Ever wondered why a professional gambler like me stays silent about the very thing that made me successful? I’ve spent years making money from gambling, but today, I’m going to reveal why I don’t talk much about it and why I never promoted it as a path to success.
I know many people aspire to become gamblers, dreaming of the lifestyle of someone who makes a living from gambling.
Some wish to become pro poker players, others wish to beat the casinos on blackjack, and many wish to bet on sports as their full-time job. People expect quick wins and make easy money by clicking buttons or flipping cards.
I know it because twenty five years ago I wished all that too. And I did all that for almost ten years.
So, let me start with the story of how I ended up as a professional gambler in my twenties.
Gambling ran into my family
My love for gambling began when I was very young.
Gambling has run into my family, as both my dad and my uncle have been gambling their entire life.
I grew up hearing of lottery draws and playing cards. In fact, my uncle taught me how to play cards by the time I started school. I still remember him sitting down with me and explaining the pinnacle card game to me. Along with “Xeri”, a very popular card game in Greece, those were the first games I learned playing cards.
At that time I didn’t know anything about strategies or that people were making money playing cards. But that was my first contact with holding cards in my hands.
Over time I was taught to play other card games burlot, which is the Greek version of the French Belote, and biriba, the Greek version of an Italian rummy card game called Pinnacola.
My dad used to play burlot every night with his colleagues in summer. As an 8 or 9-year-old kid, I was sitting next to him those nights next to the sea, watching how they played the game.
It’s not a surprise that I ended up carrying a deck of cards wherever I went.
Of course, people didn’t want to play with me. I don’t know if they did that because they didn’t see card games a good hobby for a small kid, or because they didn’t expect me to be any good and waste their time.
A funny story I remember took place when my dad was stationed in a small village away from our hometown.
I was spending my summers with him and I used to follow him wherever he went, even during work hours. So, I was a regular in my dad’s job and I got to know his colleagues very well.
One morning, one of them saw me walking around in the office and told me:
Hey, little Jim, now I would play with you if only you had a deck of cards with you!
To his surprise, I DID hold a deck of hands behind my back.
I don’t recall if we ended up playing together that morning during his work day, but now, as a 45-year-old dad, I wouldn’t consider it a good sign if I met an 8year old kid with a deck of cards in his hands at all times!
By then, I considered card games a fascinating escape from board games, which all other kids played with.
Monopoly was the best board game for me, as there was competition and most importantly, fake money! And that’s when things took a turn, as I discovered a couple of games where people could make money.
Card Games with Real Money
Those were called twenty one and thirty one in Greece, resembling a bit the game of blackjack.
On New Year’s Eve my uncle, my dad and other family members, sat around and played those games with real money.
I was HOOKED!
I was joining those games, risking my pocket money, and I was thrilled to win. I was still in elementary school at that time.
Suddenly, I didn’t see the point of playing any other card game that didn’t involve money.
Years went by and I found myself studying chemical engineering in my hometown’s university. At that time, I had heard of a famous Greek card player who was making a living playing blackjack in casinos.
Wow, I thought, people are making a career playing card games! No more waiting for New Year’s Eve to beat my family members over our traditional game night!
That was back in 2000. Internet was still in its first steps, and I was an early adopter since 1995. As the Greek player didn’t reveal any gambling secrets in his interviews, I set out to find out how to win in blackjack myself.
I am one of those people who say, if others can do it, so can I. Or at least, that’s how I thought in my twenties when taking risks is the correct strategy.
So, I learned about card counting and practiced at home for weeks, waiting to become 23 so that I could enter the casinos.
Once I set foot in casinos, my gambling career had just begun, and I dropped out of my chemical engineering studies as I began making more money than what engineers were making out of university.
The following ten years I was barred from the local casinos. I discovered sports trading, which is how I made a living from betting on sports for three years. And I played poker full-time for 4 more years. One after the other.
