The answer is a little different to you may expect! Professional gamblers share a common trait; not following the crowd. In this Q & A session, Caan answers. The Right Casino. Tip number 1 to becoming a professional gambler is picking the right online.
In short: Keep as much money as possible from free bets. Matched betting is the. Long story short, it's possible to go from a small initial deposit to becoming a professional gambler. But you also need discipline, patience, and steady investments into your bankroll. Most gamblers aren't willing to make these sacrifices. That said, it can sometimes feel. Cut Your Losses Quickly. Knowing when to quit is an important quality to have in any profession.
Most gamblers realize that becoming a professional isn't an easy path. A successful pro must excel at a specific game and be disciplined in bankroll management and other areas.
Even still, professional gambling seems like a very desirable job. You need only look at multi-millionaire sports bettors, WSOP champions, and card-counting legends to get inspired.
Being a pro definitely has its highs, including fame and fortune. But it also has plenty of downsides that must be considered too.
That said, I'm going to cover the highs and lows of being a pro gambler and finish by concluding if it's a worthwhile pursuit.
Best Aspects of Being a Pro Gambler
Professional bettors enjoy a number of general advantages and benefits that are specific to their chosen game. The benefits discussed below apply to most forms of pro gambling.
Win Profits From Entertaining Games
The average person goes to casinos knowing full well that they have a solid chance of losing. After all, the casino holds an edge in all of their games.
Nevertheless, these people visit casinos and gamble for the sake of entertainment. While they hope to win, they'll still get plenty of thrills even if they lose.
But just imagine being able to play the same games, only with an edge.
As I'll cover later, this profession isn't always as glamorous as it seems, but it's exciting enough to keep many pro gamblers engaged in their job.
Be Your Own Boss
Being your own boss lets you set your own hours and decide your schedule. You don't have somebody else clocking your 10-minute break or limiting you to half-hour lunches.
Those who gamble for a living get to enjoy this very perk. They can enter the casino or log in online whenever the mood strikes and stop playing when they've had enough for the day.
Depending upon the game, some points of the day are more advantageous than others. For example, many online poker pros work during evening hours and weekends when many recreational players are online.
But even in these cases, professionals have some degree of control over their schedule. They can choose to take a night off when they need it and set their hours as necessary.
You Control Your Destiny
Most forms of employment don't give you a true chance to move up the ladder. You may be able to get a promotion after a few years, but you're still at the mercy of your boss or whoever's making such decisions.
Gambling, on the other hand, is a wide-open affair. You can improve your situation by studying your profession and becoming more skilled.
Of course, there are limitations to how much you can move up in the gambling world based on your bankroll. You can't expect to consistently beat $1,000 buy-in tournaments and daily fantasy sports (DFS) on a consistent basis if you only have $5,000.
By and large, though, being a professional gambler gives you greater control over your destiny than most regular jobs.
Virtually Unlimited Earning Potential
I'll reiterate again that some limitations apply to moving up the ladder in gambling. But the good news is that your earning potential is still almost limitless.
Nobody is stopping you from gradually accumulating a massive bankroll through sports betting and one day making six- or seven-figure wagers. Likewise, no one can prevent you from becoming a high-stakes poker player one day.
The key is having the patience and discipline to reach for higher and higher levels. While you may not ultimately make it to the top, you can at least improve your standing and win more money.
Become Famous
Some forms of gambling give you a platform for gaining fame. Poker, blackjack, daily fantasy sports, and sports betting have all seen certain players become well known.
Poker has especially created a number of minor celebrities. Players like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, and Dan Cates have all gained some degree of international fame for their success.
Certain members of the MIT blackjack team became infamous through their card-counting exploits and even had a mainstream movie made about them.
Other counters like Ed Thorp, Al Snyder, Ken Uston, and James Grosjean are also blackjack legends. You may not necessarily set out to be famous when embarking on a professional gambling journey, but it can be an interesting byproduct if you become good enough.
Travel to Interesting Places
Card counters and poker players may find themselves traveling to exotic destinations in their line of work. This especially comes into play with poker because major tournaments are held throughout the world.
The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), for example, is held at Paradise Island (Nassau), Bahamas. The Aussie Millions is staged in Melbourne, Australia, annually.
