LOS ANGELES
\nPhil Mickelson has placed bets worth a total of more than $1 billion during his career, including a $400,000 wager on the outcome of the 2012 Ryder Cup, according to excerpts from a forthcoming book published in US media on Thursday.
\nThe revelations about Mickelson\u2019s betting are contained in \u201cGambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk\u201d by professional US gambler Billy Walters, a former close associate of the six-time major winner.
\nIn an extended excerpt from the book published by the FirePit Collective website on Thursday, Walters detailed frenzied betting by Mickelson over the past three decades.
\nA biography of Mickelson published in 2022 by US golf writer Alan Shipnuck reported that the golfer had racked up more than $40 million in gambling losses throughout his career.
\nMickelson last year acknowledged he had struggled with gambling in the past, describing his betting as \u201creckless and embarrassing\u201d and revealing that he had undergone \u201chundreds of hours of therapy\u201d to address the issue.
\nHowever Walters said the scale of Mickelson\u2019s losses had been significantly under-reported, and estimated the golfer had in fact made bets worth more than $1 billion in total.
\n\u201cBased on our relationship and what I\u2019ve since learned from others, Phil\u2019s gambling losses approached not $40 million as has been previously reported, but much closer to $100 million,\u201d Walters wrote.
\n\u201cIn all, he wagered a total of more than $1 billion during the past three decades.\u201d
\nWalters and Mickelson\u2019s relationship ruptured when Walters was investigated and subsequently convicted and jailed over an insider trading scam.
\nMickelson wasn\u2019t charged, but repaid almost $1 million from money made in the deal.
\nWalters says in the book he never passed on inside information to Mickelson on the stock deal probed by authorities.
\n\u201cAll Phil had to do was publicly say it. He refused,\u201d Walters wrote.
\n\u201cThe outcome cost me my freedom, tens of millions of dollars and a heartbreak I still struggle with daily.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES Phil Mickelson has placed bets worth a total of more than $1 billion during his career, including a $400,000 wager on the outcome of the 2012 Ryder Cup, according to excerpts from a forthcoming book published in US media on Thursday. The revelations about Mickelson\u2019s betting are contained in \u201cGambler: Secrets from a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-348734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n