Antoine Walker appeared on Rex Chapman’s Changes podcast this week and opened up about losing up to $4 million while gambling, and his 2009 arrest for gambling debts.
Walker explained he never believed himself to be a gambling addict but started racking up his gambling debt while in Las Vegas during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend in 2007.
“So I used to train in Vegas … I would stay out there probably like five weeks, usually stay with a bunch of guys, Kevin Garnett, T-Lue (Tyronn Lue), Chauncey Billups,” Walker told Chapman. “This was kind of their training facility where they used to train … So we’ll work out twice a day, like any other time. But at night, we’re in Vegas.”
When Chapman asked Walker if he thought he had a gambling problem, Walker explained why he didn’t think so.
“No … I wasn’t a guy that would sit there for hours...I never was a guy that’d, like, sit there for six, seven, eight, nine hours and just play,” Walker said. “I was more like, let me just hit and run. And I didn’t really gamble heavy until I was in Vegas. Vegas was my thing.”
“I won $4 million and lost $4 million,” he said. “… Vegas All-Star Weekend I won $800,000. I didn’t lose a bet All-Star Weekend in Vegas 2007. But then the following year I come back and lose a million.
“So this particular summer was a bad summer,” Walker said of 2009. “I got competitive, ended up staying out there five, six weeks. Next thing you know, I’m down $1 million.”
He started chasing the losses.
“I’m a big player at Caesars so my credit line’s a half a million, I could probably get it up to $750,000,” he said. “So I’m playing every day, whatever, and by the time I leave for the trip (to South Lake Tahoe to play in the American Century Celebrity Golf Classic) I owe $1 million so I’m pissed at myself and I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m done.’”
He then inquired about a payment plan with the casino.
“In the process of me dealing with that one situation in Vegas, you know after 45 days legally they can go and issue a warrant.”
He said he got a phone call from his mother saying he’s all over the news and there’s a warrant out for his arrest.
“I said, ‘Well, I’m in Nevada. Ain't nobody here. Nobody came up to me, no police came up to me.’”
He called his lawyer and who said they would figure it out once he got back to Las Vegas from South Lake Tahoe. He “took the public embarrassment for two days” and was in “golf, party mode” when the police took him in because of the warrant for his arrest.
He was never actually arrested, he said, and made the payment right there on the spot.
“So, I give them $135,000, had it wired over to them,” he said. “They let me out so I never did any jail time.”
During this process, the real estate market had crashed and a large amount of Walker’s portfolio was in real estate. On top of this, his business partner, unbeknownst to Walker, was having his own legal troubles.
“I did what some of us athletes do sometimes, we trust the wrong people.”
Moral of the story, watch who you trust and don’t bet more than you can afford to lose.
Lucy is a sports betting content producer with Audacy and BetQL. She has worked with WEEI and Audacy as a writer, radio producer and podcaster. Lucy lives in Boston and loves Tom Brady and prop bets. Follow Lucy on Twitter at @LucilleBurdge.