Is your personal life safe when writing tips for gambling?

As I feel a bit tired discussing about gambling, investing and making money all the time for the past 10 years, I thought of starting to write about other stuff I like, under my real name this time. After all, I do have hobbies other than finding the lows of a stock price, predicting which betting odds are going to drift or deciding if folding Jacks preflop in online poker is the right move! What I found out frightened me.

I was all alone out there!

But I do prefer that loneliness than ‘business acquaintances’ keeping an eye on my personal life.

‘Jim Makos’ is my pen name/pseudonym I have used online since the 90’s and is now pretty much affiliated with the gaming business. I’m not talking about the video gaming business. I am not surprised that the name is so closely connected to sports betting, poker, stock trading and all things gambling. After all, I constantly target those exact keywords when I am writing. That is because I love taking well calculated risks and putting my money where my mouth is.

In the pursuit of happiness I strongly believe you should do what you love doing.

That is what I have been doing for quite a long time. Yet, this daily involvement in the gaming industry has started to feel like a huge rock on my shoulders. Sure, I find it fascinating that I have met hundreds of people online and I land writing jobs due to my gambling adventures. I am thrilled when my posts receive comments or people are talking about them on social media.

There comes a time though, that I need to speak up about my family, my home, my recent walk in the park.

I do have a life.

But that personal life cannot be linked to my business life like in other niches.

Why writing about gambling is different

Gambling is a strong negative word compared to, let’s say, photography. Being a photographer is a perfectly acceptable profession by society and your friends won’t mind if your photos fill up their Facebook wall. That goes the other way around though. As a photographer, your work will attract fans and followers, who will in turn sneak into your personal life one way or another.

Still, you probably don’t run a huge risk by sharing your lovely family photo in public as a photographer.

However, in my niche’s work of line, you’d better protect the ones you love. Your following as a ‘gambling expert’ includes some strange people, not to mention Big Brother watching you. Yes, I guess with all the NSA/Snowden thing, everyone might feel a bit insecure nowadays.

In the gambling industry, you have a few more reasons to worry about.

Photography is about taking pictures. Gambling is about making money. When money is involved, things can get ugly.

In photography, people are looking for an expert to learn how to take beautiful pictures with their cameras. The photographer won’t be taking pictures for them, he/she is just teaching them the tricks. No one will blame the photographer if they don’t succeed using their cameras in the most effective way.

In gambling/investing, people are looking for an expert to make money. Some are willing to listen and make their own decisions. Others though are simply waiting for the expert to make money for them! They are expecting tips that guarantee a profit. They think that by pressing a couple of buttons on the screen, they’ll make money. Yes, those people are expecting miracles.

Still, that’s not the real problem in gambling.

What happens when people lose money because of your writing?

No one likes losing money. In photography, people are spending money for their hobby. In gambling, people think that they are losing money for their hobby, whereas they are still spending it. The odds are so heavily stacked against gamblers, that they really do not stand a chance.

Yet, isn’t it the same in photography or in any other business? Of course it is!

There must be millions of people owning a camera. But how many do they actually make money from photography? I bet it’s a small percentage, just like winners do not account for more than 5% of gamblers.

The rest are losing money. It’s not the expert’s fault, it’s their own. Unfortunately, people are looking for someone to blame when their wallets are getting empty. At least in photography they still have a camera and expensive lenses to use, despite being broke.

In the investing world, by being careless and blowing off your capital, you are really left with nothing.

Well, you do have the so-called expert to hunt down for your misfortune. After all, in your opinion he/she dragged you down to the money pit. You are so short-sighted by your anger to accept your inability to become a better player, that you believe there must be other excuses for your failures.

Maybe online poker is rigged or poker tax makes the game unbeatable. Perhaps bookmakers are too afraid of you and do not offer valuable odds. How about games getting fixed because of your betting patterns? Even when investing, you get the feeling of big sharks and canny traders stealing your money every time you buy a stock, or trade EUR/USD.

Those excuses won’t make you a smarter gambler, investor or poker player. Blaming the tipster won’t either.

Still, I do not desire letting these people into my personal life. As a blogger and writer, I need the readers and the audience. If it were for another niche, I’d welcome my followers to my other writing attempts. For good or bad though, I’ll try my best to keep my personal life away from the gambling world.

P.S.: I wrote this article a long time ago but never published it. Since I wrote it though, I decided to postpone my other plans. Maybe some other time…

Image: MrWallpaper