5 – Sylvester Stallone
Sly’s the sort of gambler the casinos love – he’s absolutely loaded, he adores the lifestyle, and, best of all, he’s really not that brilliant at betting. Just witness the moment in ITV’s self-explanatory Piers Morgan On Las Vegas where the Rambo star loses a big bankroll at the roulette table. Our host’s smug amusement at this failure is then compounded when Stallone’s wife Jennifer Flavin wins big but moments later. Not that the big man seemed at all bothered – with celebritynetworth.com estimating his personal fortune at around $400m, Rocky Balboa can swallow the odd bad month at ‘the office’.
4 – 50 Cent
While Stallone enjoys the casino floor, Curtis James Jackson III gets his kicks betting on sports events. The rapper’s epic gambling feats include picking up $500,000 when the New York Giants defeated the San Francisco 49ers back in 2012. This, however, was easily eclipsed when Fiddy put $1.6 million on Floyd Mayweather to beat Manny Pacquiao. Jackson’s rationale? “Floyd can’t lose. It’s a lock.” And he was quite right – which is more than can be said for his decision to both star in and finance the abysmal biopic Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. Now he’s bankrupt . . .
3 – Harry Styles
One Direction – four young lads (bye, Zayne) adored the world over by girls who’d like to give lesbianism a go but don’t want to go the whole hog. But it’d be wrong to think these guys lack edge. Just look at the dressing down Harry Styles received after losing a bundle in the casinos of Australia and Las Vegas. Not that the talking to did had much effect on the self-styled ‘bad boy’ of the band Harry Styles who continues to gamble despite the pleas of his fans and that most hard hitting of publications, Now magazine.
2 – Charlie Sheen
“Winning!” is his catchphrase and the Wall Street actor has enjoyed some triumphs on the betting front. A talented baseball player in his youth, the man born Carlos Estevez likes to wager on sporting events. Likes to wager a lot as the divorce papers demonstrated when he split from fellow actor Denise Richards. For if dropping $200,000 A WEEK on baseball and football wasn’t enough, Sheen’s casino visits were infamous for reaching remarkable levels of extravagance. While Mrs Sheen couldn’t swallow the excess, the star’s bank account had no such problem, Charlie having been the noughties’ highest paid TV actor.
1 – Ben Affleck
Another A-lister whose betting habit hurt his relationship. When the news broke that the Oscar-winner was getting divorced from Jennifer Garner, ‘friends’ were quick to point to Affleck’s love of gambling having placed a strain on the marriage. And as live casino review portal RightCasino have illustrated, the Argo star’s far from a casual casino-goer. On the contrary, he’s been asked to leave playing floors in Vegas and Detroit, in the former case following an accusation of card counting. In denying this charge, the man who’s about to play Batman attributed his card-playing success to his being “too good.”