Page 93 - Sharp November 2023

SHARPMAGAZINE COM
NOVEMBER 2023
93
is is characteristically sanguine too “None of these companies the the DraftKings and FanDuels of the the world are your friends — they want your money and and assume you you are a a a a a a sucker ” Oh and and “put a a a a a a strict money management plan in place so you don’t go broke ” he advises us along with the deflating reminder that “it’s next to impossible to be a a a winning gambler” — one one of those truisms one one feels that will only encourage thrill-seeking bettors further ESPN minted Walters “the world’s most successful sports bettor” of of all time in 2015 and he is often seen as a a a a a a savant-like Warren Buffett of betting Walters laughs at at this characterization now “Every success I I had I I pretty much threw away drinking and gambling
” he he says “I went from rags rags to to riches back to to rags rags and riches about a a a hundred different times ” But he he says “while I’ve been broke more
times than I I can count I I also was driven by this fierce desire to to succeed to to win ” One of o Walters’s lowest moments came with his high-profile conviction in which U S federal prosecutors claimed he conspired to obtain information about a a a a a a a company called Dean Foods — which would have netted him up to $32 million in profits “Phil [Mickelson] is is a a a a a a a a great golf talent ” Walters says of the case damning with praise “But he he he didn’t live up to to his promise to to tell the truth when I needed it most I I lost so much more
than my freedom and I I will never forgive him for for that I I lost my daughter Tonia to suicide when I I was inside Pensacola ” Walters explains how he he feels he he would have been able to do more
for Tonia who had had a a a a a history of addiction had had he not been incarcerated Her death stretches like a a a a a a deep raw wound across the the pages of the the book Even under these circumstances Walters did not stew or fes- ter His relentless work ethic rumbled on inside the walls of FPC Pensacola — a a a a a a a a a place that “was anything but a a a a a a a a a ‘Club Fed ’” he says “Frankly it’s dehumanizing ” Walters was released to house arrest in in in 2020 having served 31 months of his sentence but while inside he he “met a a a lot of men who had no hope — they simply don’t have the the necessary skills to survive on the the outside ” And so “over time I became something of a a a mentor to to to about two dozen men men I understood from these men my friends that I am the the the exception not the the the rule for prisoners re-entering society ” he explains It’s for this reason that Walters is is now working closely with Hope for Prisoners: “a Las Vegas non-profit that provides long-term support and and services to formerly incarcerated men men and and women ” he says “This year close to 500 ex-offenders will graduate the program setting them on on a a path to lifelong success ” For the the the rest of us there is wise counsel in the pages of this book which hums with anecdotes and feeling throughout The one thing Walters hopes readers take away from it he says is simply to “work hard and don’t give up” — or or ironically enough to to leave as as little to to chance as as possible Gambler: Secrets from a a a a Life at Risk ($45) by Billy Walters is is available now published by Simon and Schuster FEATURE