As for card counters, they often go where the games are good. If they've been thrown out of too many Vegas casinos, they may find more success in Europe or the Caribbean.
Of course, not every gambler wants to travel as part of their job, because it takes time and a portion of their bankroll. But those who do enjoy seeing the world will like this aspect.
Have a Cool Job
As a gambling pro, you'll receive lots of questions from other people. They may even pick your brain about how to become a professional themselves.
This line of work isn't common, such as being a truck driver, working in a factory, or being a salesman.
You may sometimes find yourself the center of attention at gatherings when others find out that you gamble for a living.
Satisfaction of Being Among the Best
Again, few get the chance to play casino games or other forms of gambling professionally. Even if you only last in this field for 1-2 years, you're still far better than the average gambler.
Any type of game you play will be a competitive affair. You'll especially face resistance in player-versus-player games like poker and DFS.
If you embrace studying strategy to improve your skills, then you'll fare well against opponents. With the right work ethic, you may even ascend to the top of your respective game.
Worst Aspects of Being a Pro Gambler
The advantages discussed above show why people aspire to make a full-time living through gambling. But what many of the same bettors don't take into account is that there are some serious downsides to this type of work.
You may ultimately find that the pros outweigh the cons, but you'll still want to be aware of the following drawbacks before throwing yourself into the matter.
Being a Pro Can Make Gambling Boring
Nobody randomly decides that they want to gamble for a living. They instead start out playing a fun casino game and decide that they've found a potential dream job.
But what may seem fun and exciting at first can become a drag. As a professional, you're no longer gambling for fun.
You're instead constantly looking for favorable opportunities and ways to maintain your edge. While this can still be rewarding, it's not the same as visiting the casino once per week whenever you feel like it.
Poker is a great example of how boring professional gambling can be. The pros are often called 'grinders' because they spend hours playing hand after hand and grinding out profits.
The rewards can be well worth the effort, but it may not seem so when you're playing up to 12 hours per day in a multi-table tournament.
Income Isn't Steady
Gambling is the total opposite of a nine-to-five job. You don't punch in and earn X amount of dollars per hour.
Your income is based on a combination of your skills, how many hours you play, and if luck is going your way. The luck factor is especially tough to deal with because it means that you never know how much you'll make in any given week.
Those who play in big DFS and poker tournaments especially know the difficulty of predicting their income. These gamblers rely on huge scores, which come very inconsistently in larger tourneys.
Becoming A Professional Gambler Sports
Downswings Are Common
Every form of gambling is subject to a degree of chance, no matter how good you are. You'll be riding high when you're playing well and luck is in your favor.
Unfortunately, you also go through periods where you can't catch a break. You may make a lot of seemingly good sports bets, only to continue losing again and again.
These downswings can certainly be depressing. However, they're something you must be fully prepared to deal with when gambling for a living.
You Need a Large Bankroll
You won't make much money through gambling if you don't have a big bankroll. After all, your bankroll determines how large of stakes you'll be able to play for.
You don't have to compete in DFS tournaments with four-figure buy-ins or poker cash stakes worth $200/$400 just to be successful, but you do need enough money to cover fairly high limits and your bills.
$50 sports bets and $10 buy-in DFS contests aren't going to cut it. You instead want a bankroll worth thousands of dollars so that you can make the type of bets that'll bring in serious profits.
Must Maintain Skills to Succeed
Just because you become a professional bettor doesn't mean that you maintain this status forever. You instead need to work on your skills so that you can improve, or at least remain at the same level.
You're not guaranteed a tomorrow with card counting, esports betting, poker, or any other legitimate gambling profession. If your abilities erode, then your chances of winning also go down the tubes.
You definitely want to study your respective game in order to keep up. Unfortunately, this means putting more work in away from the gambling side.
Hard to Stay Disciplined
Earlier, I covered how gambling can become boring when you have to do it every day. This problem can cause you to become undisciplined and take unnecessary risks.
You may start out with every intention of doing the right thing and placing bets with positive expected value. However, your plans can go off the rails after you've been playing poker professionally for three years and are bored with the matter.
