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Give us a brief account of your gambling history

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First bet I recall was that the Habs, who were down 2-0 in a best-of-7 series to the Minnesota North Stars, would come back and win. They won the next 3 games so it was looking good, but then they lost the next 2. That was 5 bucks.

That was with a school chum. Around 1980 (??)

Had phone accounts in the early 90's. Started with Bowmans, and expanded to a couple places in Panama and the Caribbean. Was arbing over the phone - making surprisingly good money with that - but also losing with straight bets and other strategies.

By the early 00's had gotten the arbing - and the discipline - down pretty good. Got into internet betting. Quit my job late 2002 and made my living betting only. Developed more successful strategies, math-based. Got better and better and had a couple of 6-figure years. Shit happened. The industry went for crap. By 2009 (??) I was out.
 
Made first sports wager at Mandalay Bay in 2001? $10 on a side. Can't remember if it cashed or not.

Started making square parlays like Dodgers and the Over on Bodog in 2007. They had 20% deposit bonuses. Lost about $400 on bodog.

Moved on to 5Dimes in 2009 and probably lost another $500 when it was all said and done.


From 2010 to now I've been a winning sports bettor and gradually increasing my unit size since

+13.87 units over 222 plays this year in MLB. Not a lot but it's better than losing.



:chickendance:
 
Blitty
What specifics of the industry went to crap?
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Difficult to summarize but I will try.

Variation and fluctuations in lines were very important to what I was doing. The years I was involved saw a dramatic trend towards cloning of lines across-the-globe. When I first began with my phone accounts, I could often arb early season baseball games and get, like, +110 on both sides. Not unusual at all. Panama didn't know or care what England was doing and vice versa. At the end, you could seldom find a line out of step between anyone anywhere on the globe. That negatively affected every money-making strategy I used.

UIGEA was huge. When that huge chunk of Americans was removed from the pool - I'm sorry to say - but the average IQ of bettors where I was playing increased a whole lot. Having as many stupid people as possible around was real good for what I was doing. That obviously related to direct P2P betting at exchanges but also to the overall smartness of all lines and promos available.

UIGEA also led to Neteller exiting from Canada. That was huge. Moving money became much more clunky and costly.

Bonuses and related terms which were so profitable for years got much more stingy (again, probably had a lot to do with post-UIGEA fallout.)

More and more books went stiff or slow-pay. Never good.
 
-Provincial sports-betting lottery from a young age (minors were allowed to play back then) - pocket change, $2 to $10 bets
-SIA starting in 2002 - recreational bets, exclusively on Habs games - anywhere from $50 to $500, prolly lost thousands over the years
-Microgaming casinos in 2006 - I was clearing a couple thousand a month by bonus-hustling the dozens/hundreds of shitty Microgaming Ponzis, mostly by playing Jacks or Better/Deuces Wild
-More serious sports betting starting in 2008, grew bankroll up to some $95k at some point in 2009, average bet was $1000-$1500
-2010 bankroll: $0, and not because of actual betting losses

:mrquincy:

-2010-2014: occasional $100 parlay at TheGreek - haven't won one in a couple years
 
Notorious spot bettor from about the age 15 everything from throwing rocks to sports to poker. Had a couple nice wins from horse racing and poker. Big in cash game poker online until black friday. Probably won more than I lost but not without the big scores. Had both pinkie toes chopped off by Russian Mafia from Flyers losses in 2010 Cup loss vs Blackhawks. Current Gamelive Airbetting Casino CEO.
 
Got interesting in poker in 1992 with the help of the rec.gambling.poker usenet group and a mathematics grad student friend.
Full-time poker for 7 or 8 years.
Slot/video poker/promotion hustling/other exploits, etc, for some number of years.
Throw some online poker in there.
Full-time mlb betting for 5 years.
Taking it easy and doing whatever comes my way for the last couple years.

That's a lot of years.

:oldballs:
 
reno cool
Matty you fok, how did you blow that? I know how you blew the money, but if you're able to make money gambling why quit?
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I was in denial that my bankroll was dwindling away and I was unwilling to lower my bets. Told myself I could always rebuild my bankroll by working, but I burned myself out. It was all really unhealthy and it made me feel yucky about the betting thing.

Worst-case scenario, had I not been offered a job back then, I could've kept going, sure. But there is the strong stigma that comes with being a gambler. Always felt uncomfortable about it. I didn't go out of my way to tell people I had money on all the games, all the time, but obviously if someone turned the TV on and a game was on I would expose myself by saying stuff like OMG-I-can't-believe-this-team-is-winning-they're-a-massive-underdog, etc. I used to talk about obscure Polish writers, so my sudden interest in the NFL was completely out of character.

On a side note, my wife-to-be's sister's BF is an "aspiring poker player" and I get to see how people perceive him. (He has no shot at winning, ever, but that's beside the point.) The whole family is hoping that she dumps him. I'm not saying they're right, and I can certainly sympathize with the guy.

Gambling-as-a-job is unhealthy. It marginalizes. If you're okay with being marginalized, knock yourself out.

I'll prolly keep playing hail-mary parlays with my disposable income 'til the day I die. That's good enough for me.

YMMV
 
bacon
"aspiring poker player" :lol: yeah she should :irishluck: dump him unless he is rich, of course
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He's a broke-ass wigger who has to take the odd construction job to keep people off his back.

I'd probably be in the same situation if I lived in the same bumfuck town.

Guy could move here and start making a completely decent living tomorrow if he wanted.

But noooooo. Gotta live in some bumfuck town. Big cities are baaaaaad.

:facepalm:
 
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