Charles Barkley loves gambling. A lot of players, especially from his era of basketball, do, actually, which makes it less surprising that these stars know how the casinos operate. That’s why, when George Kittle admitted to regularly making a rookie error, somewhat willingly, Barkley had to educate him. For the culture.
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Kittle, tight end for the San Francisco 49ers, has been getting along well with Barkley of late. The Round Mound of Rebounds even went as far as stating that he saw a little bit of himself in Kittle when he first met him, in that they both genuinely love what they do for a living.
On a recent episode of the Kittle Things podcast, they discovered a shared love of gambling. Kittle revealed that his agent once saw Barkley at a casino in Tahoe at 1:00 AM and urged him to check out what a character he was. That’s perhaps where Kittle figured out that he could always turn to Chuck for some advice on how to play the slots… or not.
“I could gamble in Vegas, what’s your choice of gambling? Like, I’m a craps guy, I thoroughly enjoy that, or I’m sitting on a slot machine because I absolutely love slot machines for some reason,” Kittle stated.
That was a mistake. Barkley had no choice but the point out that the slots are designed for customers to lose as much money as possible. “Well, first of all, you should never play the slots,” he said.
“I think casinos make about 60-65% of their money from slot machines, so never play the slot machines,” the Philadelphia 76ers legend added.
Kittle seemed to agree, of course, but also made a gesture mimicking pulling the lever of a slot machine, hinting that he wasn’t about to stop playing. Well, if he intended to lose money, nobody could stop him, not even Barkley, considering he was in fact, an adult.
Besides, Barkley himself has been down that very same path before.
Even losing $2.5 million to the craft didn’t deter Barkley, who was admittedly addicted to it. He was rich, even by NBA standards, which is why he never saw any reason to walk away. “It’s a stupid, bad habit. I have a problem. But the problem is when you can’t afford it. I can afford to gamble,” he had said in an older interview.
$2.5 million seems like a small amount compared to $25 million, which was a figure Barkley once admitted to parting ways with. The thing is, he always knew what he was doing was wrong, and never actively encouraged others to take it up, revealing how it cost him mental peace, and sometimes even friends.
“There’s probably been seven times that I won a million dollars,” Chuck said. “But there’s probably been 25 times I’ve lost a million. I got such elation, but then when I would lose a million, I was so depressed… No matter how good it feels winning, when you lose, it just f****** sucks.”
