Patriots’ Kayshon Boutte details gambling addiction, what saved him

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Patriots’ Kayshon Boutte details gambling addiction, what saved him

Lauren Campbell · MassLive

Thu, Jan 8, 2026 ·

3 min read

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Kayshon Boutte admitted he "fell in love" with gambling while he was at LSU.

The New England Patriots wide receiver said he "didn't care at all" about his full-ride scholarship to LSU or the fact he had his whole future ahead of him in a piece titled, " How The Hell Did I Get Here??? ," in The Players' Tribune.

He just wanted to bet.

"I'd wake up early in the morning, and the first thing I'd do was bet. I'd stay up late and bet. All day. All night," Boutte wrote . "I had insomnia, so if I woke up in the middle of the night, phone next to the bed, I'd bet. Any little money I had, it was going straight to FanDuel."

Boutte revealed an ankle injury suffered during his sophomore season led to gambling. He struggled to adjust to a scooter and began walking using just his walking boot, which worsened his recovery.

After another surgery on his ankle, Boutte didn't try to shortcut his rehab and "did everything the right way."

"But I was still struggling. I wasn't really able to sleep the way I wanted to," he wrote . "I was in a lot of pain, so they had me taking pills."

Boutte said he struggled to figure out what life was without football. He found himself in a funk, always mad at people and he began to use drugs. The rehab process was taking a toll on the wide receiver, so he turned to betting.

"That's how I ended up going down a dark road. That's how I ended up pacing around my apartment at 3 o'clock in the morning, betting on whatever I could bet on at that time of night," he wrote . "I don't even know….. It honestly didn't matter. You're just caught in the cycle.

"I gambled until I was completely broke. When it was all said and done, I put in around $90,000 of my own money, and lost it all," Boutte later added . "That's like taking a duffle bag stuffed with 90 bands and just emptying it over a bridge or something. Throwing it in the wind. Dollars floating away. Gone."

Boutte knew he needed to get out of the throes of addiction. He admitted he didn't come to his senses on his own, but two things saved him from getting deeper into his addiction.

"One was getting healthy enough to play football again. The other was becoming a father, as a junior in college," he wrote . "Nothing wakes you up faster than that. I just looked at myself in the mirror one day and realized, Bruh, the way you living ain't healthy.

"Growing up, my dad was a real hard-working dude, doing offshore, blue collar work — getting up at 5 or 6 a.m," Boutte continued . "I didn't really come from a rich household, but anything we wanted, my parents made it happen. And I wanted to be that for my family."

After a disappointing rookie season in 2023, Boutte's past resurfaced in 2024 when he was arrested on gambling and fraud charges. The charges were later dropped , but he was grateful to the Patriots for sticking by him through everything.

"I owe the Patriots organization everything, because after the season ended, my past came back on me," Boutte wrote . "I had to deal with the gambling stuff resurfacing. ... How many of those 32 teams would've just walked away at that point? Especially from a sixth-round pick . But the organization knew my heart, and they stuck by me."

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