Sports Wagering for a Living

I was curious if any of you or if you know anyone who bets on sports for a living? I am sure a lot of people think about it and how exciting and nerve-wracking it would be, but I know if people do it, they got to have great discipline.

I was also curious, does Vegas allow you to bet on football moneylines? I know some local bookies dont allow you to.

ive been doing it the past 4 months, im down 3300. goodluck

i work a seasonal job in vegas and make a solid years living in 8 months so during the winter i like to gamble. i think it would be possible to pull a small profit with extremem discipline. unfortunately i struggle with that. If you try to chip away a little each day it is possible to make money. the problem is most of us are like the mlb guy who hits 30 homeruns a year but strike outs 250 times. its not possible to make money trying to hit a homerun everyday.

Judge...

Let me speak for nc1....

Scepticism is a strong emotion in this town.....and it is the one emotion that can protect one from being conned.....While nc1 does not live here, he has been here enough to nurture his scepticism...he is also older than you and that emotion also comes from age/experience.

Your posts in various threads do lend one to believe that you are somewhat aware of this town; but not totally immersed in its special aspects....frankly, more like a tourist than a local. So, I would concur with nc1 when it comes to your assertions as to the subject of this thread.

To address LV28, there are many, many people in this town that make a living from gambling....some head up operations, like Billy Walters...and some work for those operations...runners, analysts, IT pros, etc......

Gambling can be a highly profitable business...it is, after all, legal in this state and has a convenient store on almost every corner in which to do business....

However...and here is the caveat...believe nothing that you hear or read about the business. Because those who are successful (and leaving the Billy Walters 60-minutes interview as a rare anomaly) will NEVER tell you that they are successful and you will NEVER know who they are.

Those that tell you that they are professional and can make a living from gambling.....CANNOT.

Welcome to the forum...hope that this helps you somewhat.

Thanks VegasGourmet for the information; How do you come across operations that deal with stuff like that, that hires runner and analysts? Like the operation in the movie "Two for the Money", how would you go about working for something like that?

People who have tried to gamble for a living, what did you set your monthly goal at?

LV28....Spend time in a particular large book....Hilton, Caesars, Bellagio.....watch the guys that bet and need a supervisor at the window when they make their bets....see if they also come back and bet halftimes...see if they are always texting or on their cell phones before making a bet....

...then go up and ask one of them....you might get one to talk.

As to setting a "goal"....That goal should be 57-60% wins at a minimum....hit that number and you can make a very nice living.How much of a living depends on your bankroll.

However, LV28, this is NOT a movie...it's real life. For every one guy who makes (for the time being) a living at this, I can point out to you in any of those books, guys who lost it all.

MWC....Typing during Happy Hour doesn't help either  

...and, isn't it ALWAYS Happy Hour in this fine town?? 

I moved to Nevada and gave it a crack a few years ago as I had a job coachinng JV soccer too.  I didnt bring enough money though and while I was able to turn the 200 bucks I was down to first week of the college football season into 2k over those first three weekends, it wasn;t enough and the bills were the reason I had to come back east.

Last summer I was laid off in Aug.  My unemployment got all screwed up and I didnt start getting paid until Christmas.  All fall I had to gamble for a living.  Each week I crushed college fb but gave most of it back on NFL, if I was able to not bet NFL I might have won 15-20k.

But at the beginning of Jan I had a bad run.  I saw conference play being funny but I needed action.  I didnt even bet big instead of betting 300 to a nickle it was 100-200 bucks or so but I had a  10 day run losing just over 10k.  If I had been betting normally that would have been 20k.  I didnt do anything wrong, I just couldnt not bet (or go to work for that matter) and it only took a few days to get wiped out.

Now since the goal is to be betting 2-5k per game instead of 200-500 were I properly in buisness I would have lost 100k-200k.  ITS VERY EASY TO LOSE A SHIT TON OF MONEY!

ANd I like all of us knows what it is like to go on tilt or go out of control gambling, but you can blow your load without doing this and when you are down there is nothign you can do to get your mind right to gamble immediately.

