With a salary of over $60,000 pounds (€86,000) a week, many things can be done, although not all of them productive. Wayne Rooney, Manchester United player, spends part of that amount of money on gambling. Ten days ago, The Sunday Mirror revealed he owed $700,000 pounds (€1 million) to Goldchip, property of Stephen Smith, a friend of Michael Owen’s. The player was obliged to pay off this weekend due to the strong influence of popular opinion.

“Because of the recent news from the press, Goldchip announced that pending matters between the company and Rooney have been resolved positively after the conversations held by Stephen Smith and player’s agent Paul Stertford”, assured the gambling house through a press release yesterday. “The matter is over and there will be no more comments”, they added. The 20-year-old player earns about €4,5 million a year, besides millions in publicity contracts. However, during the last five months he had accumulated a debt of €1 million due to his gambling addiction.

Soon after the news were released, the player declared he would not pay as there were no documents to prove his debt. But the pressure from the media forced him to change his mind. There are some other players affected by this addiction, what brought about the development of a counterattack plan to warn about compulsive gambling.