Do you ever stop and think how much money you would have if you didn't gamble?

[Big Bear]

No absolutely not. I do not regret gambling

[Big Bear]

if i did not gamble i would hardly ever watch sports.

[jjgold]

People that do not gamble a little, party a little are usually boring mother fukkers

[135steward]

huh!

People that do not gamble a little, party a little are usually boring mother fukkers

JJ! You're on a roll! Careful, though, or you'll lose your shitty reputation.

BTW, did someone say you're one of the guys that started this site?

[135steward]

A different answer

75% of us lose. Think of the money we would save

Maybe you really do want to know? The way you worded the question sounded whiney, but here's your answer, as well as an asset-base estimate to maintain your hobby:

Yes, I did think about it. And your 75% estimate is very low. Basically, we almost all lose the vig. I'll use my own betting pattern as an example. You can plug in your own numbers:

I bet about $100/day, every day, for about $350k/year. I figure I can gamble about 30 more years before I get decrepid, so that's about $10M to place ~100k bets. I use reduced vig, but I'll use the dime line in my example:

As a typical bettor I win and lose the same. So when I lose $100 it's gone. But winning a $100 only pays $90 because of the vig. This is oversimplified but the math is accurate. So for every $200 I bet, I lose $10. So over the course of my gambling pursuit I should expect to lose about $500k, or about $35/wk.

Now, here's a better question: given winning and losing streaks, how much should I keep or have access to for my worst likely losing streak? I just figured this one out a couple days ago, thanks to a 17th Century math genius named de Moivre. (HE had a lot to teach us gamblers, BTW). He proved that in a fair game, the gambler's fortune will most likely vary with the square route of the number of his bets. So I may be downby at least about 317 bets, or ~ $32k at some point (I figure vig as a separate cash flow cost).

So, there you have it! If you're like me, you should keep access to at least $32k to ride out your worst lifetime losing streak. And look forward to your being up $32k some day.

[YouMama]

If I just stuck to live poker, I would be be up a decent amount, sports gambling gets me... but Im like some of the other guys on here, I do it cuz Im bored, If I didnt bet on the games, I wouldnt watch.

[dfish]

No idea
Action junkie

[The Hot Pepper]

Life is a gamble anyways so who cares about some green papers?