Whoever posted they bet the halfs for big money that is the way to do it professionally.  Your not going to get murdered on 10 strait funny second half bets.  I didnt have this option as my locals dont take first and second half bets and its been a couple years sincee I have been able to place them.

Yes I like to bet 500 bucks a game; no I cannot afford to make a deposit into an offshore that would allow me to put that on the games I like on a Saturday.  Its about a years work after tax making 12-14 bucks an hour to have a bankroll close enough to approaching being able to do this stuff.  I never had I went to fuckign Nevada with 200 bucks by the time FB season started and was calling in fucking nickles two weeks after I got laid off.  Not the way to do it and doomed for failure, if there was 20k beneath it I might have had a chance but I didnt and the money I made was basically like building sand castles at high tide and was always gonna get wiped out.

Dear God...

I do not know why this thread stays alive

Please trust me, I am not "talking down" to anyone...I am only talking to those who think about this subject.

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Unless you have enough capital NOT to need a job, you do not have enough to become a professional sports gambler...period.

If you are not capable of making the sportsbooks respond to what you are doing...or what your employees are doing...you cannot make a living a sports gambling.

If you think that you can make a living gambling on sports, you cannot.

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Those three assertions are honest and are based upon years of experience in the industry....knowing some who have succeeded and knowing many more who are no longer in this town....and I have been associated with LV since the 70's.

I disagree.  Someone with the discipline to bet >50 or 20 games a year and go a week or a month without betting can do it.  Thats much easier said than done, especcially for someone with the talent to pick games passing on that many good bets.  Other than that you need to manipulate the lines as you say (and still have good picking talent and discipline).

It swings both ways.  If your a bozo used to flushing his money down the toilet you are more likely to be capable of "waiting for pocket aces" than a good capper who would have to force himself to lay off a dozen or so good bets which would occur in the interim.  So in terms of long term profitability picking games isn't that important and only benefits you marginally if you want to be a pro.  Obviously the 60% picker has a better shot than the 54% picker.  And anyone decent will be going off thier own intuitions not paying for picks.  But if your good keep in mind that the biggest fucknuts who are always on the wrong side on their own picks are better suited to being pro gamblers because they will be able to wait for good games should they somehow gain an edge or just identify certain opportunites whatever they may be.  They are used to what they think being wrong where you are used to being right about most games.  Hard to not have action on winners that end up crushing.

THe reason why noone can do it is the 60% better becomes a far worse picker after a horrible run of bad buzzer beater losses that just wiped out 2 months of profit.  And Vegas wont shut your line off you can keep going back until it is gone.

Gambling every day takes a toll on you.  I have never seen my old man sat a poker table without a massive stack of chips in front of him and I know he isnt lying about making money at it or that he paid for our ski trips to tahoe at the tables.  But the couple years inbetween work he played cards for a living he was broke, I was in 6th grade and had to buy groceries a couple times.

I made (LOW) 5 figures in 2010 betting on sports.  Noone will ever be able to tell me I didnt, that is a full calendar year and I slugged through most of it clearing about half in December.  Im down 8 or 9k in 2011 and I dont give myself a better than 50% chance of being in the black in 2011. 

Its a tough grind but you can do it.  Just when you lose on stupid ass close shit the following games is when you need to bounce back but its a catch 22 because your emotionally not in good shape to be betting.

Learn from your mistakes and you can pull it off.  Just if you dont have the discipline to only bet every third week in football or one or two games a week college bb you dont have a chance in the long run no matter how good you are.

I didn't work for anyone,I didn't get my plays from anyone, and ther were 100's of guys doing the same as me.Didn't you ever see the lottery at Stardust everyday and twice on Sunday? All those guys weren't runners cause I was one of them and I got to know many of them.Eventually the book responded to my action but that was only because of the size of my play.Only two things move the line- money or a face and some places I would do both.

I have not been to vegas for many years but I'm positive that as long as they hang a pointspread made by man there will be others who can successfully bet into it.

I can distill some of my time in LasVegas

Protect your bankroll

Never loan an amount greater then the amount you'd give him outright.

PROTECT that damn BANKROLL.