Soccer Players In Casinos – From Amateur Players To Gambling Addicts

Professional soccer players have the fame and high salary to spend money and time in casinos. When money is not the issue, it’s great to release stress with a fun game. For some players, it’s a hobby and a way to have fun, but for others, it has become an addiction. We have collected some of the most famous players who enjoy gambling games. Check out our article about soccer players in casinos!

The Best Player Enjoys Poker Parties!

Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the biggest names in the football world and one of the soccer players at casinos. He has the biggest fanbase on Instagram, which currently means more than 477 million people. An incredible number! His lesser-known passion is poker. Ronaldo is often called the best in the world at soccer based on his skills, but after being seen playing poker at an event, he also gained international recognition for his poker skills. Over the years, Ronaldo has endorsed many different brands. A few years ago, he participated in a famous campaign with a poker association, one of the best online poker rooms in the world. It was a truly unique project, as people still talk about it to this day. Back in 2015, the company decided to work with numerous professional athletes and celebrities to raise awareness. It organized charity tournaments and one-on-one matches with its ambassadors around the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kKVkfbdEWw An essential factor in the success of the campaign was that all the celebrities were good poker players, which made it all the more exciting. At that time, Cristiano Ronaldo had already played at online poker sites for years and had developed his winning strategy. There is no doubt that both poker and football require a high level of concentration and special skills. Another similarity is that both games are based on strategy and rules, leaving little to chance. As for poker, Ronaldo started playing with his friends at home in his 20s, just like most of us do. According to 32Red Casino, in an official statement, he claims how much he enjoys playing the card game because of the competition, the strategy, and, of course, the fun.

Soccer Players in Casinos

Neymar stated several times that poker is a great game and that he wants to learn all its tricks. After learning the rules and how to read the telltale signs, the turn of the cards, or the faces of the opponents, he couldn't wait to finally sit down at a table. We don't know when Neymar's passion for the card game started, but this passion must run deep, as he named his dog Poker. Not many people know that fans could follow his poker games on one of his social media accounts as a live stream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Fcad7IvmI After having a little experience, he tried his hand at the tables of the more famous casinos. In 2015, he participated in a $25,000 tournament where he played with his friend Gerard Piqué. He also participated in several charity games to have fun and for the love of the game. Then, not long after, he sat at the table of the WSOP at the Rio in Las Vegas. Neymar Junior was a member of a poker team between 2015 and 2017, but it did not go well. In his first game, he finished 474th out of 5,008 entrants and won a total of $559. Well, there is a difference between luck and knowledge. During his time on the team, Neymar had the opportunity to play with many celebrities as well as the best poker players. Neymar participated in the same campaign as Ronaldo and also in WSOP tournaments.

Michael Chopra and Gambling

Although Michael Chopra is only 38 years old, he retired from professional football almost six years ago. His last team was the Kerala Blasters, and you can imagine it is not the greatest desire of a football player to kick the ball in India. He was a big talent but could not achieve his full potential. He played in the English first division for Newcastle and Sunderland, but when they did not need him anymore, he played in the English second division, Scotland, and finally India. By his own account, he gambled away around two million pounds during his career.

 He admitted to joining Sunderland to pay off his gambling debts. He was so keen on bets that he didn't even leave his own teammates alone. On the way to the matches, he bet huge sums on small things. The Michael Jordan gambling stories are similar to Chopra’s. He also got into trouble with the English horse racing authorities, who noticed his strange and suspicious betting habits. You can guess what that means. He eventually ended up at the Sporting Chance clinic, which the former Arsenal legend Tony Adams set up to help athletes recover from addiction. 

Soccer Players in Casinos - Eidur Gudjohnsen

Eidur Smari Gudjohnsen is from Iceland. Gudjohnsen had a pretty good career, he played for Chelsea and Barcelona, ​​and then smaller teams followed. He once even played in the Icelandic national team instead of his own father, and his sons also became professional football players. His weakness was roulette and blackjack. Once, losing half a million pounds in the space of three months. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMk3-ITkzNM He got sucked further and further into gambling. For example, according to online casino sites in the UK, when he was recovering from a knee injury, he spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in Vegas. He no longer devotes himself to his passion, he was a football coach, worked for the U21 national team, and nowadays, he helps the captain of the Icelandic senior team, Arnar Vidarson, in his work.

Matthew Etherington’s Gambling Addiction

Matthew Etherington also became famous in the English first-class league. He started at Tottenham, continued at West Ham, and finally retired from Stoke. He was a great winger but didn't make it to the national team. Etherington also spent a lot of time at the Sporting Chance clinic. His passion was poker and horse racing, but even as a professional football player, he still had debts.  He once owed 800,000 pounds, but his current club helped him, lending 300,000 pounds to the player to get out of the mess as soon as possible. However, his gambling addiction cost him his marriage. After his retirement in 2014, he obtained a coaching qualification and currently manages the youth team of Peterborough in the English third division.

Soccer Players in Casinos - Wayne Rooney

The current Derby County manager has had many conflicts on the soccer field, and this vehemence has also been present in his private life. He quarreled with his wife several times because of the gambling games. For example, once, he lost half a million pounds in a single night in a Manchester casino because he was bored. There was no need to tell his wife because the next day, Mrs. Rooney could see what her husband had done on the front page of the newspapers.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG_2OPPJm34 She actively protested against his husband’s contract in China because she was afraid of him spending all their money in the casinos there. Even the Anglican Church expressed their displeasure over his sponsor, 32Red Casino because it sent the wrong message to his fans. A group of experts dealing with gambling addictions also criticized this and asked the British government to ban sponsorship by bookmakers and online casinos. So soccer players in casinos can cause quite a bit of disturbance.

Jack Grealish and Gambling

Jack Grealish has quickly become a soccer player who is famous for living like a celebrity. He was spotted playing some of Las Vegas’ top casinos during their pre-season break with his friends. Of course, for the likes of Grealish, it’s all about social gatherings and fun. There are videos and pictures about him partying in Vegas at 32Red Casino, so he has to be careful wherever he goes. Considering the constant media attention, the simplicity of online casinos would probably be better for the soccer star. 

Kyle Lafferty and Illegal Sports Betting

Kyle Lafferty was also a pretty good striker. He played in Rangers, where most people know him from, in Burnley, and other small teams. He's still only 35 at the moment, but he switches teams like he switches his clothes. He is currently playing for Kilmarnock, a Scottish first-class team, quite well, scoring three times in four games. We don't know if he's managed to stop since then, but he was a sports bettor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FkZb7-op2E Professional soccer players aren't allowed to do that. Lafferty couldn’t care less, but the FA, the English Football Association, did and fined him £23,000. Who knows how far he could have gone if he had not been involved in sports betting to such a degree?

Soccer Players in Casinos - David Bentley

The now 38-year-old Bentley may be familiar from playing in the Blackburn and Tottenham teams. He started at Arsenal's academy, and according to online casino sites in the UK, it was there where he got into sports betting and gambling in general. However, sports betting did not interest him as much as online poker, horse, and greyhound racing. According to him, a perfectly average day looked like he bet from morning to night he had the time. Before and after training, before and after games, in his every spare minute. Bentley said it was normal for him to place a hundred bets a day. This is way too much. However, since then, no news has come of his gambling problems, and what is more, David Bentley has become a successful entrepreneur with companies all over Europe.

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