The Bet Life and Super Sunday

Super Bowl LVII is Sunday. It’s the day everybody and their grandmother becomes a riverboat gambler and throws a shekel or two on the game, whether they’re in a block pool or taking their chances on the point spread.

Proof positive I grew up an Eagles fan -- 
and was one for 40 years, only to see them
have their most success now. Maybe it was
me, Philly? 😒

About two years ago, I decided to try to make sports gambling a career. It was finally legal and abundantly accessible, and it didn’t hurt that I was at my high-water mark as a gambler. Entering the NFL playoffs, I’d turned a $100 deposit at the beginning of the season into $1,000. More than one person suggested I should go for it on a higher level. Normally, being very conservative financially, I would have withdrawn at least half of my winnings. But I wanted to push things, to turn my typical $25 bet on a game that I “like” but don’t necessarily “love” into a $100 bet.

And I promptly got my ass kicked.

By the time Tampa Bay beat Kansas City in Super Bowl LV, I’d given back the $1,000 plus another $500. 

What followed has been two years of the worst losing streak I’ve ever experienced.

But if you think this is a “coming to Jesus” story about gambling, you might want to stop reading.

There’s something basic about gambling that I love. You put your money up, and you win or you lose. No bullshit. No nonsense. No excuses – at least none that anybody cares about. Betting on a game offers an adrenalin rush that’s hard to match.

And, oddly enough, it gives me a sense of control. Power, even.

The world has basically told me that I don’t get “the good life.” I’ve essentially been denied a career because of my disability. Finding love hasn’t been much different.

Yet, my cerebral palsy doesn’t affect gambling. My speech problem doesn’t matter. I don’t have to get anybody to understand what I’m saying. I’m not at a disadvantage because of the way I move. I don’t have to “be given a chance.” If I got the money, I can make the bet. I succeed or fail based on what happens in the game. I know the rules, and I live and die by them – and nothing else.

I made my first bet nine months after being laid off. I put 110 bucks into an account, mistakenly thinking I’d have to bet $55 on a $50 bet to cover the “juice,” and told myself I would make two bets for 50 bucks and be done with it. As I recall, seven straight wins later I was loving life. I soon had my original investment back and I was way ahead going into the playoffs. A bad Sunday followed by a trip to the blackjack table for a little fun on my birthday ended the good times quickly. (I was always amazed that sports gambling was viewed as a societal evil while games like blackjack, which can take your money a hell of a lot faster, were seen as perfectly fine.) I didn’t make another bet until the following football season.

My biggest bet so far came a week ago Sunday on the NFC Championship game. I took the Eagles at -3 for $1,000 at even money – way more than my usual bet. The win was a nice way to dig most of the way out of a two-year slide. I immediately withdrew enough funds to put me exactly $100 ahead all time, while leaving some money in my account to keep playing. And, yes, I keep track of every penny. I even went back to estimate winnings and losings from NCAA Basketball pools and fantasy football leagues from the days of crowding into some guy’s basement to draft players for your team.

That $100 might be the ultimate symbol of the futility of it all. At this point, I still look at the money I spend on gambling as my “beer money.” I figure, I don’t drink much, I don’t have a woman in my life, I gamble! We all need some excitement in our lives. 

Every now and then, you just have to go for it! I hit
big on the Birds in the NFC Championship and have
the ticket to prove it!

I actually made some nice change off gambling as a writer for a while. Out of nowhere, I received offers to put links to online casinos in the text of blog posts. Just as inexplicably as those offers appeared, they eventually went back from whence they came. Making picks on games also made for an easy couple posts a week when I was doing a sports blog five days a week. I should say, they were easy posts to write. Despite few readers and seriously doubting that anyone was taking my betting advice, I felt far worse losing a pick on my blog than I ever feel losing a bet. Unlike the frauds offering picks out there today, I cared if I gave out bad picks. I also always posted my record, including the financial value I’d placed on each game.

Of course, I dream of making it big as a gambler. That rec center I want to create isn’t going to build itself. An ultra-accessible beachfront house might be nice, too, complete with one of those new power wheelchairs that can ride on the sand.

At the very least, and perhaps more realistically, I’d be happy to pay for this website and my self-publishing efforts with my winnings. A larger following would be helpful in that regard as well. Yes, I’m talking to YOU, dear reader. I was surprised to learn recently that more than 50% of visits to my website come from direct hits. That’s my e-mail subscribers! Not Facebook, Instagram, etc. So, don’t let social media determine who you follow. If you haven’t already, please join my e-mail list to receive notifications directly to your inbox when I post new articles and have occasional updates about my work. No spam. No nonsense. Stop any time. Click here or scroll down to enter your e-mail address. I’m seriously considering getting off the cesspool that Twitter has become, and may reduce my efforts on other social media sites. But I want to stay connected with you!!

I don’t have a pick on the Super Bowl this Sunday. Despite making possibly the worst decision in sports fandom history in ditching the Birds for the Steelers 11 seasons ago – because I thought Andy Reid was going to be the Eagles head coach forever and I couldn’t take hearing even one more “I gotta do a better job” from him – I have a difficult time evaluating the Eagles. My dad always said, “Don’t bet with your heart,” and for better or worse the heart is tough to eliminate with the Birds.

I might just bet a bunch of player props. My nephew/godson is big on those bets, and he’s turning me on to them lately. It’s been fun connecting with him and his dad (my brother) to share our picks. My nephew has never replied to my texts faster!

I certainly don’t recommend making sports gambling a career choice, whether you’re disabled or not. I’d say it’s the longest of long shots that I truly make a career out of gambling, but I’ve seen the odds of having a more traditional career and I’m not so sure. If nothing else, I enjoy trying to make it work. It challenges you mentally, if you’re doing it right. Keeping things in check, knowing when to “go for it” and when to pull back, studying the teams and trying to keep up with injuries, even learning what voices offering “free picks” are worth listening to and discarding the blowhards, is all part of gambling. And when you do everything right, you might still get screwed.

Sound like a career yet?

If nothing else, I enjoy the “bump bump” in my chest from betting a game that Kevin Hart talks about in his commercial. Here’s hoping the Eagles-Chiefs game gives us all a little bit of that feeling on Sunday.