This $400,000 worth of markers that Charles Barkley evidently overlooked at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort really shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Barkley, after all, once admitted that he lost $2.5 million over a six-hour period in a single sitting while playing blackjack. And he admitted in an ESPN interview in 2006 that he lost in the neighborhood of $10 million over three years. So what’s another $400K, you know, unless you’re Latrell Sprewell and you’ve been asked to hand over the keys to the house and yacht? (Barkley did claim Monday to have paid off the Wynn debt.)
We remember that when Barkley was still playing for the Suns, he once lost a $200 bet in a practice-court shooting game and had to borrow the cash from Cotton Fitzsimmons to pay off. Fitzsimmons peeled off the bills while joking that he would be expecting repayment – with interest.
Anyway, Barkley has never made a secret of his penchant for wagering.
(He did say during Monday’s TNT’s pregame show for Spurs-Hornets Game 7 showdown: “I am not going to gamble anymore. For right now, the next year or two, I’m not going to gamble.” We’ll see.)
He’s even won a few times, reportedly leaving with about $700,000 after betting on the Colts over the Bears in Super Bowl XLI in 2007.
azcentral.com
5/19/08
Magnolia Tribune
