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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qBpH9DK370


Another biggest loser in gambling is on the list adding to the competitive personalities they have in sports. He had been gaming since 2010-2014. Five years of gambling, yet he didn't realized he is not that good like his prime, he must be chasing his loss like everyone who in the process resulted to more loss. Mickelson suffer over $56 million in gambling loss and also spend hours for his therapy. When a guy already enroll himself in a therapy, you can tell its already bad.

When you are the ones playing your sports, you'll trust on your skills which is why he bet so much too. I guess this is also what happened to the NBA stars who fell in same loss. It must be hard to cure such gambling addiction since he make a living out of golf sport, he is expose to this sport all his life. The only way I guess is to retire and if he still gambles after that, its really getting worse.

One more worst example that we can use as a real example of gambling made him sink and lose a lot of money and undergo therapy sessions to get rid of his addiction. The more we chase our losses in gambling, the more we will actually lose money and if we don't wake up quickly from what we are doing, we could end up with him and it could even get worse. There are indeed some people who can win a lot of money from gambling, but that is rare and can be counted on the fingers and those are the people who are really lucky in gambling. We should not try to follow them because our luck will not be like theirs.

Oh my goodness! With that kind of money, many families can live with a high quality of life without having to work.

I think that type of personality is hooked on the adrenaline rush that sport gives him, and finds something similar in gambling.

The only good thing is that it seems that the therapy worked for him and he quit gambling, otherwise he would probably be bankrupt today despite having earned so much money.

He has already knows that he is making nothing from gambling than losses, he should know already that he should stop, he has money and he suppose not to take gambling as a means to earn that has resulted to loss for him. He can be the best therapy of himself, he should just quit for like a year or two or even more and never gamble. If he wants to still gamble and see it as fun,  he can later gamble with the money he can afford to lose, dividing it into the amounts that will be suitable for him and to the periods of time he wants to use it for gambling. I am always not happy to see some people getting addicted when it supposed not to be, gambling nis not and has never been a means of earning, but should just be taken as fun and nothing more.

This is brutal loss since he is a world class golfer that won many championship in the past. He loss all his savings that he earn on his career and I think the pain will not gonna easily go even with therapy during that times. I suffer too a massive loss in the past and I’m still remembering it until now. I don't watch the full video of his statement but I’m sure he is ok now since he is sharing now his depressing life experiences.

Losing 100$ is already painful so I really feel the pain on this kind of video.

It is even good that he did not lie to himself about needing help and mustered the courage to go for it. He is not the biggest loser and there are definitely other people in same situation as his or even worse, but are being reluctant to even admit it to themselves that they need therapy. People who are less likely to talk to someone, most preferably a professional about their situation, end up getting depressed by the thought of it making suicide an option for them.

People should see Phil's story as a motivation to get help and speak up about those losses and gambling problems that are weighing them down. If we have more persons with gambling problems in therapy, suicidal rate for gamblers will drastically reduce.

This is another crystal clear example that the feeling that is more emphasized in a human being is greed,a famous golfer like him which I suppose has made quite a lot of money and could afford a normal wonderful life thanks to his profession as a sportsman and with those earnings he could have also left money to future generations yet he decided to gamble a lot of such money.

I discuss a lot with colleagues which are also my friends when he have lunch break and I tell them once I have enough money to have a good life I don't want more money and they reply to me "so they say a lot of people who have not yet tried the illness of money,greed once it hits you it is a one way street so we pray that it doesn't hit you".I had never enough money to try to live a life without working and just doing what I like but I believe I will not be as reckless as the example of this sportsman.

The problem with Phil Mickelson is that he is a professional golfer. 

Professional athletes are prohibited from betting on sports.  Phil probably gambled in secret.  Guilt prevented him from concentrating on the game and provoked bad decisions. 

Phil Mickelson was also rumored to be involved in buying and selling shares in Dean Foods using insider information.  True, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) carefully investigated this story and did not find corpus delicti in Phil's actions. 

However, Phil is clearly not limited to playing sports. 

He is probably a very gambling person and is constantly involved in various adventures.

I've read his name somewhere on the internet -- I don't exactly remember where or when, but it is closely related to the Saudi Arabian government issue with Phil being affiliated with them.

AFAIK, this guy accepted an invitation to a golf game hosted by Saudi Arabian government, despite reports of their human rights violations. Guess what! Of course he accepted the invitation bagging a large amount of money. Yikes!

desperate gamblers has different ideology in gambling, i will not totally blame him because if his intentions is to recover what he loses it might work out for him. Because before it develop such ideas that means someone else has survived in such format or has made it through subsequent gambling whenever it loses. Because from local kind of gamble which we throw a dice I have seen someone who spent up $2000 in gamble and all his hope was lost, and he went home empty handed and return with $500 to restart the dice gamble but at the ends he went home with $10,000. The scenario is that gambling is a game of luck and chance. Maybe the continues gambling will make him to recover all in one hit. Except it dont play with strategies.

When you hear those stories where successful people mess up after their retirement, it's always not far from these reasons, whether it's gambling or drugs, and sometimes women because some of them are womanizers who spent lots of money to satisfy their desires. Now that they realized their mistakes in the past, some of them are late to fix everything back but the rest of the athletes that are still in the league, need to consider pondering upon these stories to save themselves and do the right thing when they are no longer getting money from sports industries.

