[Seto]

Originally posted on 09/07/2012:

It's not easy being a gambler. It's very lonely. You are invested in sports and handicapping all the time and dealing with the ups and downs is unbearable for most guys. Most people get broken by it and can never fully recover. Everyone on this board is lonely and that's why we seek out one another. It's like asking is the sky blue. Anyone who is not lonely is not posting on here. But the loneliness disappears briefly when you have a bet because you now have some "company" for a while. But once the action is over, the loneliness comes back till the next bet. Most guys on here are suffering from severe depression and from scores of other mental disorders as a result of their gambling. We could start a sub-forum on here called "Mental Health Support" and it would be the busiest sub-forum. Almost everyone on here should be seeing a mental health therapist, especially those guys posting non-stop on here. I feel tremendous sorrow and pity when I see a guy has like 5,000 posts in a single year on here. Life is so short and you are wasting it on a sports gambling forum?

When I first started betting on sports, I use to think everyone was betting and I would go around telling everyone I bet team X and Y and Z and that Coach X was an idiot because his team played zone when they should have played man-to-man. I use to think people were crazy to watch sporting events without money. Then I found none of my friends were betting and still watching sports and I was actually the crazy one. These days, I never tell anyone I bet. I would rather tell them I am an alcoholic or do drugs than tell them I bet on sports. Sure, you can go to Vegas and see everyone do it there and it is socially acceptable...but what about when you are in Bumblefuck, USA and you are betting on sporting events? On Sienna vs. Marist on a Friday night in January? And that your entire weekend was spent indoors in the Fall watching football from Saturday morning till Sunday night football finished?

My advice is this: Either stop betting completely (ideally, if you can) or decide to specialize in one specific sport. For example, I decided if I am going to bet, it's going to be MLB and maybe the NCAAB trmnt just because of the line value is too good to pass up. I remember the days where I would just bet on everything and the only way I could tell the days from one another was based on the sporting events going on.

In the long run, it's just not worth it. Virtually everyone is losing. Something like 95-98% of all people betting on sports are losing.

Did you like sports before you started gambling? I often spend a lot of my weekend watching or attending sports and I wouldn't have it any other way even if I had no action. I used to be like that even before I started gambling. I love sports and quite honestly don't care what anyone thinks.