Many poker pros make prop bets with each other because they want to spice up the action. They get tired of playing numerous hands and want to try a different type of gamble with each other.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with a fun weight-loss bet or challenge on how many lunges one can do. But players should never make the type of wagers that could put their career in jeopardy.
Travel and Casino Life Can Become a Grind
Earlier, I discussed how traveling can be a perk for professional gamblers. Those who've always dreamed of going to Europe, the Caribbean, or elsewhere will appreciate where gambling can take them.
But traveling also becomes a drain, especially when one has to do it often. Many poker tournament pros tire of constantly being on the road.
Even if you don't have to go far to gamble, simply spending hours in the casino is also a grind. Card counters and live poker pros know this all too well.
Some Look Down Upon Professional Gamblers
Having an interesting job as a pro gambler is good to some degree. However, you also have to consider that general society frowns upon this profession.
The average person doesn't realize that you're making money through skill. They instead envision you as a degenerate gambler who sits around drinking and smoking cigars.
This stereotype is no longer as true today, but that doesn't stop many people from seeing professional gamblers as degenerates.
You're Not Contributing to Society
You probably won't get much fulfillment out of gambling when considering that you're not producing anything substantial. Instead, you're merely winning money off the casino or other players.
Many poker pros have cited this aspect when they retire from the game.
The same ex-grinders often find work in a field where they're actually fulfilling a goal beyond just earning money.
You May Not Develop Meaningful Relationships With 'Coworkers'
One benefit to working at a regular company is that you can develop friendships with your coworkers. You may even find yourself hanging out with them beyond the workplace.
Some gamblers have developed the same relationships to a certain degree. However, not everybody appreciates rubbing elbows with fellow gamblers on a daily basis.
Hard to Maintain a Work-Life Balance
The problem with making your own hours is that it's hard to figure out where your personal life ends and your job begins. You have to gamble whenever a favorable opportunity presents itself, or leave profits on the table.
If you're a DFS pro who makes most of your money through NFL games, then you'll need to spend a lot of time on Friday and Saturday crafting your lineups. This is a point when you have the most information possible to make decisions.
Likewise, many online poker pros play during European evening hours. This is the time when the largest number of recreational poker players is online.
This sort of lifestyle creates problems when trying to maintain non-poker friends and a relationship with a significant other. The difficult work-life balance of gambling is another reason why many end up quitting the profession.
Is It Worth Becoming a Pro Gambler?
You really need a passion for whatever game you're playing — at least in the beginning. Having this feeling gives you fuel to continue learning and excelling in your chosen game.
If you enjoy DFS then you not only need to like creating lineups and watching sports but also researching players and in-depth stats.
You can't be successful when you just enjoy the fun parts and forget the rest.
Of course, you may eventually lose this passion after years of playing a specific game. Any of the downsides that I covered earlier can eat away at your desire to gamble for a living.
But you'll only know this if you try becoming a professional in the first place. The reverse side is that you might grow to love whatever game you're playing and embrace it for decades.
You, therefore, have to evaluate how much you really like gambling before jumping head-first into it. Try gradually increasing the number of hours you spend with a particular game to see if you still have the same feeling or if it begins fading.
I definitely don't recommend that you go down the professional gambling path without the proper bankroll. You won't have enough money to survive gaming's volatility.
- A card-counting team, for example, is advised to start out with at least $20,000 to $25,000. They only have around a 1% edge, meaning they'll suffer losing sessions almost as often as they win.
- A poker or DFS tournament player should have around 100 buy-ins for their respective stakes. Big tourneys are extremely volatile, meaning one needs a large number of buy-ins while they're waiting for sizable scores.
You also need to be okay with the lows of professional gambling discussed here. Ideally, you want to feel like the pros outweigh the cons.
Conclusion
Being a pro gambler isn't as glamorous as it's made out to be in the movies. You won't constantly be involved in dramatic games or win six or seven figures on a regular basis.
Instead, this job is about getting an edge, maintaining it, and slowly grinding out profits over time. As long as you know and accept this going in, then you may be right for this profession.
Of course, everything begins with having the necessary skills to win on a regular basis. You can't call yourself a card counter or pro esports bettor when you lose over half your money.
