.

Addiction might start with a game or two, and nowadays, there is a huge number of American citizens suffering from such a condition. Soccer stars’ stories come under the spotlight because of the huge popularity of sports and the fame of the players. Here is a list of the six soccer players who had dealt with gambling addiction.

Eidur Gudjohnsen
The former Barcelona and Chelsea player was recuperating from a knee injury when he slowly dived into gambling. In 2003, while still a Chelsea player, Eidur admitted that he found gambling as an ideal way of killing time, and it offered relief from boredom.

It was reported that he lost over $500,000 within five months. Similar losses saw him ran into debts accumulating to over $7.7 million. After dealing with this situation, he promised never to step foot in a casino again and tried his best to meet it.

Paul Merson
According to the BBC, despite enjoying a fruitful career during his playing time at Arsenal and as a Sky Sports pundit, Merson got himself into irresponsible gambling. His bad habits, including alcohol, gambling addiction, and drugs, saw him lose close to $9 million.

Besides that, he had to give up a $388,000 house after failure to honor his mortgage payments. In his interview with Good Morning Britain, Merson admitted that he lost a lot of money, but said that money was a non-issue as compared to losing his sanity.

Merson said that he had lost control, and it was simply impossible to get out of the problem. He claimed that gambling addiction is the worst addiction form in the universe.

Michael Chopra
Despite playing for Newcastle United, Sunderland, and Cardiff, Michael admitted on a court that his gambling addiction started as he was 17 years old. He also claimed he would frequently wager close to $38,000 with team players while on a trip to away matches. These notorious gambling habits saw him ran into debts, and he had to sign for Sunderland as the huge transfer fee would clear a portion of the money he owed.

Wayne Rooney
The former Manchester United and England captain was on $388,000 a week salary, according to the Business Insider, when he lost close to $647,000 in just two hours. However, his gambling addiction had started as early as 2005.

Rooney admitted that gambling threatened his career. He also revealed he was relieved his $906,000 losses, between September 2005 and February 2006, that made the headlines.

He claimed that he was doing badly and decided to chase his debts in an attempt to recoup the money he had lost. Fortunately, having seen the huge amounts he had lost in such a short span, Rooney claimed that the newspaper reports helped him change and deal with the addiction.

However, the biggest problem with this case is that irrespectively of the millions you have on the bank account, such a loss rate has the potential to cripple your income and see you lose huge sums. All in all, as technology advancements allow gambling online on moderate amounts, it is easy to learn how to play casino games, such as poker, and such online services can help to sharpen one’s skills and solve the urge to wagering.

Lucian Marinescu, a partner at OnlineCasinoGems, said, “Learning the basics of poker is highly important and rewarding if one wants to succeed in this table game. There are basics of poker you need to know before engaging in the game, but many players think they know if all after a couple of wins. That’s why many people lose money, thinking that poker is only about luck.”

Matthew Etherington
In 2017, Matthew, who had previously played for Stoke City and West Ham, revealed his gambling addiction problems. He claimed that he got into his notorious gambling habit in the wake of personal issues.

The issue saw him ran into a $1.9 million debt, having wagered his $155,000 monthly salary in two weeks. In a report, Matthew claimed to have put gambling ahead of fueling his car. As seen on the Ranker, he spent a fortune on horse and poker betting, an act that peaked during his spell at West Ham.

Conclusion
Despite the huge amounts that soccer players earn, as seen on Forbes, poor gambling habits have the potential to see most of them lose their hard-earned money in days, if not hours. Fortunately, a good number of players who have once suffered from these problems have successfully dealt with their habits.

That’s why any gambling enthusiast needs to understand the extent to which they can enjoy playing and notice when they start becoming addicted to the game. As seen on SoccerGaming, the possibility to discuss your passion and concern with people sharing the same preferences increases the chances of the person dealing with gambling addiction to overcome it quicker and for good.