Gambling and sports have always been intertwined from the very beginning of time, so it’s not much of a surprise to see some of the biggest sports stars trying out their luck in various casinos. For a multi-billion dollar industry, it would always attract the very best, and this is one of the biggest reasons why gambling is so common among sportsmen. Another reason is that these famous Sportsmen earn millions, and they are just looking for means to spend some of that bucks. Casinos provide that glamorous opportunity to stay competitive while also looking at earning something. In addition, the competition for the online casino market is driving casino gaming sites to offer attractive bonuses to customers; IGT free slots would allow players to try out that gambling experience for free. So here we would be looking at some of the biggest sportsmen that frequently visit casino locations across the globe.
Floyd Mayweather Jnr.
Las Vegas is the world’s gambling capital, and if you are looking for the undisputed “King” of Vegas among athletes, you don’t need to look any further. Floyd’s gambling habits are far well known as he is a regular face among various casinos in Vegas. The self-acclaimed “Money bag” is not afraid to show this side of him as he regularly posts big wins on his social media channels over the years. In one event in 2012, he posted a wagering of $1.1 million on a college football game where he gave Oregon – 7.5 over Arizona State. The Oregon team won the game 43-21, which was more than enough to cover the handicap. Floyd later confirmed that his winnings from this single game were well over $1 million. Aside from stakings in football games, Floyd has been accused a few times of trying to bet on his boxing matches, some sources reporting that he placed about $400,000 on himself to beat McGregor in 2017, which he denied. He is a very popular face in casino games and lives to gamble across diverse events.
Cristiano Ronaldo
The footballing “GOAT” is a huge lover of poker games, also regularly running promotional ads for some casino businesses. He’s also one of the biggest members of PokerStars as an official sports team and has appeared in loads of live-streamed poker rooms that have been watched by millions all over the world. He has also been involved in a lot of charities organised by casino firms, with one game against the Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul generating a massive following. Ronaldo started playing poker while he was at Manchester United after being introduced to the game by a teammate and has since gone up to gain mastery of the game. The five-time Balon D’Or winner described his love for poker by saying:
“Although football is my world, poker has always been my game.”
Rafael Nadal
You don’t need to follow Lawn Tennis to know who Rafael Nadal is. He’s a twenty-time grand slam winner and widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players ever. The “King of Clay” is a fierce competitor on the tennis court, but that’s not the only place where he’s competitive. Nadal has been playing poker since his early days in Spain. Although he has largely kept this side of him a secret, he did confirm that he was a huge poker player in 2013 after he won 100,000 euros in a poker charity match. He said:
“Like tennis, poker is a competition; you need to control your emotions, you need to be focussed all the time. You need to have self-control, you have to wait for your moment.” Like Ronaldo, he’s also an ambassador for PokerStars and sometimes features in streamed poker games.
Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods is often regarded as the greatest golfer of all time, and this is for a reason. He’s tied for first for PGA tour wins and also second for most major championships won. Woods has been visiting casinos even before it was legal for him to do so. In 1996, while he was still 20, he was caught playing blackjack on a casino riverboat in Iowa. Since then, Woods has been a very popular face in casino houses, even going as far as hosting an annual casino game called Tiger Jam which has gone on for more than two decades. However, Woods’s gambling habits have left many to question if he’s actually addicted to betting on blackjack, especially the controversy surrounding him. One thing is for sure, Woods loves his casino games, and he will keep playing.
Michael Jordan
Jordan is a 6-time NBA champion and is often regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time. As with most names on this list, Jordan fell in love a long time ago and has been regularly staking huge bets because he can simply afford it. Though as with Woods, this has come with a lot of controversial situations. He even admitted at one point that he actually had a gambling problem. During the 1992 Olympics, Jordan was caught playing rock, paper, scissors with about $100,000 before games. There was also another incident the following year, where the Chicago Bulls basketballer spent the night before a game against New York Knicks in a casino at Atlantic City. The aftermath of this was so bad that it had been widely speculated that this was the reason Jordan first retired in 1993, as he was supposedly suspended for 18 months and had to retire to save face. Jordan has some particular huge losses from as it was widely reported at one time that he lost about $5 million playing craps in just one night at Las Vegas.
Conclusion
The names on this list are huge sportsmen in their various fields, and this comes with some perks of making them super-rich. Most of them just gamble because it’s fun and they can afford it; for some, they are so passionate about it to the point of struggling with gambling addiction. For Ronaldo and Nadal, they prefer to stick with Poker, while others like Jordan and Floyd can gamble on any type of game since it brings excitement. For whatever game they decide, or you decide to stick with, caution has to be applied while playing casino games.
