Bruno Mars, 38 years old, is a popular artist, who draws crowds to his concerts around the world. The success he achieved in his own name and, more recently, with the Silk Sonic project, may give rise to the idea that the musician has achieved a wealthy and worry-free life, but it seems that this is not quite the case. According to the North American channel News Nation, Bruno Mars has a debt of 41.3 million dollars in gambling at the Park MGM casino, located in Las Vegas.
“[O Park MGM] he practically owns it”, says a source to the news channel, thus justifying the reason why the musician is starting for the ninth consecutive year with a season of concerts at that casino. If many believed that Bruno Mars’s residency was due to a million-dollar contract, the singer will not be receiving absolutely anything for these performances, which serve, rather, to reduce the debt he incurred in poker games.
“He earns 84 million euros a year from the deal he made with the casino, but then he has to pay his debts,” explains the source, who also states that the singer earns 1.3 million dollars a night after taxes. Of this amount, a portion is given to the casino as a way of paying off the debt obtained through betting on poker tables. In 2013 he had already admitted in an interview with “GQ” magazine that he started playing poker at the age of 19 and that he developed a game video that left him bankrupt.
“I remember my first bet, my hands were shaking, and a guy caught my attention, embarrassed me”, he admitted in the interview, also saying that at that time he lost 100 dollars, an amount he needed to live. “You have to lose. You have to lose to win, to understand.”
Forbes says that the artist, whose given name is Peter Gene Hernandez, has a net worth valued at 159 million euros thanks to his work in music, with emphasis on shows, single sales and musical composition. The contract with the casino was the way found to not affect this heritage, since the debt is settled but in exchange for work. However, the North American media say that it will still take a few years to get rid of this contract.