You need to dedicate yourself to learning strategy and improving your skills. With enough time and effort, you may eventually have what it takes to succeed.
Gambling as a pro definitely has its benefits. You can set your own hours, control your destiny, have an interesting job, and win lots of money.
However, this profession also comes with drawbacks. Your favorite game can suddenly become boring, the income is volatile, you have to maintain your skills, and travel may become a regular thing.
Not everybody is cut out for this line of work. That's why so few people actually gamble for a living. But if you want to be a pro bad enough, then the opportunity is there in several games.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.So, you wanna know how to become a professional gambler, do you? You're fed up with the daily grind, you're ready to start living a little, and you see gambling as a way out. That's ambitious, and it is achievable, but we want to kick you the real deal about gambling professionally so you have the best chance of success.
The name of our website is Gamblerspro.com, so we know a thing or two about gambling professionally. We've watched the rise and fall of countless poker players, financial traders, and sports betting pros over the years. We even have some gambling success stories of our own to draw lessons from.
The first thing you need to know is that there are many different types of gambling. Your chances of making it as a pro gambler in these different disciplines differ wildly. As you'll see, your odds are much better in some fields than in others, so it's worth your time to find out the pros and cons of gambling in each different discipline.
Ready? Let's study the different types of gambling before deciding which one you're going to pursue professionally.
Becoming a Professional Gambler – Choose Your Discipline
We like to say that gambling is a lot like martial arts. You can be a black belt in Muay Thai, and a complete beginner at Jiu-Jitsu. The same goes for gambling – you can be a semi-pro level poker player, but not have the first clue about trading the financial markets for a profit.
Each gambling discipline is unique. Which one you should choose will come down to your temperament, your appetite for risk, and your current understanding of how that type of gambling works. So, what do professional gamblers bet on? All kinds of things! Let's look at each one by one.
Become a Professional Casino Player
We've got to be honest upfront – becoming a professional blackjack player or slots savant is not the best way to go about things. Most casino games, with very few exceptions, are down to pure luck. We'd rule out becoming a professional roulette player, or playing slots for a living, from the beginning. You're 100% at the mercy of the casino and the whims of lady luck, and that's no way to make a steady living, friend!
There are some skill-based casino games. For example, you can play blackjack for a living with a reasonable degree of success. That's because the blackjack house edge is tiny if you play with a proper strategy. With an optimal blackjack strategy, the house edge can be as small as 0.5%. That still puts you at a slight disadvantage, though, even if it's only a minor one.
If you have your mind made up on casino games, becoming a professional card player is the best option. Playing games like slots and scratch-offs will mean you have no control whatsoever.
Become a Professional Sports Gambler
Successful gamblers know that they need as much control as possible. While there's most definitely an element of chance in sports betting, you do have more control than you would when playing casino games for a living.
Gambling on sports is what we'd call half luck, half skill. There's no accounting for freak events like Leister City winning the EPL. However, you can tap into your existing knowledge of certain sports to win more often than not. Our EPL tipster is a prime example of that – he would never be able to win the majority of his football bets by luck alone.
Pro sports bettors are rare, but they do exist. Millionaire sports bettor Billy Walters is an example. We'll tell you more about how he succeeded below.
Of course, betting on sports for a living has its pros and cons.
One of the major advantages is the excitement involved. If you love sports, you can basically make a living doing what you love. You can jump around between football, horse racing, martial arts, tennis, golf, and any other sports you please. For some, that's much more exciting and interesting than spinning the reels or flipping endless numbers of cards over.
One of the major disadvantages is that random events can happen, and you can get wiped out and go without any money for a while. You can go on a bad run of luck where your knowledge and skills just fail you, and you need to be able to weather these financial hard times until the storm passes.
Become a Professional Poker Player
If you have dreams of making your way to the WSOP, the good news is that you do have a better chance of becoming a professional poker player than almost any other form of gambling; just ask Amarillo Slim. That's because poker is a game of skill. While there is most definitely an element of chance involved, you can compensate for bad luck with your poker skills.
What's the earning potential? A professional poker player's salary largely depends on what level he or she is playing at. It's not even correct to call it a salary since the word salary implies something steady which you can depend on month after month. That's not the case in poker – if you don't finish in the money regularly, you'll be broke, but that can all turn around with one big win. Some pro poker players do manage to score sponsorships for a steady paycheck, but you won't be eligible for those until you enter the big leagues.
