JIMMY: I BLEW £3M ON BETS AND BOOZE
Snooker legend reveals he spent a fortune during heyday
JIMMY White has revealed he gambled away “at least” £3million during his heyday.
The snooker legend went bankrupt as he blew his fortune while getting hooked on alcohol and cocaine.
“Whirlwind” White reached six World Championship finals but lost each of them.
Speaking on the Anything Goes podcast, the 59-year-old said: “I gambled at least three million quid, so if I gambled three million quid I probably had to earn six or seven million to get that.
“That’s a lump, that’s retirement money, so I should be more sick with that but because, at the time, it was going so f***ing quick, you don’t think, do you? I went bankrupt through gambling.”
The star also revealed he went on a bender in Dublin with bands Thin Lizzy and UB40, drinking 12 bottles of champagne between them every day for over two weeks.
White said: “I went to Ireland and I played Alex Higgins and I was in the Gresham hotel and this geezer who was the promoter said, ‘You can stay there as long as you like’.
“He said, ‘I’ll send you up 12 bottles of champagne every day’. Me and Higgins got the suite, he goes off to Northern Ireland, I stay in Dublin.
“Thin Lizzy and UB40 were in a studio round the corner and they were in my suite every night drinking these 12 bottles of champagne and that went on for 16 days.”
As well as alcohol, White had a well-documented addiction to cocaine. But to avoid being caught by snooker drug tests, he was careful to stop partying before a game. He added: “I never played stoned, I was always careful with my addiction.
“It took four or five days to get out of your system and we used to get urine tested, so I never wanted to get caught for that and lucky enough I always made sure I was a week clean before I played.”