This is a good example on how gambling affects even the most experienced people in their craft. Dude's probably knew almost everything about golf; knows the ins and outs of most courses, knows the strengths and weaknesses of players in the tournament, among other things that normal bettors and watchers don't. If we are to ask for advice on golf, he'll be the guy we'd go to because he knows more than us, but yet he ends up losing huge amounts on gambling even on his own sport. If you are that deep into the rabbit hole, there's no going back. Perhaps on his case though he can still stomach the $56 million of losses in gambling, but for most of us here, it's game over and a point of no return.

I think some people get really unlucky in the sense that they started out lucky. And that had a good streak of luck for years, and then thought they were good -- kind of like trading people who get lucky and then think they are professionals in trading.

And a good reminder to us all that even pros have the same weaknesses as us in chasing losses and not knowing when to put limits. Even worse when you believe you should be better than others because you know the game/sport.

Thanks for sharing. Good to remind us all.

Phil Mickelson is a human ..just like the rest of us. He might have more money than the average person, but he can still become greedy or he might just enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes with taking big risk.  ::)

You have obviously not seen "Drake" gambling on Stake.  ::)  He gave away about $1 000 000 with his last gambling Stream session to Stake.com gamblers. (He also lost about $9 000 000 ..during that session.... well technically speaking .. his balance was about $21 000 000 at one time)

If you watch the whole video, you will see that Phil said that he did not lose everything, but he did admit that he made some very reckless bets on gambling.  ::)

It's worth noting the US Open (Golf) starts today in about 2 hours from now, and Phil Mickelson is going to participate.
The oddsmakers estimate his chances fo winning the US Open as 500 to 1:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5402568.0

I'm just sad that he has been in therapy for quite a while, but he still managed to gamble so much. If he knew he had a problem before and had to go to treatment, it's highly likely that it would be harder to fix. Either he is not motivated to improve himself, or the therapy sucks.

I hope he manages to recover the loss of millions or find a way to have a fruitful ending with it. In which the therapy works and it helps the person.

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This is an article about Phil Mickelson, and it's reported that he lost $40 million in gambling. That's so much.

https://sports.yahoo.com/phil-mickelson-acknowledges-reckless-gambling-addiction-amid-report-he-lost-40-m-190837433.html

Wellllll I don't really think the amount matters here as long as he can handle it (which seems like he actually can, for now, anw). I do hope therapy helps at least to some degree since I know some cases with my friends where therapies did jack on helping them actually move on. Especially if we consider how his wealth isn't exactly going to infinitely increase so losing millions continuously isn't really anything good. I do wonder if he has a tally of his winnings or at least the ratio of W/L since I'm curious whether he's really just unlucky about losing on matches he bet big or he just loses a majority of his bets.

I think if a guy enrolls himself in therapy, he is not bad actually he understands that there is something wrong with him that he has to fix therefore if he understands that fact and is opening up about it in public, he definitely is doing everyone a favour as well.

This might definitely encourage other people to definitely try and get therapy as well, it's all about acceptance and working with something to make it better.


He is not a simple gambler he does earn a lot and he can afford some losses as well therefore I think it won't be a big deal for him at the end of the day.

Just like the other athletes that also got into gambling and lose a lot of his earning. It isnt surprising anymore these day since we have heard of them like Mike Jordan and Charles Barkley who also suffer the same fate.

When people has tons of money, they dont just send it to help people as charity, sometimes they also spend just about anything like gambling in casino. Although they lose huge amount, they're not poor.

What they have to overcome is the addiction. Because thats the real battle.

There is a beneficial message behind that person's misfortune, the more chasing the loss and more out of control it will lead to serious bankruptcy. The emotion that explodes when lose in gambling, triggers that's brain to keep chasing it. Even though we often see professional gamblers who always keep their emotions and always think clearly when gambling, the basic application is always difficult for addicts to do.

Just another real life example of what addiction can do. I wouldn't say gambling specifically because the keyword here is "addiction". Any addiction is bad. Be it gambling, smoking, drinking etc. In gambling, you loose your wealth and in smoking, you compromise your health. So it's very necessary for the addicted person to seek medical help. Phil Mickelson is just an example of what addiction can do to us and clearly a warning for the addiction population.

Its hard to see many sport persons are losing their wealth due to the addiction, its clearly says he is gambling for very long time but didn't found the way of self control because it is important no matter how much wealth we have it won't take that much longer to lose them all. Again we have to remember the gambling is for entertainment purposes not to make money, when we do anything beyond the limits its called addiction it will broke us mentally and financially.

5 years of gambling, but he didn't realize that he had already spent so much money and suffered a huge loss. It was a terrible gambling story that I know because why would he spend so much money just for playing gambling if he could use the money for his family and save up, he would have been enjoying life without having to spend hours on his therapy.

We can believe in our skills in sports and place bets there but we must also know that we also have limits that we must not break. If we break it, it's only a matter of time before losing even more money. This is a lesson for us never to spend so much money just to play gambling.

 In the gambling business, there are many addicts who cannot realize that they are heading towards the abyss. Gambling is not a profession in which we can make profits in the short and long term, but we can join it just for fun and play what we can afford to lose.
if a guy is enrolling himself in therapy and he understands that there is something wrong with him and he is opening up about it in public, it definitely is an act of kindness. It shows others that a guy is trying hard to fix his problems and make himself better for the future.
That's why phil will remain a lesson to all the athletes who have a lot of money if they don't know how to put it to good use they will lose it by joining the gamble.

Gambling addiction is no easy addiction. It's a game that always breaths hope of profits but in reality, it ends in loses. Worst still, is in this case where you are the athlete and so you trust in your abilities, completely undermining that of your opposition. You feel entitled and way too confident and forget entirely the risk that is involved in Gambling as your so focused only on winning. This in turn builds on you a different kind of emotion, an emotion that dears you to be perfect at every shot or move you make, knowing fully what is at stake and that's how the error comes in. Its not always a good idea to bet on yourself or even view the live display of the game you've bet on. It makes you too emotional all through the game and that's not very enjoyable.

