Ben Affleck spoke about his son Samuel’s interest in sports betting and how this activity is in the family DNA.
“My son asked me about a month ago: [he] “Hey, uh, can I get like $100 to bet on sports?” “,” Affleck shared during an appearance on the show on Monday, January 5. Jimmy Kimmel Live! “It’s like what?” [He’s like,] “My friends get $100, but if they lose it, that’s it.” I say to myself: ‘Oh, this is a real standard, what discipline!’ Like, so you don’t go back and say, “I know Green Bay is going to cover the top in the second half.” »
The confession came after the Batman actor, who shares children Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 13, with his ex-wife Jennifer Garnerrevealed that his father was once a bookmaker.
“My dad worked in a bar but mostly made his money being a small bookie,” said Affleck, whose family moved to Massachusetts when he was 3. “I remember our first washing machine, our first VCR, actually, Dad coming home and saying, ‘You can thank Steve Grogan for that,’ the Patriots quarterback. “Everybody keeps betting. [on] the Patriots to beat the spread. And so I was really grateful that the Patriots were terrible; just thank Steve Grogan’s knees for our VCR.
“At the time, it was shameful and kind of illegal. I mean, the statute of limitations has expired. Sorry, Dad,” Affleck continued of sports betting, to which the host Jimmy Kimmel replied, “It wasn’t illegal at the time, it was downright illegal. It was very illegal. Everyone was doing it, but it was illegal.”
Affleck later clarified his comments, agreeing: “It was definitely illegal. It was criminal. But it felt like something to be concerned about, yeah.”
Kimmel, 58, said everyone still bets on the New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox or Boston Celtics.
“No matter what happens… We never learn, apparently,” Affleck added. “We’ll bet on the home team, and they never beat the spread, and the bookmakers made a lot of money. I think it was $10, $20 bets.”
Kimmel joked that Affleck’s father still made “enough” money to buy him a VCR, and “it was expensive back then.”
For Affleck, having a VCR was “the coolest thing in the world, because you could record live shows.” Some of his favorites to watch were Magnum, P.I. And Simon and Simonbut Affleck also focused on recording his own television commercials on his VCR.
“When I first started acting, I did a Burger King commercial and I was constantly waiting to record it if it was on, but I didn’t know when it was going to be on, so you had to press pause and record at the same time to get it ready,” he recalls. “I would sit there during commercial breaks like, ‘No, not my Burger King commercial,’ and then as soon as it came on I had to press record.”
Of course, the Burger King commercials were just the beginning for this two-time Academy Award winner and three-time Golden Globe recipient. Fans can next see Affleck in the action thriller The tear with a long-time friend Matt Damon later this month.
“A group of Miami cops discover a stash of millions in cash, sparking distrust as outsiders learn of the massive seizure, leading them to wonder who to count on,” according to the film’s official synopsis.
The tear will be available to stream on Netflix on Friday, January 16.
