Entertainment
Phil Mickelson Allegedly Bet More Than $1 Billion on Sports, Book Claims on August 10, 2023 at 4:46 pm Us Weekly

Phil Mickelson has allegedly wagered more than $1 billion on sports across the last three decades, according to famed sports gambler Billy Walters.
“Phil liked to gamble as much as anyone I’ve ever met. Frankly, given Phil’s annual income and net worth at the time, I had no problems with his betting,” Walters, 77, claimed in his upcoming memoir, Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk, which was excerpted by The Fire Pit Collective on Thursday, August 10. “And still don’t. He’s a big-time gambler, and big-time gamblers make big bets. It’s his money to spend how he wants.”
Walters — who met the pro golfer, now 53, at a tournament in 2006 — claimed that Mickelson propositioned him about a gambling partnership two years later. Walters was only looking for a partner if “someone has access to places I can’t bet” or “places where they can bet more money than me.” Mickelson allegedly fulfilled both requirements — and the duo began a mutual gambling arrangement that lasted for five years.
“We became what I thought were friends. If you’ve ever had a golf buddy, you know what I’m talking about,” Walters penned. “From the start, our betting agreement — one we verbally negotiated — called for us to split everything fifty-fifty. Phil put up half the money; I put up the other half. That way, we shared an equal amount of risk and reward.”
Of course, not all bets placed win — and Walters and Mickelson were not immune to suffering losses. The Gambler author even speculated that Mickelson has lost close to $100 million. “In all, he wagered a total of more than $1 billion during the past three decades,” Walters claimed in the book, noting he himself has gambled even more than that.
Walters went on to recall, Mickelson — who allegedly told Walters he had “two offshore” bank accounts to service the gambling sums — once worried Walters with a particularly large bet.
Phil Mickelson. ETIENNE LAURENT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“In late September 2012, Phil called me from Medinah Country Club just outside Chicago, site of the 39th Ryder Cup matches between the United States and Europe. He was feeling supremely confident that the American squad led by Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson, and Phil himself was about to reclaim the Cup from the Euros,” Walters alleged in the passage. “He was so confident that he asked me to place a $400,000 wager for him on the U.S. team to win. I could not believe what I was hearing.”
He continued: “‘Have you lost your f—king mind?’ I told him. ‘Don’t you remember what happened to Pete Rose?’ The former Cincinnati Reds manager was banned from baseball for betting on his own team. ‘You’re seen as a modern-day Arnold Palmer,’ I added. ‘You’d risk all that for this? I want no part of it.’”
While Walters turned down Mickelson’s alleged offer, he admitted that he has “no idea” if his former pal placed the bet elsewhere. (The U.S. team ultimately lost the tournament by one point to the European athletes.)
Mickelson, who has not addressed Walters’ memoir claims, previously landed in hot water for his interactions with Walters. The Securities and Exchange Commission named Mickelson in a May 2016 federal lawsuit, claiming the pro athlete made nearly $1 million after purchasing stock on an insider trading tip from Walters. Mickelson’s attorney said in a statement at the time that his client made an agreement with the SEC to return the entire sum.
“Phil has not been charged with insider trading,” the lawyer told USA Today Sports in a statement. “Phil was an innocent bystander to alleged wrongdoing by others that he was unaware of. Phil is innocent of any wrongdoing.”
Walters is also set to discuss his side of the legal battle in the Gamblers book.
“Phil Mickelson, one of the most famous people in the world and a man I once considered a friend, refused to tell a simple truth that he shared with the FBI and could have kept me out of prison,” he further claimed in Thursday’s excerpt. “I never told him I had inside information about stocks and he knows it. All Phil had to do was publicly say it. He refused.”
Walters concluded: “The outcome cost me my freedom, tens of millions of dollars and a heartbreak I still struggle with daily. While I was in prison, my daughter committed suicide – I still believe I could have saved her if I’d been on the outside.”
Walters was released from prison in May 2020 to serve the remainder of his five-year sentence from home amid the coronavirus pandemic. Former president Donald Trump commuted Walters’ sentence in 2021 after four years.
Phil Mickelson has allegedly wagered more than $1 billion on sports across the last three decades, according to famed sports gambler Billy Walters. “Phil liked to gamble as much as anyone I’ve ever met. Frankly, given Phil’s annual income and net worth at the time, I had no problems with his betting,” Walters, 77, claimed
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Entertainment
South Park’s Christmas Episode Delivers the Antichrist

