Billy Walters believes Phil Mickelson could have saved him from jail – which then could have prevented the suicide of his daughter, according to a bombshell new book.
Walters, the famous gambler and former gambling partner of Mickelson, still holds a grudge against the famed golfer for the hardships his family endured, as detailed in Walters’ upcoming tome, “Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk.”
“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,” Walters writes, according to an excerpt published Thursday on The Fire Pit Collective.
“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.
“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.”
The excerpt from Walters’ upcoming book – set to be released on Aug. 22 – revealed several bombshells, including how Mickelson allegedly asked the gambler to bet $400,000 on his Ryder Cup team in 2012, and that Mickelson has bet more than $1 billion on sports spanning 30 years.
Mickelson did not comment when met by reporters following his pro-am round at Trump National Bedminster on Thursday.
It also revisited personal allegations against Mickelson, with Walters claiming the golfer failed him as a friend and played a role in the gambler being sentenced to jail.
Walters was convicted in 2017 on charges that he made more than $40 million in insider trading.
Prosecutors investigated whether Mickelson took part in the scheme, but he did not face criminal charges.
Mickelson repaid the $1 million-plus he made in a trade of Dean Foods, the stock involved in Walters’ conviction.
Walters believes Mickelson could have prevented him from going to jail by saying he was not involved in insider trading, but opted not to say anything to prosecutors.
“A number of people in the media, on Twitter, and in the golf world have suggested that Phil ratted me out on insider trading charges,” Walters writes. “That is not what happened.
“What happened was much worse.”
The famous gambler was sent to Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Fla., in 2017, before being approved in 2020 to finish his five-year sentence at home.
Not much is known about Walters’ personal life, but he reveals in the excerpt that his daughter died by suicide during his time in jail.
