Manny Pacquiao used to bet $360,000 on cockfights, would lose $100,000 in poker

Manny Pacquiao used to be in financial trouble despite earnings multi-millions as a boxer, and it’s not just his generosity that is to blame. Apparently he used to have a bad gambling habit that ate into his financial fortune.

In a feature on Pacquiao published by Chris Mannix for the May 4 issue of Sports Illustrated, Pacquiao’s gambling problem was discussed.

From Mannix’s article:

In 2011, [close friend Buboy Fernandez] saw Pacquiao at a crossroads. Years of infidelity had put his marriage in jeopardy; years of free spending and hard gambling had put his financial future at risk, too. Everyone in Pacquiao’s camp has a gambling story. Manny’s younger brother Bobby recalls regular weekend trips to Southern California casinos, where Pacquiao would routinely drop $100,000 at the poker tables. Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, recounts the phone calls from casinos in Australia and Macao, asking him to cover Pacquiao’s markers. Roach recalls being at cockfights with Pacquiao in the Philippines, where Pacquiao would flash 5–0 with his hands, indicating a $50,000 bet. At the subject of cockfighting—which is legal in the Philippines—Buboy shakes his head. Once, he says, Pacquiao bet 16 million pesos on a cockfight, or around $360,000.

Charles Barkley, who is an admitted gambling addict, has said that it’s not a problem if you can afford it. But if you’re dropping six figures regularly, that adds up quickly and can cost someone millions in a matter of weeks, which is definitely a problem.

Stories about Pacquiao’s financial problems have long been rumored, but I never knew the extent to which he gambled. As of late 2013, Pac-Man reportedly owed the IRS just over $18 million in back taxes. He also supposedly owed (and later paid off) millions owed to the Philippines government. We long believed that Pacquiao was pushing for a fight with Floyd Mayweather so hard because he needed the money, something Mayweather mocked him for.

But dropping hundreds of thousands betting on cockfights and six figures on poker is certainly big money that is on-par with the type of sports betting Mayweather does. The good news is that in 2012, Pac-Man gave up gambling, cockfighting, and clubbing so that his soul wouldn’t go to hell.