Celebs Who Have Lost Disastrously Big Sums Of Money
The highs and lows of celebrity life are often documented in tabloids, with a lot of focus on those who have earned millions during an illustrious career, but still end up broke. This can happen for a variety of reasons including bad advice, poor financial management, overspending, legal battles, gambling, or bad investments.
There are more than a few riches-to-rags stories, and we will focus on some of the biggest losses that celebrities have had over the years. Thankfully, some have been able to get back on their feet, but they aren’t all as fortunate.
Celebrities are typically high earners, especially sports, film, and music stars. Earning a fortune in a short space of time can sometimes be difficult to come to terms with, and celebs finding themselves with a lot of money and spare time between projects can often explore the world of gambling.
Gambling within your means can be a fun and exciting hobby, and it just so happens that most celebrities are in a position to comfortably lose more than the average working Joe.
The online betting industry has also made it easier than ever before for people to place a wager on different markets including casino games, sports betting, or racing.
Online betting also makes it possible for celebrities who are traveling for their work to keep up to date with their bets and place others. Online gambling expert Ernest Masuka explains that consumers can place bets wherever they are, even in jurisdictions that prohibit gambling, by visiting offshore casinos.
This means that multi-millionaire soccer stars like Neymar and Christiano Ronaldo could place bets in Saudi Arabia, pop and rock stars could enjoy wagers on tour, and even Leonardo DiCaprio would have been able to make the most of the best Thai online casinos while filming The Beach.
The Beach’s remote island locations in a country where gambling is strictly prohibited might sound like a barrier, but offshore betting sites have made it much easier for international gambling.
Some celebs will strike it lucky, but there are plenty who have suffered some big losses over the years, including Charles Barkley. The former NBA star and current analyst regulalry goes viral alongside Shaq for their funny and outrageous banter, but during his career, he has admitted to massive losses.
He estimates that he has lost somewhere around $25 million while gambling over the years. However, with his basketball career earnings netting him more than $40 million, and a TV contract that could be worth as much as $200 million over 10 years, he can afford it.
Another basketball star who has suffered from questionable judgment when it comes to spending and gambling is Allen Iverson. Once regarded as one of the top NBA stars, it was rumored for some time that he had burned through his earnings and actually filed for bankruptcy despite career earnings of over $200 million.
However, it has come to light that an NBA pension of $8k per month and a Reebok account that earns him $1 million per year and $32 million when he reaches the age of 55 means he is no longer struggling.
Not all celebrity losses come through gambling, and many who attempt to secure their future through investments get unlucky. This is by no means a modern phenomenon with famous writer Mark Twain losing his life savings back in the 1800s.
He put the equivalent of $10 million today ($300,000 at the time) into a plan for a new typesetting machine. However, the complicated technology required 18,000 parts and resulted in a handful of machines being made and his fortune being lost.
Billionaire Jay-Z has not had things all his own way, and an ill-fated hotel investment saw him lose more than $75 million. J Hotels was set to begin in Chelsea, New York, but the 2007 real estate crash put an end to that.
Sometimes an idea seems too good to be true, sadly this wasn’t the case for Torii Hunter, the former baseball star, who thought it would be wise to invest $70,000 in inflatable rafts that save household furniture in the event of flooding.
While this isn’t the largest amount a celebrity has lost, it is one of the strangest investments.
The notorious Bernie Madoff who was behind the biggest Ponzi scheme in history is behind losses for a lot of celebrities including Elie Wiesel, Stephen Spielberg, Kevin Bacon, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and John Malkovich.