Bruno Mars, amidst what can only be described as the longest string of bad beats an artist has ever experienced, recently poked fun at his reported gambling debt.
The multi-platinum Grammy winner shared an article from Spotify after he made history as the first artist to reach 150 million monthly listeners earlier this week.
“This achievement comes on the heels of a remarkable run for Mars in 2024. His collaboration with Lady Gaga, “Die With A Smile,” became the fastest song in Spotify history to hit 1 billion streams. And his duet with ROSÉ, “APT.,” also made it to Spotify’s Billions Club, giving Mars the impressive distinction of having the two tracks to reach this milestone the quickest,” Spotify said in a release following the astounding achievement. “With a catalog brimming with hits like “Locked out of Heaven,” “That’s What I Like,” and “Just the Way You Are,” Mars boasts 17 songs that have surpassed a billion streams on Spotify.”
Mars had a slightly different takeaway from the exciting development.
“KEEP STREAMING! I'll be out of debt in no time,” he said, including a dancing emoji to seemingly further poke fun at reports that he is more than $50 million in debt to MGM Resorts.
Mars a fixture in Vegas … but is it all showbiz?
Mars, who has been a fixture in Sin City dating back to his first residency in 2013, has continued to pack stadiums and wow fans, but according to an unnamed NewsNation source from early 2024, Mars “owes millions to the MGM (from gambling).”
“They basically own him,” the source reportedly added.
MGM Resorts International has also denied the reports.
If those reports of Mars tremendous gambling debts are indeed true, he’d certainly be far from the first to get caught up in the glitz and glamour of the Entertainment Capital of the World. Perhaps most famously, Celine Dion’s late husband René Angélil was a mainstay of local Las Vegas casinos and poker rooms during the Canadian star’s Vegas residency.
Rumors of Angélil’s debts were in fact so persistent that Caesars eventually released his gambling results for 2005 and 2006 with his permission, revealing more than a whopping $230,000 in losses to the casinos, to go alongside a reported $259,000 in take home from various poker tournaments.
