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It’s been close to two years since former LSU wide receiver Kayshon Boutte was arrested for making close to 9,000 illegal bets during his time with the Tigers. Those charges were eventually dropped, but it turns out they had some merit after he came clean about the gambling addiction that led to him burning through a ton of money while playing in Baton Rouge.
It’s been around eight years since the landmark Supreme Court decision that opened the door for legal sports betting across the United States. That was a very welcome development for plenty of people who don’t have any issues exercising self-control while gambling on games, but you didn’t need to be an expert to know there were going to be some downsides.
There have been multiple studies chronicling the predictable link between the legalization of sports betting and the rise in the number of people who’ve developed a gambling addiction thanks in no small part to the online sportsbooks that make it possible to get in on the action by pressing a few buttons on your phone.
The NBA, NFL, and MLB have all had to grapple with gambling scandals that are inextricably tied to that new era of betting, and the NCAA has also had its hands full thanks to student-athletes who’ve been accused of fixing games and violating rules that bar them from wagering on sports.
Kayshon Boutte managed to avoid any discipline after getting sucked in while playing at LSU, but his bank account took a beating based on what he had to say about the addiction he was able to overcome.
Kayshon Boutte says he lost close to $100,000 while betting on sports at LSU
Boutte spent three seasons at LSU before the Patriots selected him in the sixth round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
He barely saw the field as a rookie, and things took a pretty wild turn after he wrapped up his first season in New England when he was arrested for computer fraud and underage gambling in Louisiana over allegations he used a fake account to place over 8,900 bets between April 2022 to May 2023.
That averaged out to around 23 per day, and while it seemed like his NFL career could be in jeopardy, he was cleared when the charges were dropped in the summer of 2024.
However, according to an article he recently penned for The Players’ Tribune, there’s a reason he was charged in the first place due to the gambling addiction he said he developed while recovering from the broken ankle he suffered midway through his sophomore season in 2021.
Boutte said he was initially drawn to sports betting apps because he felt the need to compete in some form after being sidelined, but he quickly found himself sucked in while burning through his NIL checks.
He admitted he’d hop on FanDuel as soon as he woke up in the morning and reached a point where he was getting up in the middle of the night to place more bets, and he kept chasing the high until he reached rock bottom and “completely broke” after losing a total of $90,000.
Boutte credited his return to the field and the birth of his son at the start of his junior season for helping him break the habit, and he also gave props to the Patriots for sticking with him after his past came back to haunt him. He’s making around $1 million a year on his rookie deal, and he seems poised to earn even more on his next contract after emerging as a solid contributor in New England.