Gambling entertainments are enjoyed by all the people regardless of their social status and the level of income. The casino is visited by politicians, office clerks and famous athletes, including football players. This is explained by two factors: one – the atmosphere of gambling is pretty close to the one in football. Both are full of dynamics, gambling spirit, joy of victories and sadness of losses. While you are at the football field aiming to score a goal to your opponent, the players are full of adrenaline, which helps them to make incredible stuff. There is plenty of adrenaline in casino as well. Two – football players aren’t poor by no means and they are able to allow themselves regular visiting gambling facilities and playing at the high stakes.
There are plenty of adrenaline addicts in the world of professional football. It is not enough for them to get on the football field twice a week and spend all the efforts in the fight of the opponent, which is equally motivated. They want more. Those maniacs find what they need in casinos, card games and video slots. If you have the same feelings, we recommend you on getting free spins upon registration at online casinos in order not to waste your own money.
The history know many names of football players and coaches, that play in UEFA Champions League who were noticed in the casino, and we will tell you about some of the famous occasions in this article.
Football players who play at casinos
One of the most famous footballers in England and world, David Beckham, finished his career as a midfielder of “Real” and “Milan” and chose gambling as his hobby. He spends a lot of time in the best casinos of Las Vegas making huge bets.
Beckham not just gambles in the casino, but also participated in the gambling business. It is rumored, he made a contract with the owners of gambling centers in Macao and Singapore. Advertising this facilities, David gets a huge income. He even organized meetings with his fans in several casinos, which belong to the company Las Vegas Sands.
As investors suppose, the cooperation with Beckham would allow them sufficiently increase the stream of clients to the casino in Singapore, Macao and other regions.
Another famous member of England national team – Wayne Rooney – is also the fan of the roulette and blackjack. “Manchester United” superstar once spent the whole night in the gambling hall and he lost 65 thousand pounds in result of it.
Catastrophe you say? Nope, in comparison with ex-“Ipswich” player Chopra’s losses. He suffered of gambling addiction and was gambling 24/7. Poker, sports betting, slots, web-sites like slot-ok.com — no difference whatsoever, the same adrenaline. In a certain moment Chopra started to lose 20 thousand of pounds per day. The total losses of the guy in his career were over 3 million dollars! Fortunately, there were people who helped Chopra and even paid for his treatment in the clinic for the gambling addicts.
However, Chopra’s doings are nothing in comparison with what three footballers of “Hannover” youth team, who made an assault to the casino of the city. They’ve made a serious preparations with masks, gas pistols, cars… In the last moment, though, they’ve realized they are doing something horribly wrong and turned back. On the way back they attracted the attention of the police who discovered their plan. They will now pay huge fines and the club terminated their contracts.
Ex-coach of “Newcastle” (a club from Europa League) Alan Pardew is very much opposed to gambling. According to his opinion, young football players should stay away from the casinos and slots as they are ready to spend hours there and that effects their career in the worst way. Pardew knows what he’s talking about – at some point of his work in “Newcastle” the result of the team became so weak, the coach was released to find a new job.
And we only speak of those who don’t hide their attraction to gambling. British mass media says that tens of English football players regularly play in online casinos, including may be ten players of the national team. Recalling the words of Alan Pardew, we are able to find the reasons “Three lions” keep failing in the latest top tournaments.
At the same time, Diego Maradona claims he sees nothing bad in gambling. He is often accused of organizing undercover gambling business in Buenos Aires: “There is nothing like that, but I enjoy playing in the casino. All the emotions are out and you can know what kind of person you have beside you. The most negative qualities of the people come up, especially if they are close to losing. You have o know boundaries, of course. Roulette is great, one should try his luck at least once in his life, perhaps, it’s one’s thing in life”.
One of the ex-leaders of “Manchester United” Juan Sebastian Veron rarely refused to celebrate another victory of the club in the casino: “It is fun, there are plenty of people who are united with the passion of aiming to victory. I was losing for the most part, but forgot everything in a day or two. With the condition I lost less than five thousand dollars, of course”.
Famous English football player of the XX century Paul Merson who works as an expert at Sky Sports gambled away about 500 thousand pounds.
Paul told that football players try to entertain themselves. They aren’t allowed to smoke, drink or take drugs. “How to entertain yourself?” – asks Paul. “Probably, someone makes sports bets and can’t stop until he lost everything, like me, for instance”.
We should notice that Paul never refused entertaining himself in his drinking habits. His career suffered of him using alcohol even more than from him enjoying card games.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, the Dutch forward of «Chelsea” was noticed in Connoissseur Casino the night before the game in 2002, where he lost 50 thousand pounds in a quite short period of time. The match against “Liverpool” took place the following morning, the Dutch was playing poorly, he was substituted and the team lost in result. The representative of Iceland Eidur Gudjohnsen and the Dane Jesper Gronkjaer, the colleagues of Hasselbaink in “Chealsea” squad at that time were losing money in the same casino, and were very fast in that. Gronkjaer lost 112 thousands, blackjack and roulette took away 400 thousands from Gudjohnsen (during his Chelsea era with 6 million total). We think, the fact that Eidur left for Monaco in the end of his career is not accidental – there are lots of gambling facilities there.
Instead of conclusion
Everyone can reproach football players in their gambling addictions, but we must realize that they’re all human and they wish the same the rest of us do: the thrill of the win, adrenaline rush, gambling spirit, positive emotions and the rest. Excluding the situations casino play interfered with football player’s practices, important matches or contradicted with the rules of the team and or championship, there is nothing wrong in him relaxing at the roulette table or at some slot. The problem is in that the fans are willing to see the ideal behavior from their idols on the football field and outside of it, and they don’t want to spoil the impression of him.
