Barkley gambling with image

It was admirable that TNT would devote several minutes of its NBA pregame show Monday night to dealing head-on with the continuing saga of commentator Charles Barkley's public gambling problem. After all, the Hall of Famer has been in the news in the past couple of years seemingly as much for his penchant for gaming as for his analysis of basketball.

Barkley paid the $400,000 debt on Tuesday, the Wynn Las Vegas confirmed, but he still must pay the Nevada district attorney's $40,000 processing fee. The TNT hoops analyst said in a statement he was unaware of the fee.

The casino filed a civil complaint May 14 in Nevada state court alleging Barkley failed to repay four $100,000 casino markers received last October. The complaint will remain open until Barkley pays the $40,000, which he said he'd do immediately.

In a one-on-one with TNT studio host Ernie Johnson, Barkley acknowledged the debt and pledged to give up gambling, at least for the time being.

"I screwed up and didn't pay them in a significant amount of time," Barkley said. "Could they have handled it differently? Yes. But it was my fault.

"For right now, the next year or two, I'm not going to gamble," he continued. "Just because I can afford to lose money doesn't mean I should do it."

Barkley has talked openly about his gambling, estimating during a May 2006 interview with ESPN that he'd gambled away about $10 million.