What got you into gambling?

[Ricki Roma]

Personally it was watching the 2002 wsop on espn when I was 12, and ive been hooked ever since. Poker intrigued other forms of gambling which eventually lead to gambling on sports.

What lead you to gambling?

[TwoWays]

It was awkward, I was barely a teenager. She was...oh you talkin' bout gaming. Everyone else was doing it, so I gave it a try.

[Ricki Roma]

^lmaooo

So at what age did it interest you?

[shermanator]

when i turned 18. Placed a bet on the spread on a basketball game and lost.

[fishmonger]

My sister's boyfriend asked me about some games just to spark some conversation with me when I was about 13. I told him who I liked. He won and gave me some money for my picks that i gave him. Been making bets ever since then. I still talk to the guy and I am now 32. Crazy huh?

[Full Time Hobo]

My roommate had a local and let me put in a bet on his account for the Superbowl.
Hooked ever since.

[Sidetracked]

it runs in my family...

[cruyff]

High school buddies buying pro lines. I mean I used to make $2 bets with friends and stuff, but pro line was when I actually started thinking in terms of odds, and actually analyzing picks .. that was the death of me

[MB]

My sister's BF during a Braves world series game. I was 10, he was 15. Had the nerve to come ring the doorbell after the Braves lost and tell my pops that I owed him $20. It's been on ever since. Was a bookie back in the day at my high school...not crazy dough, but good for being in HS. Kids would bet their little $3 or $5 a day their parents would give them and me and my friends would collect the rent daily

[Ricki Roma]

Wow pretty interesting stories, keep them coming

[rossta4i]

2007 bet 100 bucks on the Colts 1st half line -4 and won. hooked ever since.

[Maniac]

Been gambling in some form ever since I was a kid really - I remember my Dad used to let me pick a couple of horses in the Grand National and other big races and he would put on the £1ew stake but would give me the winnings as extra pocket money. Mr Frisk winning in 1990 is one horse that I picked that always sticks in my mind...I was 8 years old at the time and was on 50p a week pocket money and all of a sudden had £20...ok I was forced to put it in the bank till I was older, but was still chuffed to bits

Also used to play cards at school during lunch and free periods etc and properly got into sports betting when I was 18

[Maniac]

Looking back actually, its quite funny how the tables have turned - these days if my Dad wants to have a bet on anything then he calls me to put it on for him

[thebestthereis]

stu feiner

[Ricki Roma]

Looking back actually, its quite funny how the tables have turned - these days if my Dad wants to have a bet on anything then he calls me to put it on for him

Your that good huh? =P

[thejanitor]

jai alai, dog track, the high life

[Maniac]

Your that good huh? =P

Haha - if by good you mean, making sure I get him the best possible price through my numerous betting accounts, for whatever he wants to bet on...then yeah I am pretty damned good

[Dom177]

My grandma loves the slot machines and has always made bets against me since I was like 7. She thought it was the greatest thing ever when I turned 18 and could finally go to the indian reservation casinos with her and then go to canada when i was 19

[frankthetank]

Poker for pennies as a kid. Loved sports. Loved money. 19 years old placed first bet with bookie. $55 on Buffalo Bills with Doug Floutie at Carolina. Lock and Load.

[v1y]

i'm a massive mma fan and two years ago my brother said, "if you know so much, why not start betting?"

i'll throw him a few hundred off of my next withdrawl for the advice.

[boneheaded1]

Played nickel/dime/quarter poker in high school. Grew in up LA, a stone's throw from Vegas. Never really got into the Vegas type gambling. After college, I got a job at a company that dealt in insurance. Got to know some of the actuaries (almost all actuaries are sportsbetters or pokerplayers). I was REALLY into the NFL. Had like 5 Fantasy teams going (was commissioner of three leagues). I followed college as well. One of the actuaries would always pick my brain about stuff (he was in my $100 league). After a few years, it was early in the NFL season, the dude comes up to me and hands me $250. He said it was my "cut" as our conversations must have helped him win way more than 10 times that. He used BoDog. So I signed up with $100. I no longer use BoDog but still bet online (heritage). Been playing with the same $100 since. It's been fun. Never turned into one of those "gone broke 10 times borrowing money type of bettors" I was happy winning a few hundred to a few grand per year. I just didn't want to put any of my own money in. Been one long free roll. But that all stopped last year. No more withdrawals going forward except to open new books. I'd always finished the season with more than I started (never by more than 2,200, the least was with $340). So now instead of taking all out but $100 at season's end I'm leaving it in there and "letting it ride" with the intent of becoming a high roller someday. Gonna take awhile but my patience will hopefully pay off.

