By JEANE MACINTOSH
May 17, 2008
Gambling deadbeat and retired NBA star Charles Barkley bamboozled a bookmaker long before he tried to stiff the Wynn casino out of $400,000.
Six years ago, Nick Bogdanovich was the highly regarded book boss at Mandalay Bay casino in Vegas when Barkley showed up and placed two bets, totaling $550,000, on the New England Patriots in the 2002 Super Bowl.
Bogdanovich approved the wagers and gave Barkley his betting slips without getting a marker - a written promise to pay if he lost - from Barkley, according to an account in the Daily Racing Form at the time.
When the staff discovered Barkley had exceeded his house credit line, a casino worker tracked him down before kickoff and asked him to cancel his bet.
"Barkley basically said to f- - - off," a source familiar with the situation told The Post.
Barkley - who has has lost as much as $10 million over the years - won $700,000 on the game. The next day, Bogdanovich was canned.
