From USAtoday.com…
Did Phil Mickelson entertain multimillion-dollar offers from the Saudis because he’s suffered massive gambling losses?
Fire Pit Collective‘s Alan Shipnuck, author of the forthcoming Mickelson biography, “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar,” reveals in an excerpt that the six-time major champion may have had financial difficulties due to eight-figure gambling losses.
Shipnuck said Mickelson suffered gambling losses totaling more than $40 million between 2010 and 2014 based on financial records that were disclosed to government auditors as part of an insider trading case (the Dean Foods investigation) in which professional gambler Billy Walters was found guilty on all 10 counts against him, fined $10 million and spent five years in prison while Mickelson was ordered to pay back trading profits totaling $931,738 plus interest of $105,292, but otherwise skated free on a technicality.
“In those prime earning years, Mickelson’s income was estimated to be just north of $40 million a year,” Shipnuck wrote. “That’s an obscene amount of money, but once he paid his taxes (including the California tariffs he publicly railed against), he was left with, what, low-20s? Then he had to cover his plane and mansion(s), plus his agent, caddie, pilots, chef, personal trainer, swing coaches and sundry others.
