Charles Barkley confesses to Shannon Sharpe that he lost millions by failing to control his gambling habit

Charles Barkley, a well-known former NBA player, has spoken of his love for casinos several times throughout his career.

He is remembered as one of the greatest NBA players of all time and reportedly has a net worth of $60 million, largely thanks to his current 10-year contract with TNT which pays him over $10 million annually.

The former Phoenix Suns superstar recently sat down with Shannon Sharpe on the Club Shay Shay podcast, where he revealed that he has lost $25 million gambling over the years.

“I love to gamble, I love to gamble,” Barkley told the former NFL player and now host.

His gambling habits became problematic when he would go to Las Vegas and play $25,000 hands.

“There have probably been seven times when I won a million dollars,” Barkley revealed. “But there have probably been 25 times when I’ve lost a million.”

The 1993 MVP admitted that he had to quit for two years because “it was getting out of hand,” although he still missed it.

Barkley went on to explain that he could have had multiple winning days of $600,000 to $700,000, but that he would insist on continuing to play until he could take home a million.

“We’d be sitting there, I’d get up and my friends would say, ‘Chuck, we’re going to spend the night.’ And my head would say, ‘No, we’re not leaving this son of a bitch until I win a million dollars.’

Barkley admitted that he felt incredibly happy every time he won, but the lows of losing far outweighed the positive feelings.

“I felt very elated [when I won], but when I lost a million, I got very depressed. Because of the money, but [mostly] because of the loss. I was getting out of control. No matter how good it feels to win, when you lose, it just sucks,” said Barkley.

The mental work behind the betting

Charles admitted he “had to change his mentality” so that he wouldn’t have to chase or lose a million.

“You can’t break the casino and, since I developed that mentality, gambling is a lot more fun for me, to be honest,” Barkley told Graham Bensinger several years ago.

Much of Barkley’s money came in the 1980s and 1990s, when he was one of the biggest names in sports and a close friend of another well-known gambler, Michael Jordan.

The two played together in poker games that regularly featured NBA greats like Scottie Pippen and Magic Johnson.

Barkley once joked that Jordan often tried to “buy” the pots he played in, knowing he had more money than his opponents to bet.