After a successful 16-year career in the NBA, 14x All-Star Charles Barkley took his talents to the television, where he has become one of the community’s most beloved analysts.
But even for all his success and fame, he has faced a lot of challenges over the years, including a serious gambling problem.
In an appearance on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger,” Barkley revealed that he’s lost a million dollars somewhere between “ten to twenty” times.
Bensinger: “What do you like about gambling?”
Barkley: “Winning. It’s exciting to win money. You know, I hear all these people talking about ‘you just like the action,’ no I like the money actually and it always sucks when you lose but it’s a great feeling when you win. I think the thing that I conquered about my gambling was I changed my mentality — I’m not trying to win a lot, I’m just trying to win. You know, Graham, I’ve won a million dollars probably four or five times in a single day. But I’ve lost a lot more millions in a single day.”
Bensinger: “How many times do you think you’ve lost a million dollars?”
Barkley: “At least 10 to 15, somewhere in there. And, like I said, I probably only won a million five or six times. But I’ve lost a million somewhere between 10 and 20, I can’t get an exact number because we’re going back to the 80s.”
Barkley went on to describe how his determination to win big (at least a million) resulted in him losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was his friends who helped him realize the importance of knowing when to walk away.
With the new mentality, Barkley can enjoy gambling again but with a degree of control he didn’t have before.
Know when to walk away, folks. That can go for gambling and a whole lot of other things in life as well.
