John Daly - The Odds Aren't in His Favor

Golfer John Daly has a problem. He says that he has lost between $50 million and $60 million over the last 12 years. He says that this gambling problem could “flat-out ruin me” if he doesn’t bring it under control.

Daly’s gambling problems are noted, according to a Sports Illustrated article, in the final chapter of his upcoming autobiography, John Daly: My Life In and Out of the Rough. In one of his gambling episodes, Daly writes how he lost in a playoff to Tiger Woods last fall, but still earned $750,000. He then headed to Las Vegas and lost $600,000 within 30 minutes. He then took out another $600,000 line of credit and lost that in two hours.

I’m glad for John Daly that he says he has a problem. Really I am, despite the fact that I have trouble generating sympathy for someone who is apparently able to support a gambling habit that has resulted in his losing, over a 12 year period, an amount exceeding 20 times what I expect to earn in my entire life.

I’m less optimistic that he really believes it, though. Evidence: His plan for treating his addiction: He plans to start at the $25 slots in the casinos and set a “walkout loss number.” “If I make a little bit, then maybe I move up to the $100 slots or the $500 slots, or maybe I take it to the blackjack table. It’s their money. Why not give it a shot, try to double it? And if I make a lot, I can…Well, that’s my plan”

It’s like an alcoholic getting his problem under control by cutting back to one six-pack a day, and if he didn’t have any problem with that, moving up to a fifth of tequila. And if he can handle that, upping it to two fifths sounds great!

I polled the staff at Scott’s Spot on the chances for the success of Daly’s gambling management plan. The average of all responses is represented on the gauge at the right.