“I Didn’t Kill Myself When I Lost”: Despite Losing $2.5 Million to Bad Habit, Charles Barkley Refused to Quit Gambling Owing to His Immense Wealth

Back in 2007, former Suns and Houston Rockets star Charles Barkley revealed details about his gambling addiction in an interview with television station KTVK, according to ESPN. Chuck had initially revealed that he ended up making a whopping $700,000 playing Blackjack on a recent weekend. The sum was in addition to what he made off a Super Bowl bet in which he supported the Indianapolis Colts.

While he ended up winning the bet in question, it was in addition to years of huge losses that he had been taking. While he was seen talking about making an extraordinary amount of money, Chuck had not always spoken about his gambling addiction in a positive light. In a May 2007 interview with ESPN, Chuck talked about how he had a problem, which he could afford.

“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 said. Chuck claimed that gambling was a habit he could not get rid of even after losing extortionate amounts of money. “I didn’t kill myself when I lost two and half million dollars. I like to gamble and I’m not going to quit,” he revealed.

Hence, it seems as if Barkley was well aware of the fact that gambling was a problematic addiction that did him more harm than good. However, he seemed to embrace his habit and proclaimed he was not going to quit, which is apparent considering he did not even consider it, even after losing more than $2,500,000. The loss, however, seems to be one in a long line of huge financial hits that he undertook.

Charles Barkley lost more than $1,000,000 at least 10 times in his life

There is little doubt that Chuck never had any intention of quitting gambling despite being aware of the financial effects. Back in 2022, Barkley revealed that he had lost $1,000,000 between 10 to 15 times in his life. On the other hand, he won more than a million in a day only 5 or 6 times.

“I’ve lost a million dollars at least 10 to 15, somewhere in there. I probably only won a million five or six times. I’ve lost somewhere between 10 and 20, I can’t get an exact number because we are going back to the ’80s,” he said.

Hence, Barkley seems to have had huge losses overall and claimed that he had no idea about the exact number as well. This is because the 60-year-old has been gambling for decades, back since the 1980s.