1 Wayne Rooney How good a gambler was Wayne Rooney ever going to be? How much form had he studied? Or would he just toss his cash away without thinking? The answer emerged last week and before he could say "Sorry Coleen, love, again", Il Shreko had engaged in a little wealth distribution by being in debt to the tune of £700,000 to one of Michael Owen’s tic-tac chums, Stephen Smith. Bet Coleen was delighted. oRooney’s best bet is talent, Hugh McIlvanney, back page

2 Tiger Woods Bless Tiger Woods. Not only does TigerJam, his annual Las Vegas benefit concert, raise a handsome $8m for America’s urchins, but his hopelessness at the casino tables usually means his visits to Nevada benefit the casino bosses by roughly the same amount. Mind you, if there is anybody who can afford to throw away such sums, it is Woods.

3 Michael Jordan In 1993, Jordan admitted to losing heavily at the gambling tables. Better still, businessman Richard Esquinas claimed to have won $1.3m from him over 10 days on the golf course. In 2002, The Washington Post spent an evening at a casino with Jordan, who managed to lose $500,000 before recovering to end up $600,000 in profit.

4 Paul Merson Paul Merson reckons he has spent £7m at the bookies and was known for his fondness for alcohol and cocaine and some expensive and unsuccessful rehabilitation. "My bill arrives," he said. "It could be for £150,000. Then you have to get the money. So you gamble again to chase the money. It hurts like mad." Rooney take note.

5 Ty Cobb Cobb may be the least pleasant baseball player ever. In 1926, he was sacked as Detroit Tigers coach over suggestions he had conspired with bookies to fix a game. Unwilling to tarnish the sport’s name, a meeting with baseball bigwigs saw him back in the fold.

6 Pete Rose The self-styled Charlie Hustle was banned from baseball for life after betting on the team he managed, Cincinnati Reds, over 52 games at $10,000 a go. After a staggering 15 years in denial, Rose finally admitted the charges (betting on but not against the Reds, he claims) and has appealed for reinstatement.

7 Hansie Cronje South Africa’s inspirational Christian cricket captain had few friends and he chose them very badly indeed. In cahoots with Indian bookmakers and match-fixers, he asked his own teammates to underperform in 1996 while giving inside information to the infamous match-fixer MK Gupta. The pelf was oddly small (just $140,000), but four years later he was at it again against England. The rewards remained tiny, but his wife did get a nice leather jacket out of it.

8 Peter Francisco After a large number of bets were placed on South African Peter Francisco losing a 1995 world championship match 10-2 to Jimmy White, the snooker authorities awaited the result with keen interest. White won — go on, take a punt — 10-2. The disciplinary panel suspended Francisco for five years. An innocent White was cleared.

9 Phil Mickelson In 2002, Mickelson won $500 from Mike Weir after betting Jim Furyk would hole a bunker shot in the NEC Invitational. Before the 2000-01 NFL season, Mickelson predicted the Baltimore Ravens would win the Super Bowl and duly won $560,000. Nice.

10 Dennis Lillee It is 1981. Australia need 131 runs to beat England. They score 111 and nobody is more distraught than bowler Dennis Lillee. But what’s this £501 in his pocket? Why, it’s the money he won from betting on England to win at 500-1. "There was no suggestion of losing deliberately," he said.