A new Christmas-themed episode of South Park is scheduled to air with a central plot in which Satan is depicted as preparing for the birth of an Antichrist figure. The premise extends a season-long narrative arc that has involved Satan, Donald Trump, and apocalyptic rhetoric, positioning this holiday episode as a culmination of those storylines rather than a stand‑alone concept.
Episode premise and season context
According to published synopses and entertainment coverage, the episode frames the Antichrist as part of a fictional storyline that blends religious symbolism with commentary on politics, media, and cultural fear. This follows earlier Season 28 episodes that introduced ideas about Trump fathering an Antichrist child and tech billionaire Peter Thiel obsessing over prophecy and end‑times narratives. The Christmas setting is presented as a contrast to the darker themes, reflecting the series’ pattern of pairing holiday imagery with controversial subject matter.
Public and political reactions
Coverage notes that some figures connected to Donald Trump’s political orbit have criticized the season’s portrayal of Trump and his allies, describing the show as relying on shock tactics rather than substantive critique. Commentators highlight that these objections are directed more at the depiction of real political figures and the show’s tone than at the specific theology of the Antichrist storyline.
At the time of reporting, there have not been widely reported, detailed statements from major religious leaders focused solely on this Christmas episode, though religion-focused criticism of South Park in general has a long history.
Media and cultural commentary
Entertainment outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, Forbes, Slate, and USA Today describe the Antichrist arc as part of South Park’s ongoing use of Trump-era and tech-world politics as material for satire.
Viewer guidance and content advisory
South Park is rated TV‑MA and is intended for adult audiences due to strong language, explicit themes, and frequent use of religious and political satire. Viewers who are sensitive to depictions of Satan, the Antichrist, or parodies involving real political figures may find this episode particularly objectionable, while others may view it as consistent with the show’s long‑running approach to controversial topics. As with previous episodes, individual responses are likely to vary widely, and the episode is best understood as part of an ongoing satirical series rather than a factual or theological statement.
Entertainment
Sydney Sweeney Finally Confronts the Plastic Surgery Rumors

Sydney Sweeney has decided she is finished watching strangers on the internet treat her face like a forensic project. After years of side‑by‑side screenshots, “then vs now” TikToks, and long comment threads wondering what work she has supposedly had done, the actor is now addressing the plastic surgery rumors directly—and using them to say something larger about how women are looked at in Hollywood and online.

Growing Up on Camera vs. “Before and After” Culture
Sweeney points out that people are often mistaking normal changes for procedures: she grew up on camera, her roles now come with big‑budget glam teams, and her body has shifted as she has trained, aged, and worked nonstop. Yet every new red‑carpet photo gets folded into a narrative that assumes surgeons, not time, are responsible. Rather than walking through a checklist of what is “real,” she emphasizes how bizarre it is that internet detectives comb through pores, noses, and jawlines as if they are owed an explanation for every contour of a woman’s face.
The Real Problem Isn’t Her Face
By speaking up, Sweeney is redirecting the conversation away from her features and toward the culture that obsesses over them.
She argues that the real issue isn’t whether an actress has had work done, but why audiences feel so entitled to dissect her body as public property in the first place.
For her, the constant speculation is less about curiosity and more about control—another way to tell women what they should look like and punish them when they do not fit. In calling out that dynamic, Sweeney isn’t just defending herself; she is forcing fans and followers to ask why tearing apart someone else’s appearance has become such a popular form of entertainment.
Entertainment
Netflix’s $82.7 Billion Warner Bros Deal Signals the Rise of a New Hollywood Power

For years, Netflix was the outsider—the tech disruptor knocking on the studio gates.
With its $82.7 billion move to acquire Warner Bros, it is no longer knocking; it is taking the keys and changing the locks.
The deal transforms Netflix from pure‑play streamer into a full‑scale studio‑streamer hybrid, fusing Silicon Valley’s data obsession with a century of Hollywood storytelling muscle.
From red envelopes to studio gates
Netflix’s journey from DVD‑by‑mail upstart to owner of a legacy studio is not just a growth story; it is a generational power shift. Warner Bros once embodied the old studio system, with backlots, soundstages, and iconic franchises like DC, “Harry Potter,” and “Game of Thrones.” By absorbing that machine, Netflix is effectively buying time—decades of brand equity and infrastructure it could never build from scratch at the same speed.

The move also closes a chaotic chapter for Warner Bros Discovery, which has wrestled with streaming strategy, debt, and identity since its last megamerger. Selling the studio and streaming assets while spinning off cable networks is a tacit admission that the future of this business is on‑demand, not in linear bundles.
What this new giant actually controls
Once the ink is dry, Netflix will not just host Warner content; it will own the pipes that create it. That means control of blockbuster IP, a deep catalog, HBO’s prestige engine, and global distribution to hundreds of millions of subscribers. In practical terms, one company will decide where and how a massive portion of premium film and TV reaches audiences worldwide.
This is where the “new Hollywood power” language earns its weight.
Disney may still be the benchmark for franchise dominance, but Netflix plus Warner tilts the axis of competition. The question is no longer whether streaming can rival studios; it is whether any traditional studio can rival a platform that has become a studio.
The upside—and the anxiety
For viewers, the upside is obvious: more of what they love in one place, fewer log‑ins, and the thrill of seeing HBO‑level shows and Warner‑scale films flowing through Netflix’s global pipeline. For creators and competitors, the mood is more complicated. Labor groups are already warning about reduced competition for scripts and talent, while regulators eye the merger as another test case in how far media consolidation can go.

The Trump administration’s stance on large media deals adds another layer of uncertainty, with analysts openly debating whether political pressure could reshape or stall the transaction. In other words, this is not just a business story; it is a power story, with cultural, economic, and political stakes colliding in one headline‑ready package.
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