Those who gamble and just play, they are useless trash. Unlike people who gamble and think about how they spend their money when they win and think about strategies when they lose. It all depends on how they do the gambling.
Famous people who gamble and lose of course they still have a lot of money in reserve and don't let all their money to gamble. Gambling also needs strategy and management, don't prioritize greed.
Addiction is indeed a disease that is not easy to treat, there must be a loss incident like Phil Mickelson to be aware.

There's a level of addiction you can get to in gambling that you breed a reckless confidence that only ends you in financial ruin that you can only discover yourself back only when your financial life have gone bizzare. Like a kind of confidence that builds an assurance within you that you can win the next game by increasing your bet just after a previous loss, and it goes on over and over again until you're left with nothing and I think that's the situation Mickelson found himself.

Every good gambler should know when to call it a quit and that is what some persons have failed to understand that's why they do end up in great loss to gambling.

 I sympathize with him and pray the therapy helps him recovers fully.

I often watch and read Phil Mickelson's work on golf and the way he bets on gambling, Phil Mickelson is often nicknamed the 'Lefty' in the game of golf.

A case like this in 2012, if I'm not mistaken it also happened to Phil Mickelson, he had to pay around $48 million, to Billy a professional gambler at that time, maybe this is the umpteenth time Mickelson has experienced bad gambling, I think Mickelson's career is not bright anymore in gambling, it seems he should retire soon and live a normal life without gambling.

I think in terms of gambling, maybe we should be able to control ourselves in gambling people as great as Phil Mickelson, can fall if greed is prioritized without good calculations, this can be a valuable history for addicts of the true meaning of gambling.

I would say that when you have an addiction that make you lose over 56 million dollars and you STILL end up a rich person, that seems like a good deal to me. Addiction is definitely a terrible thing and there is nobody denying that at all, but at the end of the day if you are talking about someone who is wealthy and afterwards still wealthy, that is not a "cautionary tale" to any addicted person.

It's like saying "look at this guy, he was an addict, gambled 56 million dollars away, and he still has tens of millions of dollars in his bank account, so he got off fine" and I would say that's terrible. People literally became homeless and turned to a life of crime because of addiction, Phil got off fine.

Opening up about your losses and your mistakes in gambling is part of the therapy it's being honest with your mistakes and admitting them and a willingness to correct them is a good move for a gambler to be a better person, Phil is on the right track, and he is not the only one, there are many sports person who is or were very much into gambling on the peak of their career, the temptations are there especially if you're betting in a sport where you are in where you have an insight on your co-players and events.
It is not yet late for sportsmen like them as long as they are serious and really want to get a cure for their addiction, they excel in the sports they are in they can pass in their therapy too.

I think this is a person who has lost a very large amount because he gambled for a long time and in the end only got regrets, it is better when you want to gamble you must understand first that this has a very high risk and you should play it safe better instead of taking extreme gambling. Hopefully from this incident Phil can get back up and of course let's play gambling again but in a safe way and stay careful.

I remember reading the news some weeks ago about Phil Mickelson losing a fortune while gambling, at the time I disregarded this as it was coming from a nonofficial source but now it seems to have been corroborated by him, it is sad because he is someone that did not really needed to go through anything like this as at the first signs of trouble he should have tried to get help, but when you have so much money it takes a lot of time until you begin to feel the effects of all the money lost, so it is not surprising he has lost so much money over the years at gambling.

You only realize it when gambling is taking a toll on your pocket or your mental health, gambling addicts will have to lose almost everything and feel the abyss to finally realize that they really need help and cure their addiction, opening up and admitting is the first step and important step, but looking at the amount he loses in gambling one will only feel the waste of money, this is something that you don't want to happen to you.

The fact that the is into therapy, only says he already has a gambling problem in him. Losing millions of dollars is okay as long as you can afford to lose, everyone has our range in gambling, but if we go beyond that range, that's where the problem will start.

This is for all of us, we have to learn our lessons, not necessary that we will lose before we learn, we should learn from other people's experience, so OP thanks for sharing.

I guess him and other sports personalities who have amassed millions in their career will fall on gambling as part of coping maybe specially if they have sort of retired. And that's where many athletes in the past become bankrupt, not taking care of their money, maybe through gambling and bad investment. Hopefully he can still control himself and the therapy will help him with his gambling addiction. That is huge amount that he wasted, money that some of us could only dream of having one day. And the lesson here is that everyone could be susceptible to gambling, even those who have money.

Yeah I agree only therapy can cure gambling addictions if you are making millions you can go on losing money from gambling and you won't even regret it but once the money coming in stops, that's when you realized that you have a worse gambling addiction, Phil did the right thing and its not yet late after he is cured he will be a good example and a role model to people who are addicted to gambling.

This is what we say fate, because what he lost is a big money. With this a big number of people can have a very good life through their entire life. For him this is his hard earned money, out of some plans he went for making it big. The risk he took didn't give him success and made him loss. He was in the act of chasing his loss with bigger bets which is the reason why he have lost such a big money. Anyhow atleast by now he could make his life successful stopping to chase the losses.

That bad experience is good for me. If he continues to win, then he might not wake up someday to realize that something is not good. He is financially capable to support his gambling habits that's why I don't consider that a mistake for him. He never becomes a madman or irresponsible even after losing that amount. More importantly, he now understands that continuing to gamble might not help.

