Phil Mickelson has been named as a “gambling client” in a case that involves a person who was a part of “an illegal gambling operation which accepted and placed bets on sporting events.”
ESPN’s Outside the Lines has produced a story on Gregory Silveira who reached a plea bargain agreement with prosecutors and pled guilty to three counts of money laundering. Silveira is a 56 year old sports gambler who was acting as a middle man for offshore gambling operations.
A transfer of $2.75 million was made by Mickelson to Silveira. 
Mickelson’s name was derived from a document used by the Department of Justice in the court filing.
From the ESPN story:
“Although the final plea agreement reached between Silveira and the U.S. Department of Justice does not name the “gambling client, “an initial plea agreement signed last month by Silveira and his attorney, James D. Henderson Sr., contained a reference to the “money laundering of funds from P.M.” After Outside the Lines inquired about Mickelson’s potential role in the case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office on June 17 filed a motion to have the original plea agreement stricken. The next day, it filed an amended version minus any reference to “P.M.”
Click here for a link to the actual document.
Mickelson is not a focus of the investigation and is not expected to be charged in the case.
Those are the facts of the case but here is another: Phil likes to bet. On the course he is famous for his weekly practice day games. Off the course, according to Las Vegas sources he still lays down some cash on plenty of sporting events.
And there’s the old rumor that Phil moved from Titleist to Callaway years ago after Callaway agreed to pay off his substantial gambling debts.
Could Phil’s image be hurt by this? Probably, at least a little.
But it seems Phil’s image has taken little dings over the years as opposed to Tiger Woods who gave us one big explosion to his.
Last year Phil was mentioned in an insider trading case along with Carl Ichan and another gambler Billy Walters. A few years back he complained about his income taxes that he has to pay for living in tax crazy California.
But any informed golf fan knows Phil likes to wager a bit. After all don’t most golfers play for a little something? Whether it is a two dollar Nassau, five bucks or a cold one that’s what plenty of golfers do.
Now, Phil’s little something is certainly a bit more than most and that’s his prerogative. But if he chooses to interact with shady characters and pushes the limits of common sense than that’s on him.
What’s to come of this? Well, we all know Phil likes to bet and this once again shows us that we all have faults even a role model like Phil.
He’s not as squeaky clean as his fans like to think and gambling seems to be one of his vices. With his past history he’s not likely to stop gambling but maybe he should be more discerning with who he does business with and stick to legal betting.
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