Striker Michael Chopra claims he was spending up to £20,000 a day on his gambling addiction. It eventually cost him over £2m. Chopra signed on to Tony Adams’s Sporting Chance Clinic after revealing that he signed for Sunderland only to claim the signing-on fee to cover his gambling debts. "Your first bet's your worst bet. As I've earned more money I've started to gamble more. I was gambling up to £20,000 a day at times. As soon as I'd step over the white line I would focus on football – but as soon as I got to the dressing room I would check my phone to see if I'd won. "As a gambler you want to be playing to get the appearance money. I was playing through injury to cover a debt."Reuters
Striker Michael Chopra claims he was spending up to £20,000 a day on his gambling addiction. It eventually cost him over £2m. Chopra signed on to Tony Adams’s Sporting Chance Clinic after revealing that he signed for Sunderland only to claim the signing-on fee to cover his gambling debts. "Your first bet's your worst bet. As I've earned more money I've started to gamble more. I was gambling up to £20,000 a day at times. As soon as I'd step over the white line I would focus on football – but as soon as I got to the dressing room I would check my phone to see if I'd won. "As a gambler you want to be playing to get the appearance money. I was playing through injury to cover a debt."ReutersPaul Merson, former England and Arsenal midfielder, spent up to £30,000 on a single match at the height of his gambling addiction. He beat alcohol and cocaine but finally admitted in 2003 that his gambling problem was too much and booked himself into Tony Adams’s Sporting Chance Clinic. "I've stayed away from drink and drugs but gambling has beat me, spanked me all over the place,” he said. "This is one of the biggest killers in the world. Every day it would go through my head about committing suicide."REUTERSMatthew Etherington, the Stoke winger, claims to have spent over £1.5m on poker, greyhounds and horse racing. He claimed that the gambling culture among footballers was so high he would gamble away a week’s wages with his colleagues on the coach to a game. “Looking back, how can you prepare for a game when you are playing cards on the bus with lots of money changing hands?” he said. “It was silly. “It does go on in football but it is hard to tell with some people. With an alcoholic or drug addict you can look at them and say, ‘You are not well’ but with a gambler it is harder. I was a loner, didn't tell anyone my business. Most people didn't have a clue about the debt I was in”ReutersDavid BentleyReutersDominic MatteoReuters
Premier League stars are betting up to £100,000 on betting websites, with one player even having a bookie who visits the training ground, it has emerged.
An unnamed ex-England international made the claims in FourFourTwo magazine in an article outlining the beautiful game's gambling culture.
"They aren't match-fixing," he said. "They just like to bet on the one subject they know something about.
"At one club, we had a bookie who would come to the training ground and lay our bets."
In one incident, claimed the source, a youth team player was ordered to put on a £3,000 bet by his own captain.
He did not put down the stake but was anxious that he might be liable for the £15,000 winnings if the bet won.
It did not and the player pocketed the £3,000 stake. That fired his own gambling addiction, claimed the source.
The FourFourTwo columnist also claimed that injured players were likely to get in a gambling rut to replace the buzz of playing football.
We decided to look at some of the most famous footballer gamblers - there have been more than you might think.