All in all, I was making a living from gambling for a decade. That’s what a professional gambler is:
Having no other source of income apart from gambling.
That’s how I understand it.
So, why did I quit gambling and stop talking about it?
Why I left the gambling industry
By the time I was playing poker, one of my websites had become a bit popular.
I had already been publishing websites, having been an early adopter of the internet. I had also begun making money from my blog, where I only talked about gambling, since that’s what I did all day.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I began making money in my sleep from those websites, thanks to advertising. That was a surprise for me.
As a professional gambler, by the time I shut down my computer, I would stop making any money. Gambling was trading time for money. Gambling had been an active income stream.
And I was just about to discover semi-passive income.
Now, it’s 2024, and I cannot even think of going back to gambling full-time to make a living. I am spoiled by web publishing and solo entrepreneurship. But gambling has taught me many things that I have applied in entrepreneurship.
How running a business is similar to gambling for a living
Both gambling and online entrepreneurship are very competitive markets.
People are trying to find imbalances, to find any kind of edge, and to exploit it. It’s the same in blackjack, the same in sports betting, the same in poker, and the same when running a business.
Sure, as a businessman, your product offers some kind of value, and customers pay you for that value.
But guess what? If everyone begins offering similar products with the same kind of value, the market finds an equilibrium, and no one is making real money. It’s the same in gambling, and why I quit one game after the other.
- Casinos installed automatic shuffling machines killing the edge of card counting.
- More smart sports bettors discovered sports trading and internet technology sped up, killing any edge I had.
- And more poker players learned the ins and outs of the game. Now more players are competing with each other for the money recreational poker players were bringing to the table. The pond became smaller with a lot more sharks. Not to mention, government regulations made the games less profitable in the name of security.
Say you are running the only restaurant in town. No matter how bad your food is, people will come. You have a monopoly.
Remember the game? See how all that connects?
Now, say 5 other people see you are making fortunes and open 5 more restaurants next to you. Customers now have a choice, and you are now competing with 5 more people.
It’s certain that one of you 6 will have the best food. That’s who wins. The rest will be competing for tiny profits, often focusing on offering the lowest price, instead of improving your product, because that’s the easiest way to compete. It’s also the wrong way to find an edge, but that’s a topic for another time.
So, back to gambling.
I can't speak of something I no longer do
I haven’t gambled ever since I began running those websites and turning a profit. that’s the last ten years.
I have fallen behind with the news of the gambling industry. I don’t really know what goes on nowadays. What’s the latest on the regulations? Where do bad poker players play these days? Can I have access to my favorite sportsbook?
And even if I do learn all that, I have to find an edge. I have to start from scratch.
I am sure all the games have changed. The competition made sure all previous strategies no longer work. Or at least, that’s what I would expect.
Yes, I know of people still making a living gambling. Some of them apply the same old strategies.
But I am sure, they have evolved in the last ten years I am absent from the industry. The strategy may have remained the same, but the tools must have become more advanced. New technologies should have created new kind of an edge.
As a professional gambler you really need to stay on your toes. And you never know when the game is about to change.
When governments will introduce new tax legislations that will decrease your profitability so much, that it doesn’t make sense to continue gambling. When sharp bettors with join the battle. When the gambling market becomes saturated and you find yourself looking for the next edge to exploit.
No, I don’t recommend anyone to make a living from gambling as I did. Running a business is much, MUCH more rational.
Running any kind of business is much more legit compared to being a professional gambler.
Listen to me and stay away from gambling
Sure, I could begin talking about whatever I learned about gambling in the past. After all, the math and the way of thinking still applies to today’s games. And they will always apply.
- Find an edge.
- Come up with a strategy.
- Apply proper money management to avoid the risk of ruining your gambling bankroll.
- Profit.
It’s the same in casino games, in sports betting, in poker, even in stock market and trading cryptocurrencies. They are ALL gambling.
But even if I do, I know you all have a very, VERY small chance of making it pay.
