So How Did You Get Started with Gambling

[saint]

I was curious as to how everyone got involved in the gambling world, if maybe they can trace it back to one time in their lives or another.

For me...it was my ex-girlfriend's brother. He was several years older and when in high school got me to play poker w/ him and his boys, then I observed him with the sports and the rest is history. He was a member of MJs and introduced me to this site.

Earlier, i can recall player penny poker w/ my grandmother, and my dad went to atlantic city 1 or 2 times a month as well so i guess i was always around it.

How about you guys?

 

[BahamaMama]

2 years old.... as soon as i learned my numbers, my mother started me out in *illegal* bingo halls.....LOL parents started taking me to vegas at age 16 and lying about my age. from there on out, sports gambling came into play

 

[SixFive]

my love of sports naturally lead me in the direction of sports betting.

 

[RexBudler]

I always loved sports since I was very young. I always liked to bet on things. I would always bet my lunch money. Then when I was about 12-13 I started going to the horse races alot as my grandfather owned and raced horses. I was reading and capping the form at age 13 . Started betting sports pretty much from that point on and the rest is history :mj07:

Was a bookie in highschool but too many losers wouldnt pay :scared

 

[jpblack34]

I would like to thank my dad on the gambling side of it. As mad as my mom got, my dad would always let my brother and I give him insight on the games since sportscenter ran 30 times in the AM. Plus, I played golf, honestly, who plays golf and doesn't gamble?

 

[vinnie]

my grandfather owned a pool hall starting taking me there at the age 5 he took numbers, horses & all sports betting he even had a boxing ring in the basement rest is history

 

[cisco]

I forgot about pool. I guess that was when I first started gambling too. (20 ? a game)
Then I went in the service and played cards on payday.
Then I started to play football pools.
Then I bought a house a couple of miles from Hollywood Park.

The rest is history.
:mj16:

 

[Keyser Soze]

My Little League coach was a bookie and gave me 30 cents on the dollar to run parlay cards at school. I figured I was betting found money to play my own $5.00 4-Team Parlays.......It also didn't hurt that I grew up across the Ohio River from Steubenville Ohio which was the birthplace of Jimmy The Greek. Every corner bar had a curtain hanging over a "secret doorway" in the back that had chalk boards on the walls and and carbon papers on the tables with golf pencils. You would make you decisions and walk them out to the guy behind the bar and he would place them neatly in the cigar box underneath the bar............Nothing better!

 

[Davoso]

Tough to trace but like others have said, the love and of sports seemed to be a natural tie-in. Also, remember illegal number betting (before they legalized the lottery), betting parlay cards, making my own parlay cards on a typewriter (hated it when someone hit) and also "Messenger Services". This was the name of the place before OTB's. You would place your bet at a Messenger Service and they would run your bet for you.

The stock market was also a big attraction to me because I looked at it as legal gambling. Then option trading provides an even bigger thrill.

Had 3 friends who the day the fourth friend turned 21, we were headed to Vegas. I can honestly say I must have close to 75 trips to Vegas since then.

 

[davidjg47]

I started playing pool, snooker, 8 ball, 9 ball, and 6 ball. I played $100 a game when I was 14. It wasn't my money, it was backers and we split 50/50. I was very good. I joined the Navy and it was a gambling day everyday. Cards, dice, football, baskets, anything I could bet on.

 

[dawgball]

My parents had a regular poker night with my grandparents and other friends. My grandmother took me to the track (Ellis Park) sometimes when she babysat me, so I was around gambling at an early age. I worked as a para-mutual at two different tracks when I was 18-20. When I started working in the bar business, my first boss was a large-scale book.

Basically, I didn't have a chance to not get started in gambling. I still play cards and ponies (when back home), but very rarely bet on sports any longer unless in Vegas.

 

[MonsterNco]

My Grandmother and Step Father got me started gambling(football pools to poker) when I was 6 or 7, Wrote my first gambling Program for football at 12. I love Sports and numbers, It would be amazing if I didnt gamble.

 

[lay the wood2]

2muchchalk got me into it

 

[Blackman]

2muchchalk got me into it

Funny thing is that 2much and Gamer's Inc. got me into it as well. I was into sports bigtime and gambling for lunch money, but when I met 2much in study hall as a freshman the ball really started rolling. I remember not even worrying about the bets, our goal was always to get people to take terrible lines. We both used to get the same kid to lay 3 goals in hockey whenever the Penguins played. Of course the NCAA pools and NFL weekly picks fed into it. Once I had a teacher come up to me to ask about the parlay cards he heard I was running I was fully entrenched.

Fun memories.

 

[yyz]

My story? You wanna hear my story? Well......OK.


I was born a poor black child............

 

[ScreaminPain]

Used to "lag" for nickels against the wall in Jr. High....got pretty good at it and the other kids would always break open their piggy banks and try to beat me out of my money at recess.

Then I started playing golf....well, you know, as jpblack mentioned earlier..."who doesn't gamble on the golf course".

Hustled pool in college and loaned money in the army to guys that could't hold on to their cash until payday....finally evolved into sports gambling after the army while hanging around the country club.

Soon after starting booking the members bets.....until they beat me pretty good. I didn't have enough "clients" and most of these guys would get together and bet the same side of a game.....I either had to get bigger of quit....I quit.

There you have it...the evolution of a degenerate gambler

 

[RIGHT SIDE]

It all started with parlay cards way back when and then I got my first local book and did well for awhile then lost my ass. I look back now at how I used to gamble many years ago and I just laugh. All of the services, free phone recordings, etc. All of that is so beyond me now as I am a 100% self sports gambler and it's paid off literally. We all learn the hard way or the easy way....luckily for me it only took a couple years of the hard way. Just like anything in life "Experience" is the key. You've got to go through some hard times to learn the ways...atleast for some of us. I have two phrases for anyone new to this...MONEY MANAGEMENT and DISCIPLINE!!! GL!!

 

[bombercoops]

Pool and golf from about the age of 11 for memory. Can't live without it now, and taking jpblack's money on the golf course from time to time keeps me coming back for more. :mj07:

 

[JT]

Won $25 dollars at bingo when I was 11. Forever cursed me with "gambler's optismism". :em71: :em71: :em71:

 

[Junk Man]

In 8th grade my math teacher ran a little pool one year where everyone put in like 50 cents and had to pick the winners of the playoff games (before the playoffs started). Everyone else laughed at some of my picks but I ended up tied for first place going into the Super Bowl. But I had Denver to beat Dallas, and the other kid had Dallas, so I ended up losing.