And no, he never chases losses but rather just wants to earn more even earning lots already at his beloved sports - greed.

In gambling, it's more entertaining to earn more, and that is what big whales do, not to chase their losses.

He might lose big, about millions, but I think he still has lots of gas on his tank remaining. Better that he becomes responsible after losing big as a career in his sports is not forever. He is getting big paychecks during his active days that's why he never got affected by his loss from gambling and can sustain it in the long run until 1 day, he realized that it's not good anymore.

Whales before turning to a responsible gamblers should really lose big to trigger that behaviour. Without that big loss experience, they won't learn.

Unfortunately, its a bit late when a person has to experience a big devastating event in life to get the lesson sink in to change his life. more than $50M is more than a life time retirement fund.

He must have heard of famous people who got broke because of gambling such as Coco Diaz. People talk about them in the gambling table. The realization occur to someone when he is already alone and without money.

I think there are also several times that he got a big win on that 5 years period of gambling.

It's just that in the long run, the greed becomes higher that he gambles not only just about to chase the losses but to earn more money.

The big winning experience is addictive that anyone wants to feel that experience again. And to feel that experience again, they need to continue to gamble.


It's really hard to bounce back coming from a big loss. Emotional damage is far more worst to deal with.

Fortunately, he now back again to his usual self and realized that it's not too late to change for good. I hope other gamblers that can't resist doing gambling even if they are totally fuck*ed up can have a mindset like that.

But, sports and gambling are I think two different things. It is in fact known that being exposed to sports can cure different kinds of addiction and bad habits and of course this includes gambling. Golf is a decent sport and known as the sport for the rich, if he is a player of this sport, chances are that he earns decent too. You can rather say that it's hard to get out of gambling because of this fact. If he retires, he will not be busy and it will be easy for him to think about gambling. Add in that he cant obtain money regularly because he is not working anymore, so for him, gambling is a way to get money as much as possible.

There is a lesson in his story and that is to not be confident enough with yourself because no matter how you think you are skillful enough, there is something out there that can beat you.

I would say it was too late for him to enroll himself into therapy after loosing a whooping $56 millions, he should have done that when he lost his first million then it would make sense and he could have saved the rest, but what is the point when he looses everything and then understanding his mistakes and enrolling himself  :-X. It is a recurring story from athletes where they misplace their wealth and end up being broke and it is really sad to hear as it will not take much to appoint a financial manager.

Since Mickelson was a golfer his retirement did not came as fast as it comes for other athletes, but despite this fact most athletes develop serious issues when it comes to money management, they get used to make a lot of money with relative ease that when they finally retire they cannot stop spending as much money as they did before but without the income to back those expenses, which means that sooner or later they will face bankruptcy, and while it does not seems as if Mickelson went that far he still lost a fortune in the process.

Phil Mickelson is one of the popular golfer. Even in his fifties he's good to make a major trophy win. It looks like he have understood the gambling problem at the right time, if not he might've missed his professional career. For him this loss hasn't made a big blow, however he restricted himself from losing much bigger amount.

Popular people sharing their experience will help common man think twice before getting into gambling or chasing the loses out of gambling.

Respected people can easily lose their lifetime build ups. This one I see is one of the greatest examples to this. If you are addicted to something like gambling, you know it is just a game, its not very different than other ones. So there is no point to be embarrased. I think people best deal with the fact that losing is the part of gambling game and losing all the time does not make you bad/stupid person.

It's truly hard to cure such addictions if it's already involved millions of losses. If you can't recover them back, you'll do anything you can just to take them back through gambling again as there are no other means of doing so.
And those that have been once rich and then due to their gambling addiction, they're now suffering. Instead of investing their money and gambling some of it, they've gambled all of it and that's really a mistake that they are now regretting forever.

56 million dollars is a a lot of money to loose in gambling, it is really true what they say that wonders never end, i always feel like shit each time I gamble $100 dollars and lose it without winning a dime, i make sure to stay away from gambling for over a week to make sure i recover the lost money before i gamble again.
But here, someone lost 56 million and is still alive ;D.
Addiction is something we all should campaign against, it has never helped anyone, and neither will it ever, many people gambled away their properties, cars, houses, other valuables all in the name of trying to recover funds that they have lost earlier, this are behaviors gamblers should really be careful of and avoid it whenever shows up because the truth remains that most of us don't always know when we start getting addicted until we are deep in it, then coming out becomes a big problem.

sorry to hear of his loss, a very large amount. why no family try to stop him, that much money (the loss he earned) is not easy to get, it took years and also very hard work to get that much money. he should have been included in the list of one of the gamblers who suffered heavy losses (https://www.gamblingnews.com/blog/gamblers-who-lost-it-all/) and hopefully his story can be a valuable lesson for others.

Gambling addiction is something that we can't get rid off unless we start taking the preventive measures not to fall for it more. But for us not to fall for gambling addiction and lose millions, it's better that we should not enter gambling anymore. Mickelson has been chasing his luck and even his losses that he end up losing millions without his realization. Sad to say that those huge amount of losses can be even more profitable if he managed not to lose it all in gambling.

The story the OP told has explained to us all how risky it is to gamble out of control and continue to chase defeat ignoring the huge amount of losses that have been inflicted. Once a person has reached this stage there is no other reason for him to recover from just a few hours of therapy and change his behavior to be more beneficial.

I didn't think my craze for gambling would cause me to lose control like that, it's definitely really bad to experience and I can't imagine it happening to me. Be wise about money, it's up to how you enjoy it but if it's done out of control then be prepared for trouble.

