5 Gambling Addict Footballers

Michael Chopra, Paul Merson, David Bentley: 5 Gambling Addict Footballers [SLIDESHOW]
By Jamie Lewis
April 13, 2012


Five Premiership Players With Gambling Addictions

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.