Soccer Casino
Professional soccer players earn more than the average business person, lawyer, or doctor. Some might even say that footballers earn more than they deserve, but that’s not really our topic here.
The thing that makes us impressed and curious is that a lot of soccer players play casino games. If you know that low-paid Premier League footballers make at least $3.5 million a year, it will probably surprise you to hear that some of them want to make even more through gambling.
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Who are the most famous footballers who played casino games? We can think of many names, but the list you are about to see consists of elite soccer players/gamblers. Let’s check it out!
Top 5 gamblers among footballers
There are hundreds of well-known gamblers among soccer players, but we want to minimize the list and describe the most popular cases only.
Here are our top five picks.
1. Diego Armando Maradona
Diego Armando Maradona was not only one of the best footballers ever to play the game but also a stubborn gambler. Maradona didn’t spend much time on Casinosters, but he did play some serious poker games back at the time. His gambling habits were to be expected because Maradona was very prone to all sorts of vices such as drugs and alcohol. For him, gambling was just a natural addition to the list.
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2. Neymar
Neymar is an elite soccer player and a member of a star-packed PSG Club. One of the reasons why he picked a Paris-based team is gambling. Namely, Neymar is a passionate casino player who loves all sorts of games. However, poker remains Neymar’s heavy favorite as he even took part in the European Poker Tour. Unlike many other gamblers, Neymar is not afraid of stating it publicly. On the contrary, he often publishes images from his poker games on his social media accounts.
3. Gianluigi Buffon
You don’t need to be a football geek to know Gianluigi Gigi Buffon, aka the best goalkeeper in history. He is known to be a nice and friendly person, but that doesn’t stop him from sports betting and casino gambling. The Italian soccer association launched two processes against Buffon for illegal betting, but they dropped charges after investigations. At the same time, Buffon plays poker quite regularly and you can even see him promoting poker websites from time to time.
4. Daniel Sturridge
Daniel Sturridge, a former Liverpool striker, was suspected of illegal sports betting a few years ago. The case was a massive affair because Sturridge actually bet on himself leaving Liverpool and joining the Italian club Inter Milan. This was the only official report of Sturridge participating in gambling-related activities, but many reports claim that he used to be a regular casino visitor.
5. Mario Balotelli
Mario Balotelli is a controversial football figure and a person who always provokes incidents. As such, Mario definitely doesn’t hate casinos and gambling. Back in 2011, he won $25 thousand playing roulette in Manchester and gave $1,000 to the homeless person outside the casino.
Honorable mentions
The players we’ve shown above are famous for both their football skills and gambling prowess, but it would be unfair not to mention a few other footballers who really enjoyed spending time and money in a casino. Here are a few honorable mentions:
• Michael Chopra: A famous English striker scored more than 100 goals for Sunderland and Cardiff, but he also accumulated over $2 million worth of gambling debts.
• Joey Barton: The bad boy of football loved gambling and sports betting so much that it turned into an addiction.
• David Bentley: If you are looking for the youngest footballer-gambler, David Bentley is your man. Bentley started gambling when he was only 14.
• Dominic Mateo: A former Liverpool player went through loads of trouble due to the gambling affairs. Mateo loved casino games, but it led him all the way to bankruptcy in 2015.
• Dietmar Hamann: A reliable German midfielder, Dietmar Hamann, once lost nearly $300 thousand when placing a wager on cricket game Australia vs South Africa.
The bottom line
Playing soccer professionally gives athletes a whole lot of privileges, including the privilege of spending large sums on casino games. Some footballers are passionate gamblers and they don’t even try to hide their gambling affinities. We showed you the most famous gamblers among soccer players, but we also added a list of honorable mentions. Have you ever heard gambling-related stories about your favorite soccer players?
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AUTHOR BIO
Jeremy Raynolds is a content writer who makes high-quality research papers and college essay reviews. He is also a blogger who specializes in sports betting, gambling, e-sports, and social media marketing. Jeremy is a passionate traveler and a stubborn long-distance runner.