Phil played horribly in the last US Open tournament in golf - there is no doubt there is link between the two - the addiction doesn't only drain you financially but it will drain you emotionally and mentally as well.

Definitely right on this one yet gambling couldnt really just affect financial status but also on other aspects as well on which if you are in the verge of huge loss or simply being significant then panic/anxiety/stress would really be in your mind and other activities on which you do make yourself involved  will really be affected.Not really that surprising for people to realize all things in the end of the line, good for those who do able to recover on such addiction and it would really be a unforgettable moment of their lives.

Without a doubt this is true, while we think of sports as being almost entirely physical in their nature, anyone which has actually practiced a sport at a professional level will tell you that the main difference between the best and the rest is their mentality, the ability of being able to perform under pressure is incredibly hard to get and for that you need for your life to be as free of unnecessary trouble as possible, and being addicted to gambling and losing a fortune is not really conductive of a state of mind which will allow you to perform at your best at any sport.

I don't want to disagree with the TOS of casinos, but I don't understand why ban athletes from betting? What advantages could athletes have? I particularly do not see any advantage that an athlete could have, this case of Phil Mickelson for example clearly shows that even being an athlete he lost a lot of money in the game of chance, that is, the factor being an athlete does not bring any advantage when it comes to gambling unlucky, the person will lose like all common people lose, that's why I don't understand why casinos or bookmakers prohibit athletes from betting
 

as it is a rumor, so we can already expect it to be a false accusation

You know what? It's hard to have sympathy for somebody who reached the heights of having many millions handed to them and presumably working very hard to get them, only to fritter it all away on silly little games. There are so many more pleasurable things to do in life rather than waste money gambling sum large amounts. He could have invested most of that money in sensible stock market index funds and had a steady payout over time, probably earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in returns for doing very little, instead he played his money in very high risk and low return games. 99.9% of people in this world will never see a fraction of what he had in their lifetimes, he threw it all away chasing ever more greed.

When a person experiences luxury in life and had failed to understand financial management often lose themselves in gambling.  Since money just keeps coming in during their prime, they always thought that it isn't an issue to lose a lot of money because it will replenish soon.  It will be then late for them to notice that their stash is running out thus a sense of emergency emerge but sadly he took the wrong way of recovering his losses instead of stopping and finding a cure for his gambling addiction.  Though he did the latter it is a bit too late to save his finances.


I hope we can all learn from his story.

I do have the same impressions too on which i cant really feel anything in terms of pity or sympathy out of these people who had already gained or reached the pinnacle of success in terms of
career and finances but they do wrecked out theirselves via those addictions or things that they do get involved with which it did really cost them big just because they havent able to
exercise proper risk management or handling it out.Everyone could really fall into this pit and doesnt matter if you are a celebrity or known person or popular or just a simple
citizen then you are in no exemption when it comes to condition which something that you should really look upon.

i guess, there are so many untold stories of gambling addiction. some won't disclose for privacy purposes. but these people will only learn their lessons if they are already experiencing the worst of their lives. they need to wake up to reality on their own. because if it is being pushed on them, they won't see the reality of what's going on with their lives. for sure, he already read a lot about gambling addiction, hence, doing the therapy. but only himself will know how sincere he is to change for the betterment of his life.

lol exactly!!¹
I think that in this thread they have made firewood from the fallen tree, yes! the losses are sick, but in fact they came to light for an investigation of the SEC, but it is old news.

This guy is one of the greatest golfers of all time and his numbers may not be that amazing, but his talents in the golf is undeniable.

In any case, we are talking about one of the golfers who at his best moment earned more than $50,000,000 a year just for sponsorship.

It amused me to read in the comments that he had financial problems, I calculated that his fortune could be above $ 500,000,000 million without looking at statistics but why guess if we have that at hand:

^{source:https://www.golfnetworth.com/phil-mickelson-net-worth/}

The story has had a resurgence due to the publication of a book recounting the years in which he lost such an amount of money:
https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2022/05/16/phil-mickelson-book-review-alan-shipnuck-biography/

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(1)Phil Mickelson’s deal with Saudi-backed LIV is around $200 million
source:https://nypost.com/2022/06/06/phil-mickelsons-deal-with-saudi-backed-liv-is-around-200-million/

PGA Tour suspends 17 golfers, including Phil Mickelson, for playing in Saudi-backed LIV event
Source:https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/09/pga-suspends-phil-mickelson-others-for-involvement-in-saudi-backed-liv-event.html

Gambling is a fun part of the leisure time.
unlucky to be disastrous due to the effects of addiction.  phil mickelson had a great career as a sports athlete, had a lot of money and fame.  how could someone like him get addicted to gambling which in the end had to undergo therapy for the bad effects it had caused.  in other words we all have a greedy nature and a sense of dissatisfaction this is one of the things that causes a phil michelson to fall more and more into gambling.  we can learn from the case of a famous golfer of his time not to take the same action from the bad effects of gambling addiction.

He doesn't want people to know because he knows that people especially the young ones are looking up to him as a role model, when you are on top of your game you don't want people to know your skeletons in the closet because it will ruin your legacy and your reputation, its good that he opened up and honest on his being a gambling addict, he is not the only one there are also high profile athletes who are very much into gambling and they have overcome it.

