{"id":433846,"date":"2026-01-24T06:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T06:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/433846\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T06:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T06:11:07","slug":"kayshon-boutte-opens-up-about-past-gambling-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/433846\/","title":{"rendered":"Kayshon Boutte opens up about past gambling addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the crazy haze of job openings and playoff preparations, some things don\u2019t get noticed when they\u2019re published. Here\u2019s one from two weeks ago that merits a mention.<\/p>\n

Patriots receiver Kayshon Boutte, who\u2019ll play in Sunday\u2019s AFC Championship, is only three years removed from a serious gambling addiction.<\/p>\n

Boutte shared his story<\/a> in an item posted on ThePlayersTribune.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d wake up early in the morning, and the first thing I\u2019d do was bet,\u201d Boutte wrote. \u201cI\u2019d stay up late and bet. All day. All night. I had insomnia, so if I woke up in the middle of the night, phone next to the bed, I\u2019d bet. Any little money I had, it was going straight to FanDuel.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, he was a 20-year-old athlete at LSU.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I was addicted,\u201d Boutte wrote. \u201cWhen you lose, and you\u2019re an addict, there\u2019s this voice in the back of your mind like, No, no, no\u2026\u2026 I gotta get my money back. I GOTTA get it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

He kept going due to the unrealistic fantasy, sold by ubiquitous advertising, that a big payday is there to be had.<\/p>\n

“[E]ven when you win, it\u2019s never enough \u2014 you aren\u2019t satisfied just winning $1,000,\u201d Boutte wrote. \u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, a bag is nice. But nobody gambles for that kind of money. Gambling is about the dream. Everybody\u2019s dream is to go to the casino and hit for $100K \u2026 $300K \u2026 $500K. And a lot of gamblers think that if they quit, it would end up being right before their biggest hit, before they would have tripled up on some parlay. 10x, 20x. Why not? That could be me. That\u2019s the mindset that always kept me hanging on. What if I do quit, but one day, I would\u2019ve hit this, and we\u2019da been on a boat somewhere, living off it?\u201d<\/p>\n

As Boutte explained it, the same thing that drove him to strive for a pro football career kept him going with gambling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad when I think about how, as a kid, my ability to dream was an asset,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThat\u2019s what got me to LSU, and later, all the way to the NFL. But as a gambling addict, my dreaming was my biggest liability. It was like my own mind was working against me. Nobody was forcing me, I wasn\u2019t being hustled. I didn\u2019t even have nobody to be mad at but myself. I was digging my own grave. Then one day, I shoveled that last little bit of dirt over my head \u2014 I had nothing left. I gambled until I was completely broke. When it was all said and done, I put in around $90,000 of my own money, and lost it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boutte said he started gambling as a way to replace the sense of competition he lost after suffering an injury at LSU.<\/p>\n

Boutte was eventually arrested for underage gambling. (The charges were later dropped<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there\u2019s more stories like mine out there,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBetting is just gonna keep getting bigger and bigger. Gambling is what it is. I\u2019m not here to preach. It\u2019s going to exist. But people who are in a dark place, they\u2019re gonna use it to escape. Athletes, especially. I\u2019m telling you, because I lived it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has a final message for those who\u2019ll see the inevitable stories about players getting in trouble for gambling.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust remember that there\u2019s a person behind that headline. When you ask yourself, \u2018How could they do something like that? How could they risk it all? What were they thinking?\u2019 . . . The sad part is, they weren\u2019t thinking. They were going through something. Don\u2019t give up on them. . . . Maybe they just need some help.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. Gone are the days of having to go find a bookie in order to place a bet. Gambling is everywhere. It\u2019s quick and it\u2019s easy to get started. For many, it\u2019s hard to stop.<\/p>\n

Especially for those who thrive on competition and who suddenly have lost that ability to try to get the rush that comes from a win. When it comes to gambling, the more likely outcome for most who do it is that they\u2019ll eventually lose. And many will lose big.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the crazy haze of job openings and playoff preparations, some things don\u2019t get noticed when they\u2019re published.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,137,514,515],"class_list":{"0":"post-433846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}