Can You Make a Living off Gambling?
We all dream of turning something that we enjoy doing into a fully-fledged career, don’t we? If you are a fan of gambling and you’ve thought about whether you can turn your occasional action into an activity that earns you a living, the short answer to this question is yes. But fair warning, it isn’t a walk in the park as many people assume; it’s not all a bed of roses of waking up and raking in massive wins every other day.
Similar to careers like day trading on the stock market, when you play casino online or in brick-and-mortar establishments, you are taking part in a risky activity that could significantly impact your finances. In both cases (trading and gambling), you will be putting your capital on the line, hoping to turn it into a profit, without any guarantees of the eventual outcome. Be that as it may, if you are interested in becoming a professional gambler, keep reading to discover the different paths you could take.
Basics of Becoming a Good Professional Gambler
Like any other career, your driving force should not just be an obsession with landing huge payouts. Of course, we all want to get paid at the end of the day, but you must genuinely love what you do if you want to be better at it. So, if this is the direction you want to take, you should love and appreciate the journey of understanding the nuts and bolts of your game of choice.
If the desire for quick accumulation of money is your driving force, you are more than likely to crash and burn by falling for questionable strategies, or even resort to cheating via illegal acts that will land you in jail. Some infamous forms of cheating in gambling that have landed perpetrators prison sentences include:
- Loaded dice and marked cards;
- Hacking slot machines or iGaming platforms to gain an unfair edge;
- Collusion by teaming up with another gambler at a game like poker to defraud the house or other players;
- Match-fixing;
- Insider information: where you use the knowledge that isn’t in the public domain yet and wager big money to take full advantage.
The Best Games for Going Pro in Gambling
One of the most crucial decisions you must make when you start your career in professional gambling is selecting the game for you to play. As a beginner, some of the most viable options are usually games that require some form of skill or those that offer the lowest house edge. Many pro gamblers today have managed to build a profession out of their passion for gambling through the following channels:
Poker
Given that poker is mostly a skill-based game sprinkled with a few elements of chance, it is a top pick for many pro gamblers. If you manage to master the game well enough to outplay your challengers, you will be victorious and win some money. It’s no wonder why the richest gamblers in the world today are professional poker players. Excellent examples include:
- Phil Ivey
- Sam Farha
- Chris Ferguson
- Doyle Brunson
- Bryn Kenny
Blackjack
Blackjack, also popularly known as the 21 game, typically has a low house advantage, and the rules of gameplay are relatively easy, even for beginners. Here, while luck is a crucial element, you can use your skills to best your opponents and win.
Arbitrage Betting
This type of gambling is for players who are more into sports betting, where you are supposed to make smart moves based on how odds differ between sportsbooks. Through this approach, you can hit a guaranteed profit by placing wagers on different outcomes of the same sporting event at different sportsbooks. So, no matter the outcome of the event, the differences in the odds will produce a positive result for your wagers.
It’s worth noting however that the margins of guaranteed profits are usually small, often ranging between 0.5 and 1% depending on the bookies you select. As such, successful arbitrage bettors typically place huge wagers for significant returns or place several ‘sure bets’ each day to maximize their profits.
Value Betting
This is a tricky form of professional betting, and it usually takes plenty of effort for the players to get things right. Here, one is supposed to pick a sport or a particular team and learn everything there is to know about their performance, better than even the bookies and oddsmakers. Then it is necessary to use the information to come up with the odds, and when the bookies and oddsmakers make odds that are significantly different from the calculated results, it is time to wager on the difference.
It Takes Time to Go Pro
On top of being dedicated to sharpening your skills continuously, you must be patient so that you never find yourself jumping the gun while in action. Build your rapport with your preferred gambling amusement slowly but surely, and you will start seeing the fruits of your labour.