Super competitive people like Phil Mickelson and Michael Jordan seem to have a problem when it comes to gambling.  It's like their mind can't comprehend not being able to win at something, so they convince themselves they can win, even though the odds are stacked against them.  I'm sure a lot of the time having huge pockets helps them keep going until they get ahead, until that stops working.  Then they find themselves in a massive hole with no way out.  Luckily, these athletes have a ton of money so they can afford the loss, but most people in this position and with this belief they can win end up losing everything.  I'm glad these athletes are speaking out, because I'm sure they'd all be a lot better off if they never wagered a dime.

There's a huge temptation if you have the money and you have a competitive mind, you'll always want to prove yourself they get their excitement on the game they are playing on the gambling table, thinking that they can carry their wins until they realize they already lose millions, even if you keep on winning games and tournaments you cannot keep up with gambling not even if you have a factory of money there will be a point that you need to give up, admit that you can't beat the casino and be honest that you made a mistake.

I am really glad that he is aware of his behavior and he knows that he becomes addicted to it, many people does not admit that they are too much commited to gambling or they already fall for addiction, the moment he knew and ask for help to a professional is somehow a good sign that he wants to end this big problem of his and he wants to have a life outside gambling, it is not too late for it.

I might be missing something here but I still cannot figure out if he was gambling on his own matches during his days at PGA or not. That's what I'm getting from this part of your post. Or maybe you mean something else like he uses most prize money from Golf tournaments he joins in gambling?

Anyway, it's better late than never. He's lucky there are still some organization willing to make deals with him. I don't expect his golfing career to bounce but he can still recover financially after overcoming his gambling addiction.

At best, the only way to remedy his situation is to completely avoid gambling or become a consultant that advocates in curing gambling addiction. In this way, he can be set as an example on why gambling long-term can lead to series of downfall as lots of people can never really have a stable career in this field (with a few notable exceptions).

If you are basing your steady stream of income to something that is completely unpredictable and risky, then you are placing yourself to a potential danger. I just hope that people who gamble do it purely for entertainment- once you chase for profits, then you will slowly realize that it will eat your resources quickly.

I'm not a golfer but there was a time years ago where I was fond of watching golf tournaments just because I want to watch :D. I don't have interest of playing it either. The name was very familiar and when I searched it, I was right that he is a professional golfer. It's quite unfortunate that another pro player has been addicted to gambling again. The good thing though is that he is undergoing therapy right now.

I also believe that if you have that much money, and you have nothing to spend your money with, that is the time when you think of gambling. Some NBA players have been addicted to gambling. There are some professional athletes that are getting addicted to gambling because they don't know where to spend much money with. Recovering with gambling addiction might be hard for others, but I think he can recover from it knowing that his career might be affected aside from his personal life if he will just continue to gamble.

If they want to think about what they will do with their money, they can choose to invest in property or set up a business that they manage by hiring experts to get more profit. After getting more profits, they can donate it to people who can't afford it. I guess that would be better than using the money for gambling. But indeed, they are also humans who sometimes have the desire to spend their money at the gambling table. But in the end, many of them get addicted and some may lose all their money because of gambling.

But what if you do already have investments that you do have on your list or had already have made out? and you are already making out some profits or money on passive state?
For sire you would really be finding out on how you would gonna spend up your money and some people do really ending up on going into gambling or making it as their option
on spending up their time and funds.Its not really bad to have that consideration on playing gambling for leisure but when the time comes that you are already spending up too much time
and finances then this is where things turns out to be sour which would really be resulting into disaster if you dont really able to control up yourself on how you would gonna spend
up your funds or totally have good control on that particular area.

What happens is that we must not forget that many athletes go from having almost no money to millionaires almost overnight, so what happens to them is something similar to what we see with lottery winners, in which they get so much money so fast they do not know what to do with it and then they squander all of that money away, at least in this case he still has a lot of money, but there have been cases in which athletes that made a fortune lost everything and are now living in poverty.

That's one of the saddest thing that could happen to a celebrity, we have seen some of them living in poverty, doesn't even want to face a camera anymore because he is wearing a worn out shirt with cheeks so deep. Some of them so afraid to walk on public places because paparazzis going to publish his photo.

But for Phil Mickelson who got used to his rich life style and got old with it, its going to be rougher times. I believe his is trying to recover from this ordeal.

If this is someone who isn't that rich, then this loss could've affected his career and life. For a person like Phil Mickelson it is part of his career and if he had continued it. Sometimes he might've ended losing big. According to the Wikipedia data the 2015 salary is $51m. So, according to me what he have lost is an year's salary.

Gambling is very risky and we should be ready to bear the consequences if we eventually make loses due to our pattern of gambling. As a gambler, we need to have good knowledge of what we are gambling on so to avoid loses and any attempt that will derange our quest for gambling. I think he was able to make loses as a result of selfishness and not paying good attention to how he needs to gambler especially when we are having consistent loses.

That's such a huge amount of loss but the good thing is he has learned from his mistakes. One common thing that gambling addiction could do to us is that we'll lose everything and would only notice it when we're on the edge of our journey.
Gambling addiction could take away not just our money but also our jobs, savings, relationships, and more so we should know how to control things in the beginning.

That is a "huge" amount to people like you and me, and yes it's a big chunk for him as well but know the difference between him and us. He is a professional golfer who made much more money than that, sure wouldn't it be nice if he all that money with him? Of course it would be.

But that doesn't change the fact that we couldn't even make that if we all got together here, 100 of us, for all our lifetime, wouldn't reach what he lost. This is why I do not really feel the same pity to him that I feel towards people who lose their livelihoods on gambling, they are idiots too and they deserve our pity and hope they recover. This dude could get someone bankroll him again anyway.

