Winning won’t save you. The dark side of betting.

Let’s talk about the dark side of betting, the psychological side.

I’m sure every one of you, well, most of you, know that betting-related psychological problems are really really bad, it’s an addiction and in most cases it leads to very very bad things. First of all, I can’t give you the exact numbers, but in my estimation, in the numbers I saw online and in researches and something like that, 95% of the bettors will lose everything in the end, yeah, 2-3% will be plus-minus in zero, zero net, I mean, and another 1-2%, 3%, whatever, very small number will be in plus.

So we all know what happens to 95%, it’s just really really bad, it’s devastating and unfortunately many many cases lead to unimaginable things and I wouldn’t wish for that to happen to anybody, but unfortunately it does happen, it’s an addiction, just like drugs, and it is a drug, gambling, betting, it is a drug.

So the 95% will then end up bad, they will need help, psychological, medical, physical, whatever, monetary, but the other guys, let’s say the guys that are in plus, I think there is a common misconception that if you win, you will be fine, I mean, you will not have problems, psychological, mental, and that every problem, all the problems come from losing.

Unfortunately, unfortunately, I can assure you that at least, at least, it’s not true for 100% of the cases, because I am one of the cases, and I can tell you that I’m betting for more than 20 years, I’m winning, I live from betting, but it doesn’t stop me from suffering the effects of this lifestyle that I have, for many it may seem like a very good lifestyle without problems, so on and so on, and maybe mostly it is, but then the gambling itself, the betting, it comes into play, and you just stop appreciating the good things in your life.

You know, it’s like I’ve been winning my whole life, and I stopped taking pleasure from simple things, from the things that I have, I can go into a bad streak and lose like thousandth part of what I have, and I can feel awful, you know, it shouldn’t affect me, because it doesn’t matter, it’s just a small variance, but it does, and it affects the whole life, you know, you live from bet to bet, and they define the bets, define how you feel, at least in my case.

Whatever I have in my life, whatever I have built, whatever I have acquired, whatever I have bought, and I can just stop betting and live comfortably from what I have acquired and built over my life, thanks to betting.

But I still care too much, like way too much, about every bet, no matter how big or small it is, it affects me, and it affects my whole mood, you know, you lose one bet in the morning, and your whole day is ruined, so to speak, it’s not every time, it’s not always, but it happens, and you go, like, you have everything, you don’t care if you lose or win even for a month, even longer, it doesn’t affect the whole picture, it doesn’t, but it affects you, it affects you from the inside, and as I said, I’m speaking this from first-hand experience, unfortunately it’s my situation, and it’s been over the years, you know, in waves and cycles and spirals, different things.

First, like when you’re younger and you’re just starting, you’re like much more emotional, every bet you let emotions out, and so on and so on, and then with time you become less emotional in this sense, like you show less emotion when you lose and when you win, but at least for me, you just, you hold it all inside, you know.

And in our profession you don’t talk to it, you don’t talk about it too much, you don’t go, like, you don’t go out, have dinner with some friends or acquaintances that you don’t know your whole life, and you don’t go saying to them, oh, I bet every day, like, I’m a sports bettor, I bet basketball, so on and so on, you don’t, because, you know, the common idea in the society is that you are a gambler, even if you are like a professional gambler, or I don’t like the word gambler, I’m not a gambler, I try to be a bettor, unfortunately, all of this got to me, and I can be a gambler, of course, sometimes, but I’d like, I like to think about myself as a bettor.

So my point is, we, even who, people who do it professionally, most of the time, we try to keep a low profile, you know, like, if you are a firefighter, for example, you go out, you meet people, and you will tell them, I’m a firefighter, and then you are respected, you, people know that you protect them, or you are like some emergency worker, or whatever, or a doctor, or a teacher, even, it’s, they don’t make much money, but they are respected.

We, we don’t, we are not, we don’t have the luxury of telling people of our successes, for example, that’s another problem that eats you from the inside.

It’s like, I don’t know about you, but I’m like superstitious, I don’t try to celebrate my bets, before they are won, you know, if my team is winning in the third quarter with 20 points, I’m not counting the money, I wait, I hide the emotion, even though I am happy inside, but I know, I know that it doesn’t mean anything, only the final result means on the board, so, we, I’m used to not celebrating, and that’s also a very big part of, of it.

And when you’re not appreciating the good things that you have, the good things that you build, the good things that you find, that you encounter, like, you just don’t do it anymore, because you are used to hiding, hiding when it’s bad, and hiding when it’s good, you can’t go around on a street and shouting, I won so much, I bet this team and that team, you just don’t, and you only can talk for, talk to, about the things to the same people as you are, you know, and that’s a limited set of people, and unfortunately it’s not the best set of people, because if you are winning, it doesn’t mean the people around you are winning also, if you’re winning, you can get the unwanted attention of, of people who are losing, and you will get the, I don’t know, if you believe in that or not, the bad vibes, they, they will envy you, they, they will think bad things about you, so on and so on.

And for me, I personally, I believe in the energy in the world, and everything is connected, and I, I don’t want to have bad energy about me, about my name from people around me, I would, I would want for them to think good things about me, but when you win, and they unfortunately don’t, which is more than likely in, in betting, as, because 95% of the people who bet lose, so you also invite the unwanted bad attention, and it all weighs on, on you, you know.

I’ve been doing it for so long, and lately I can’t say that it’s, it’s better, it was better for a while, but then, you know, life has its own ways, and you encounter some problems that you have no, no power against, some things happen, and you, you have no say, they just happen, and you can’t do anything about it, and then compounding that with your betting psychological situation, let’s call it that, it can cause a lot of problems, and I’m facing these problems.

I, I have talked to professionals, psychologists, multiple times in my life, and it does help, and there are certain, even certain techniques I was advised, and I used that did help me, maybe I’ll get into that some other time.

But my whole, the whole point of this conversation is that gambling betting is a problem, everybody knows that, and nobody can argue with that, but the common misconception is that if you win, you will have no problems, believe me, first of all, it’s, most probably you will not win forever, that’s number one, that’s why smart people, when they are winning, and then when they have the means, they try to arrange some different things, you know, and it, I think it is true for everything in life, whatever you do, if you’re doing very good, you have to think about the future, because it’s not a guarantee, and most probably it won’t last forever, you know, like we hear so many stories of NBA players making like many, many millions per season, and then years later they’re on the street in Las Vegas begging for one dollar coins, or something like that.

So my point is, even if you win, you can have problems, and I seriously don’t know what to do about that, I wish I did.

Unfortunately I have not been able in my whole career to distance myself from individual bets, from individual results, because looking at the whole picture will always help if you know what you’re doing, unfortunately it doesn’t work like that for me, I hope it does work for you, and if you’re just not too far along the way, if you can’t stop, just at least try to look at the whole picture, always try to distance yourself from relying on individual results, short distances, so on and so on.

If you’re just starting out, I advise you to stop. If you haven’t started out and you’re thinking about it, don’t even start.