Michael Chopra, who was signed by Roy Keane for Sunderland back in 2007, revealed the extent of his gambling problems in court today.
He says that his gambling started at Newcastle when he was only seventeen and that up to £30,000 would be gambled on the team bus.
From The Guardian:
"I started gambling when I was about 17, when I first played for Newcastle I was travelling with the first team," he said. "Players would gamble on the bus and I got involved. We would take thousands of pounds on to the bus, anything up to £30,000.
"It might change hands playing cards on the bus, we would go to the bank before and take out the money. It was part of team bonding. We were playing for real cash, if you were playing for £30,000 you would have it with you at the time."
He also divulged that when he was at Ipswich, a loan shark turned up at the club looking for money that he owed.
"They said they knew what car I was driving and they would follow me until I paid them. They said they knew what school my little boy went to and where my parents lived and where I lived in Ipswich. I felt sick that I had put my family in that situation from my gambling."
Chopra was in court giving evidence at a trial involving four men accused of supplying a class A drug.
He believes that in total he has gambled away £2 million.
