Erick Lindgren Battling Gambling Addiction And Bankruptcy

Just a few short years ago Erick Lindgren was on top of the poker world with $8,508,354 in live tournament winnings, including a WSOP bracelet and 2 WPT titles.
However, in a dramatic example of the highs and lows of professional gambling the 36 year old recently confessed to having a serious gambling problem and at one stage had managed to run up debts in excess of $10 million. In fact, matters got so out of hand for Lindgren in the end that last year he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, explaining at the time:
“I owed people a bunch of money, and it’s something that I’ve been working on for a long time, but I definitely slipped up, made some really bad mistakes and I needed to address that.”
Now it appears that Erick Lindgren has taken further steps to battle his own personal demons after spending two weeks at a rehab center in Newport Beach, California. The US pro’s stay was apparently paid for by a concerned friend.
An advantage poker players have over most other gamblers is that if you are skillful you can manipulate the odds enough in your favour to earn a tidy income. Unfortunately, the poker world is littered with players who also acquired tastes for gambling outside their specialized field, and Lindgren is yet another example. Lindgren’s downfall would appear to be related to sports betting, and he admitted to losing “way too much money” in 2011 and owing a bunch of people money.
After experiencing the downward spiral of gambling addiction the once top poker pro is now hoping to turn his life around once more and concentrate on what he does best by concentrating solely on playing poker. As Erick Lindgren explains: “I just want to get back to where my word, when I say something, it means something and I just want to get back to a level of full accountability.”