I think there are secretly a lot of people who have lost millions gambling. And then it doesn't even matter if it's online or if it's been in a land-based casino. Only with online you have the opportunity to play with large bets faster. Just think of professional football players that you read about who also gambled. Then we are not talking about a few thousand euros. I think it's great of him that he talks about it, many people who have lost so much money would keep it behind closed doors, which is also very understandable.

Only a few percent or even not 1% of those big gamblers loses big time who had surfaced out on the web or media.  8) Most of them do remain quiet but secretly losing up millions
of money because of gambling and cant really be avoided that this is totally a shameful situation for someone to be known thats why its not surprising that you would really be seeing
only a few who had been known on losing that big but basing on the gambling industry or market we do have which is flourishing and makes more in numbers then it does
signifies that there are lots of losers who do keep feeding these places and now it is really becoming even more a trend.

They remain quiet because its a big shame especially if there family members and friends know that they lose a lot of money on gambling, for sure the story of OP is not the only exist because for sure for how big scoop the gambling reach on for sure a lot of people especially huge rollers out there get burned heavily.

I think when doing casino gambling it will not feel that you have used enough money and no results are obtained but if you do sports gambling I think you should be able to make a profit because some sports betting can be predicted even though not all predictions are correct at least there must be something right and can provide benefits. When gambling, you should at least know that here you can lose assets with a very large value if you are not lucky, so gambling must be careful in stepping.

Whether it was sports betting or in casinos, any form of gambling will give you losses if you are not in control already (addiction). We have to understand that before we got into this gambling, we already know that will possibly get after. It doesn't mean that we all gonna lose in gambling, of course, winning is possible but what went wrong is that we mostly chase our losses thinking we can get it back but sadly, we end up losing more. We have to correct this kind of mindset otherwise, this becomes the reason for emptying our bank accounts and properties.

Do not forget about the control and also the amount that you're dedicating to gamble. Do not pass that rule you've made that you're only allowed to spend this xx much for your gambling needs. And if you did pass that, there's only one sign that you need to remember and that is you need to stop. It's not only Phil that has this tremendous loss and they're regretting that they should have never pass that and afraid to tell it to the public because they think that it's embarassing.

The risk and reward scenario is what captivates gamblers more into spending their resources into this activity. Unfortunately, when rich people are involved into this game, they pour at least majority of their resources into a single night which can yield them a profit/loss of around millions.

Imagine, building a career for years and years only to destroy it into an activity which involved a small amount of satisfaction. With tons of stories and millionaires suffering from gambling addiction, I just hope this becomes an eye opener to everyone about its destructive effects.

Regret do always come in the end which does simply means that if you dont like to suffer huge financial losses then you should really be that aware or setting out border lines or limits whenever you do really tend to touch

up gambling.You could really lost lots of money or the worst you would lost it all, there's no such thing about millions because losses could really be an endless line if you do tolerate that greed of yours.

You could lose all of the things you do possess in life you do tolerate that gambling addiction of yours.If you dont like for it to happen then you should really need to have that good control.

Easier said than done. We are not in the place to say control things if we don't experience yet being a big whale like Phil Mickelson. These guys are capable of spending big on gambling that's why we will never know the feeling they dealt with during their gambling days. These whales are losing big every day but they won't feel it because they still have lots of resources. It's good that after losing millions in gambling on the process, they realized that something worst now happened.

What if they didn't have that experience of losing big? For sure they are still gambling up to today.

That losing experience leads them to stop that's why I don't find it regretful if they lose those big amounts since, in return, they have become a better person later on. Blessing in disguise that they suffer those losses rather than continue to enjoy gambling.

Without a doubt there are many people that have lost a fortune over the years due to some gambling issues they are carrying out, however some people are so rich that most likely they have not realized all the money they have lost since their lifestyle has not been affected enough for them to realize, but there are a few athletes or stars that have developed such huge issue with their gambling that they end up losing it all, and those are very sad cases as it is incredible to see people that had everything going for them end up in such a deplorable state.

We cant really blame out those whales on what they should gonna do into their funds and same as you said that they have lots of resources which they could able to compensate or patch up on what they had lost or

been used.Its true that its easier to be said than to be done and its true that we arent into their feet on experiencing on what they are experiencing now which neither they are tending to stop but they cant or just
totally proceeding because they do know that they could able to sustain despite of those losses.

Its not bad to gambler as long you could able not to affect your financial status and as long you could sustain then that what matter the most.Learnings from emotional aspect is just next in line.

I've seen gamblers that have lost all, everything that they have because they cannot control themselves any longer. That's why they've got into debt, lost their properties, savings, car and even their partners.
It's a shame that they have to lose everything that they can and realizes it only at the end that they no longer have everything. But, I also saw those stories of those gamblers that have been in that situation and then retrieved themselves and got a better life and they've recovered.

Not just in gambling but sometimes, these people have to experience the worst-case scenario of their life before turning into responsible and disciplined people.

The same as those people who got scammed, they will never learn what to do next if they didn't experience anything bad. The worst experience is one of the very effective recipes for forming a good foundation for our experience. Without that bad experience, the progress won't be smooth along the way.

After all, if we just experience winning, we will never think in our life of stopping or moderating our gambling activity.

Well, a loss is a loss, but I think that all this problem starts from the moment that we have no discipline, if you have discipline, all problems associated with addiction disappear, there is a similarity between gambling and trading and that is that many players and traders when they lose in an operation or game, they believe that they are right and fall into the error of trying to seek revenge and both in trading and in gambling, everyone who seeks revenge will have everything to lose, here is the smartest thing to do What you can do is when you have a losing streak to stop and continue later or even the next day.

