Jeff Smith 
@adminIt’s not easy to be the boss of the toughest fighters in the world, but for Dana White, it seems like a walk in the park. A lot has been going on in White’s world, but here we will shed some light on his gambling addiction. Actually, is it really an addiction?
But before we start, did you know what Dana’s net worth is? Take a wild guess!
The UFC President stands at an estimated $500 million! With White getting 9 per cent of the UFC’s profit, his salary is estimated at 20million per year. In 2016 the company was sold off to investors for $4billion. With that, Dana hit the jackpot and continued to be president of the UFC.
Stay with us while we tell you everything we found out about UFC’s best president, Dana White.
Dana White, the “degenerate gambler”
When he is not running a 4 billion dollar company, Dana White scoops millions by playing Blackjack in Las Vegas. It’s no secret that the “Blackjack king” likes to gamble. And he has been winning big for years.
In fact, he loves playing Blackjack so much that he once told his family, he wants to be buried with a trophy he won playing against 50 professional blackjack players.
But with the kind of money Dana White bets and a pretty long winning streak, some Las Vegas casinos started feeling a little short. Especially the Palms.
“This is crazy, but I’ve been on this winning streak,” White said to the camera as he entered the Palms in May 2013. “I’m a degenerate, I can do this all night”, said Dana.
“I started playing cards, I took a year off, and then I started playing cards again December 21. I have not lost a night of cards since December 21 and I just hit them again. “See this is like my part-time job. I work in the UFC all day and play cards at night.”Dana said.
As you may already know, back in 2012 White took the Palms for $1.6 million. So, naturally, they banned him from playing there. As a result, Dana said that he would no longer hold events at the Palms. Fair square, right? In fact, he has been in all of Las Vegas’s black books since he won some serious bucks.
When the Palms new owners arrived a few years later, they invited White back. Which casino wouldn’t want them some whales?
But here comes the fun part! This time around, Dana took the Palms for another $1.6 million, and what did they do? They banned him again! The Palms executive told Dana, “You are always welcome here, but not to play”.
Well, besides leaving them short of $1.6 million, the Palms gave White a championship belt that he is undoubtedly very proud of. In fact, he is so proud of it that he has it displayed in his office to this day.
“Undisputed Blackjack champion.24-0. This is a cool way to say get the f*** out of our casino and don’t come back,” said Dana in an interview with Talksport.
Here you can watch the video where Dana goes home with a lot of cash.
But why does Dana White gamble so much and bet so big?
A UFC president by day and a notorious gambler at night, Dana has it all. He loves gambling as much as he loves his fighting empire.
Joe Rogan, a longtime UFC analyst, talked about White’s gambling addiction in 2017. “Dana White has lost as much as $1 million and won as much as $7million in just one night”!
Rogan actually said that Dana’d been hit in the head a lot.
“Notoriously impulsive, notoriously susceptible to addiction, whether it’s gambling addiction, alcohol addiction, it’s a big part of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). That’s brain damage, from getting hit in the head. He did a lot of boxing when he was young, had his dome rattled a number of times,” shared Rogan.
But with a lucky streak like Dana’s, we don’t blame him for betting big. How could we? The strangest thing is that White says he doesn’t think about the money. He thinks about what’s next. “It’s about the ride and doing great things,” Dana said.
Despite being lucky, White is happy to share his loot. He’s been known to tip generously, $200,000 to dealers in the three-month winning streak he had back in 2014. Also, every time White dined in the Palms trendy N9NE Steakhouse, he tipped the staff $10,000 on a $10,000 tab.
So, the Palms are crazy to mess with a high roller like White, not once, but two times! Rumor has it that the Palms didn’t kick out White fully. Instead, they cut his playing privileges from $25,000 per hand to $5,000. White saw this as a joke and decided not to gamble at the Palms anymore.
When Mandalay Bay heard about Dana White, they were happy to make him a customer, but to that White replied: “Casinos don’t want to gamble anymore. They’re all owned by hedge funds and corporations. They want to stack the odds so much against you that you won’t play. Realistically, there’s only one place to play left in town. That’s Caesars. They will let you play what you want to play. No messing around with limits.”
Dana likes breaking records and making big fights. “When people go crazy over the fights they build, I am in for that and not for the money,” said White in an interview for MMASuperCelebs.
Dana White bets on his fighters
Dana’s gambling addiction doesn’t stop with blackjack. He places big bets on his fighters too. He fell short of $1 million when he favored former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor against Kelly Pavlik in 2017. That was the biggest amount he has ever lost on a bet. After that, he said he would never make the same mistake again.
“I bet a million dollars on Taylor and he got destroyed. And that was the first time I’d ever bet a million dollars cause I was so confident that Taylor was gonna win that fight,” White told the Daily Wager’s host, Doug Kezirian.
But rumor has it that White is confident enough that a former UFC fighter Ben Askren, who is also an MMA champion in Bellator and One Championship, will take down YouTube celebrity Jake Paul in a boxing match on April 17. White is again ready to bet $1 million. I guess once bitten-twice shy doesn’t work in White’s world.
“Let’s be honest, Jake Paul is not a f****** boxer. This guy’s a f****** YouTube kid!” Dana spoke on the Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson podcast.
And for things to get even more exciting, guess what Paul did? He tweeted, “Dana let’s double the bet!” challenging White, “$2 million.”
This is yet to be seen, so we are excited about what the outcome would be!
For someone like Dana, betting is more than just fun! It’s a thrill!
“It makes whatever you’re watching a lot more fun, a lot more interesting, so I’ve always been for it. I’m from Vegas.”
This Vegas boy, and self-confessed “degenerate” gambler, actually denied he had a gambling problem. “Has it affected my personal life? Has it affected my professional life? Have I lost all my money? There’s nothing negative about what I’ve been doing lately,” told White in a Las Vegas Review-Journal interview in 2014.
It seems like Dana White doesn’t know how to lose. We all need to learn a few tricks from him. Is he outdoing the dealer and counting the cards? Whatever his optimal strategy is, the big Eye in the Sky doesn’t like it. Casinos will keep inviting White, and all they can do is pray he doesn’t win big because White has never had to throw in the towel and go home.
Where is Dana White now?
We bet he is getting the comps from some other carpet joints in Las Vegas and winning of course.
