Many gambling addiction stories start out innocently enough—a trip to the casino here or there, a few good wins, then a loss or two. Then something happens. The same chemicals in the brain that cause a person to become addicted to alcohol or drugs soon start to react to the act of gambling in a similar way. Jun 19, 2013 Crazy gambling stories, plenty of people have them and they are always fun to hear. Like a right of passage, gamblers live to compare their tales of triumph and woe. With the news of Floyd Mayweather’s huge sports betting victory in Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Finals, ADANAI thought it would be fun to hunt down a few other outrageous gambling.

Michael Jordan is known for being the best player in the history of basketball, being as dominant on the offensive end of the court as he was on defense, constantly making the highlight reels and knocking everybody off their feet with his crafty moves.

Thus, the six time NBA champion and ultimate leader of the original American Dream Team made a lot of friends and enemies during his entire career on his way to stardom, although nobody could ever disrespect the GOAT or diminish his impact.

In fact, Michael was so damn fierce that he even punched his own teammate Steve Kerr in the face during practice, being a very tough guy to deal with if things didn’t go the Bulls way and definitely not the guy you want to be rivals with.

And most of this kind of behavior can be explained by what could’ve been Michael’s main feature: his competitiveness. Michael just hated losing, whether it was a pickup game, a ping pong matchup or game 6 of the NBA finals, this guy just couldn’t handle defeat.

Furthermore, his competitive spirit and determination to win often pushed him over the edge, although that wasn’t always positive, as he’s been known for struggling with gambling and losing a lot of cash in Vegas for this affection.

Betting on Rock Paper Scissors

As a matter of fact, one of his former teammates even stated that the multimillionaire face of the Jordan brand actually betted as much as 100K dollars in rock, paper and scissors matchups against other buddies, and even if you have as much money on the band as MJ does, this is just bananas.

Golfing and losing

The former San Diego Sports Arena manager Richard Esquinas was actually inspired by his royal Airness as most of us were, but for many different reasons, as he talked about Jordan’s gambling problem in his best-selling book, stating that the greatest player in basketball history actually owed him almost 1.3 million dollars after 10 days of golfing together, although MJ wind up having to pay just under 1 million, but after refusing to do so, Esquinas had to settle with “just” 300 thousand dollars.

Also, Charles Barkley even told the media that his longtime rival and buddy betted him 300k on a single putt while playing golf with him and other wealthy guys, and here we are, struggling to get to the end of the month.

Olympic Poker

Michael Jordan and the USA Dream Team had pretty much a walk in the park during their Olympic run at Barcelona, outscoring opposing teams by more than 40 points per game. Of course, that made both Jordan and his buddies sit down and relax, spending most of the time partying and of course: Gambling.

As a matter of fact, rumors say that Michael Jordan actually slept for just under 1 hour after staying up until 6 am playing poker alongside Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley and his Bulls teammate Scottie Pippen before completely wrecking Croatia’s hopes in the match for the gold.

Read More

Betting on luggage

As crazy as it may sound, Michael’s gambling problem actually made him do prop bets about the most absurd things on a return flight after the Olympics while team USA was waiting for their bags at Portland, even stating that he was going to be the first guy to receive his luggage. But, the craziest thing is that he actually won, getting the easiest 900 dollars of his life. Nonetheless, he furtherly revealed that he had actually bribed the airport staff just to win the bet. Classic Michael.

Oh, Craps Table!

A decade ago, Jordan was reportedly partying in Vegas alongside other athletes, like Adam Pacman Jones from the Cincinnati Bengals, that told the media that Michael was so obsessed with the craps table that he winds up losing as much as 5 million dollars in the casino and that he was actually 1 million up at one point before the 6 time NBA Champion took matters into his own hands to waste everybody’s money. Sadly for Jones, he got into a brawl at a strip club after losing that lot of cash and got suspended from the NFL. Tough night, buddy!

Playoff game tomorrow? Let’s hit the casino!

If you have a gambling problem, avoiding Atlantic City would definitely be the smartest thing to do, especially if you have to play the New York Knicks in the playoffs the day after. Still, Jordan had no time for friendly advice and decided to party all night long in the casino, eventually losing the game and making the media had a feast with him.

Gambling Horror Stories Reddit

However, this is Michael Jordan we’re talking about, so the Bulls obviously bounced back from that tough loss and took the series with great ease, eventually winning the last consecutive championship of his first three peat back then in 1993.

Besides, it’s been rumored that his first retirement was actually a secret gambling suspension, but that the league didn’t want to taint the image of the ultimate face of the NBA, the guy that made this sport so popular and beloved.

Gambling Stories Reddit Sites

Truth or not, you just can’t mess with MJ or he’ll get back at you, and if you manage to beat him, he won’t catch a break until he takes everything back from you, so you better treat him with respect and please, don’t test him.