[Dutch]

it runs in my family...

Same here. My uncles used to bet on games and growing up my family played cards...Any game they played had money on it. Even Euchre would be $1 a point, $1 a bump. My uncle taught me and my cousins how to play poker using pennies when I was like 8 yrs old.

[Sawyer]

I was in university, computer lab was full. Some students were were occupying computers for betting. Some students were complaining about that. Then I saw a guy cheering out "Whoaaa! I won!". I guess he was looking to scores. Then I learned some guys were making money every week. I was a student and I was short of cash. Living as a student (and I was away from home, studying another city so I was paying my rent/bills etc) was not easy. These guys were playing 4-game soccer parlay bets. We gathered and joined the bet. We were 5 people, everybody placed 50. Bet was 250.

My friend called me, said first bet is a winner. Few hours passed, he called again and said second bet is a winner too. There was only 2 games left in our ticket and one game was on TV! We watched the game. It was first time I was watching a match which I placed a bet. It was crazy, super exciting. We won the bet! We were running through the house, screaming outttt!

Then my phone ringed. We said Whoa! What a game! We won. My friend said, unfortunately we lost. 4th game was lost. Unbelieveable..

I lost my first bet in my career but my passion of betting had just started..

[SBRMAN23]

College freshman roomate got me into poker and it led to betting Damn you Daniel lol so here I am

[horja1]

Can't remember why or how I started, but I remember playing a video 4-card poker slot-machine when I was around 11 yo ... I even remember winning the big prize (4 Aces), waiting for about 5-10 mins for all 200 coins to drop, people gathering around me, but to this day I can't remember what happened to those money (something around 200 USD)

[dom75]

I always loved watching sports when I was a kid. My dad gambled on football pots at his job and I played a few squares on those pots when I was a teenager. For years upon years I had always thought about gambling on games, and 2 years ago it began. I got laid-off and I began to do research and now 2 years later I am addicted. It's more of like a hobby for me, but I enjoy everyday of it winning or losing. If I win, it's points or money in my pocket, if I lose it's just another lesson learned of what not to do next time.

[testudo]

Superbowl squares for as long as I can remember

[Jerm3462]

My best friend in high school got a job at a supermarket.

His 1st night on the job he come home with these folded papers, which turned out to be "parlay cards" for football.

It was only $2......what the hell. Give me one!

20 years later, my car has a old washcloth for a gas cap, and I live with my dad.

Oh well. What can you do?

[big joe 1212]

i blame my dad

he took me to the track and otb all the time ever since i can remember

i dont do the same to my kids. i want them to have a normal life..

[MB]

What's wrong with these people that get us into this shit? They're like crack dealers

[InTheDrink]

How ca you possibly remember? It's ingrained. You're either born a gambler or you're not. It's in the blood.

[Kindred]

My boss told me to take the Pats +10 vs. the Rams in the Superbowl. I googled sports betting, this was back when google was real new, site still said 1 billion pages searched in 1 second or some shit like that on the home page. Found a sportsbook advertised on google, signed up got a 100% bonus. Had no idea about rollovers, hell I didn't even know what over under meant. Put $200 on pats +10. Saw they had halftime betting, so at the half the pats were up, I was wasted don't remember the score but I remember the line offered at halftime, pats +10 and I thought that was +10 for the game, and they were ahead at the half. So I whipped out my CC put $500 on Pats +10 second half and won both bets.

Wasn't until next day or so until I figured out the second half bet was only for the second half not the game lol. I don't remember the name of the site I used, but they had sportsbook.com's software so it was one of their skins. If there was a rollover I must have met it because I cashed out the next day and got a check in the mail in like a week. But it didn't matter, I was hooked and redeposited and lost it all in the NBA.

My guess is everyone places a bet on sports at least once in their life, half win half lose. The half that win continue to bet on sports.

[babyjesus]

My buddy dtrick. fukker! na jk thanks brooo!

[DBaseball23]

Tout Sebastion (Seabass) had a morning radio show every morning on WCCC 106.9 here in CT. I would listen every morning driving to school. He would spend like 5 minutes everyday promoting has tout service and his made up records, air bets, etc

I thought to myself "how hard can it be to pick winning teams every week?"

And I've been a degenerate ever since. LOL

[Joe Dogs]

Like Hank Williams JR says "Its a family tradition"