Well said and that's truth about life. There's no feeling of having the great moments of winning if you never gone through despair and losing a lot.
You'll finally able to realize that whatever you have right now, you must be grateful to it. And to these people that have lost a lot of buck speaks well of themselves and surely have learned the lessons and they're applying it to themselves.

There is a saying that you'll never know what is the worth of something unless you lost it.  At least the guy didn't end his life, if he does then it is the end of everything.  Whatever losses we had, financially, in career, in love life, or whatever, the best thing is going back up.  It is a great thing to admit mistakes, and ask for help and advice from professional and medical experts if needed. 

I wholely agree that anyone who recovered from severe losses becomes a better person.  Since they know how they get there, they are able to prevent themselves from repeating the same mistakes.  Just like this song said What Doesn't Kill You Make you stronger (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn676-fLq7I)

Well, we all have our own ups and downs in life, and even high profile individuals are not an exception. In fact, they may be experiencing a lot compared to us, it's just that some have come to manage them and some have failed. But thanks to Phil as he end up being honest about losing millions from gambling. People would learned from his experience, that once gambling is abused, it will never do good in the end, and would only make a gambler a big loser more than he can ever imagine.

At least he had the experience to share. Like I've never had millions to spend, so losing it on gambling would at least have been an adventure of some kind. Like when you hear that someone crashed a lambo. At least he had it for a while and drove it to the end of its road :D
That said, I hope he recovers from the addiction and one day is able to talk about it all with a smile, drinking beer, not like it's a personal tragedy but more like something he survived and became stronger.

That’s still a bad experience honestly, he should have avoided it the moment he undergo for therapy but the worst still happened. This is a story that everyone should reflect on, no matter how much your money is if you are too attached to gambling you might be one of those gambler who are in big trouble right now. NBAA stars are prone to this since they have the money and gambling is legal in their place, if there’s no professional handling their finances, most probably they will end their career broke.

Therapy doesn’t guarantee that it can free you from your addiction, it will still depend on you if you really want to and if you really have the desire to quit gambling. Not just NBA players but also celebrities, many fall into the big trap of gambling and as you can see, many lose their careers because of gambling addiction. This is a reminded to ever gamblers, avoid too much playing time and always control yourself.

All gambling recovery methods don't guarantee anything but they are a big help to the gambler that wants to get out of addiction.

Obviously, it needs the cooperation of the person itself but how can they cooperate if they are struggling? That's the role of that therapy as it will somehow ease the addiction of that said gambling. It's a great start compared to doing nothing.

Let's appreciate those institutions, organizations, and volunteers that are willing to help someone who falls out of gambling.

Yes, its still appreciable in regarding these services which do focused towards gambling addiction and to those people who are affected by it.It might not really be that relevant most of the time since
addiction could really be solved out personally or by yourself but there are indeed people which cant really able to help themselves when it comes to that which these things do really end up to be
relevant but of course the amount or pf wont really come cheap which is understandable. Losing millions or huge chunk of money could really happen in gambling field thats why
you should be mindful in towards your actions and goals or mindset towards gambling and never make yourself get greedy and chasing up losses in the end of the line.

Honestly a ton of professional sports stars are huge gamblers.  Most are sports betting but even with regular casino games.  They are all world competitors and are addicted to the "win".  Sad but more stories of sports stars going broke is mainly due to gambling.

of course there are no guarantees, even addiction can relapse for gamblers who have had therapy sessions, and this applies to any addict. 
I think we agree that therapy is a last resort for someone who has become addicted to gambling and wants to quit. 

there are many methods that they do to help release a person from addiction including giving certain types of drugs that can help recovery. I agree what you say I really appreciate it. 
we should appreciate those involved and fighting to free the many people who have become addicted to gambling.

That saying is true. Since you've mentioned about life, I've also seen those news that they've taken their own lives because they can no longer bear the loss that they've made.
It's sad and at the same time worrying that it's truly happening even if you're not from that area and a life is a life. Hopefully, that most gamblers will be responsible for all of their actions and that's what they're going to think first before doing something that's regrettable forever.

There are a few people which can beat their addiction on their own but they are a very small minority, and it is easy to see why as if they were capable of beating their addiction on their own then most likely they would have never gotten addicted on the first place, the rest needs help but not only from professionals but from their family and friends as well, since beating any addiction is not something that takes a few months to do so and instead it is a process which will take the rest of their lives as they keep fighting against the temptation to gamble again.

Thats why there are offered services into those people who cant really just able to make themselves quit their addiction which of course that wont really be that come cheap thats why there are
some who do really just decide on quitting on their own but if money wont be a problem then they would really be going into those treatment and counselling in regarding with gambling addiction.
Possible losses in gambling is an endless one which means that no matter how rich or wealthy you are but you are losing that much into that certain extent which is really very that too big
and trying to cope up with those losses then no doubt that sooner or later you would definitely be making yourself broke.

Yes, they can clearly afford their losses because somehow they have anticipated it too. But the gambling addiction that has developed more may lead to more unbearable losses in time. That made us realized that gambling will never do good in the long run. However, in this case with these big time celebrities, maybe it could be harder for them to realized that but when they nearly lost everything, that's when they start to discover the fact that they are not gambling to be productive anymore.

For celebrities it is harder to beat their addictions for several reasons, the first is that they have a lot of money and as such they take a lot more time to see any negative effects on their finances than the average person, however an even more important reason is that the people that surrounds them prefer to not take a stance against them as they fear losing their privileges and their money, so instead of trying to help them by confronting them they let things to escalate to the point the situation becomes impossible to sustain anymore.