Quite recently, three former professional basketball players, one a Hall of Famer, were arrested and charged with fixing NBA games in order to benefit themselves and most disturbingly, their Mafia connections.
The athletes were referred to as “face cards” whose presence gave the operation credibility with potential customers.
This leads observers to ask, not for the first time:
Why do millionaire athletes get involved with gambling?
That might be the wrong question, however.
As far as I can determine, millionaire athletes initially become involved with gambling for the same reasons ordinary folks do: They’re in search of entertainment and excitement. The mystery is how they become so enmeshed that it threatens to destroy their careers and in some cases, their lives.
As the article notes, an athlete’s involvement with gambling often begins at a young age. By the time a lucky few of the very best athletes in a sport are professionals drawing huge salaries, they may still have little or no idea how to manage their newfound fortunes. In that respect, they have a lot in common with popular young entertainers – think actors, rappers, musicians, celebrity influencers, et al. They’re successful in some ways, while remaining painfully ignorant in others.
That makes them vulnerable to bad advice. Frequently, the people they choose to trust take advantage of them.
Why do people take advantage of rich, successful athletes? Because they can.
The expert cited in the article mentions the extraordinary competitiveness that characterizes many top athletes. “A neurotic need to win, at everything,” adds another expert. Losing, especially in competition, is for some athletes almost intolerable. On an emotional level, every loss diminishes them as a person.
And with gambling, the only remedy is to play again, and this time, win. Or keep trying.
This is not really about the money. A wager, even a very large one, is only an entrance fee to the action and excitement that follows — short-lived though it may be.
Others have observed that the world of gambling exists to attract and then trap the gambler in a merry-go-round of betting. Unlike the gambler, casino owners and managers and online betting shops are in it solely for the money.
They’ve learned from experience that the surest way to profit is to target, reel in, and exploit the very biggest of fish. Such as a professional athlete with too much money, or a retired pro, hoping to fund a lifestyle he can no longer afford.