To become a professional poker player, you need to practice, practice, and practice some more. The great thing about this being a skill-based game is that every hand you play gets you closer to the goal of turning pro. You're acquiring a skill, rather than just wasting time. We suggest reading all the books and poker articles you can and then applying what you learn in online poker tournaments. Of all the ways to become a professional gambler, turning pro at poker is among the most realistic. If you have an interest in or aptitude for it, we'd focus on this over sports betting or casino gaming.
Become a Professional Financial Trader
Don't let anyone tell you that gambling for a living is a fool's game. Just tell them to ask George Soros or any of the other multi-millionaire financial traders, and ask them why the world's biggest banks have entire floors filled with professional financial traders. Financial betting is serious business, and if you have the desire to learn and study, there are ways to make money at it.
Financial traders attempt to predict the future price of stocks, commodities, and other assets. They bet against other traders, so there's no house advantage. Each trade is a zero-sum game – someone wins, and someone loses, so it's a lot like peer-to-peer betting.
Becoming a professional gambler in the financial markets is not like other forms of gambling. That's because there is not much luck involved – it's all about having experience, discipline, and intuition for what's going to happen next. With proper risk management strategies, you can make sure that your wins (when they occur) are always bigger than the sum total of your losses. This means that you only have to be able to survive financially until an inevitable win comes.
We'd almost go as far as to say that financial trading isn't really gambling in the strictest sense of the word, but at the end of the day, you're risking money in the hope of walking away with more, so it does fit the definition of gambling for our purposes.
Successful Gamblers Stories
There are plenty of successful gamblers out there, and to be frank, most of them keep it quiet. They want to keep their financial business to themselves, and they don't want people pestering them 24/7 with questions about strategies, or begging them for cash. Yet, there are some famous professional gamblers, so we decided to pick three of them and share their stories with you. They can serve as inspiration, and if you read more about them, you might learn a thing or two about how to be a professional gambler yourself.
Antonio Esfandiari
Being A Professional Gambler On The Football
We said above that playing poker for a living was one of the more realistic options for becoming a professional gambler, and this man is living proof. At the time of writing, he has earned well over $20 million as a pro poker player.
Nicknamed ‘The Magician,' Esfandiari has won three WSOP bracelets and has won the World Poker Tour twice. He also holds the record for winning the largest poker pot in history – a cool $18,346,673.
Esfandiari has a colourful life story aside from being a professional gambler. He grew up in Iran, moved to California when he was nine, and went to jail for selling marijuana not long after graduating from high-school. After a brief stint as a magician, he began playing poker and eventually founded the poker website Ultimate Poker. This poker legend is an inspiring example of how everyday people can become pro poker players with enough dedication and skill.
Billy Walters
Not many pro sports bettors can claim a winning streak which lasted more than 30 years, but the legendary Billy Walters can. Walters grew up poor in rural Kentucky, but quickly amassed a fortune worth millions of dollars based on exploiting roulette and betting on sports professionally. He's a professional gambler that struck so much fear into bookies that he had to employ teams of runners to place his bets.
Waters started young – he began gambling when he was nine years old. He claims that by the time he was in his early twenties, he had lost $50,000, which in the 80s was a LOT of dough. He also claims he once lost his house, but that the winner let him pay him off in cash instead.
Walters didn't let any of this deter him. He kept gambling, kept learning, and eventually turned to professional sports betting. He joined the Computer Group, which uses computing power to analyze sports betting stats, and in a thirty-year sports betting career, he lost only once. His biggest score was $3.5 million on the New Orleans Saints to win Superbowl XLIV. Walters was so successful that he had to use runners to place his bets because most bookies were so afraid of him that they wouldn't accept his bets.
So, can you become a professional sports gambler? Just ask Billy Walters. Sadly, you'll have to write to him in prison, because he got involved in the financial markets and was put away for five years on insider trading charges in 2017. To learn more about his epic Superbowl bet, scroll back up and watch the video above.
George Soros
George Soros is so successful that he once broke the Bank of England, and has been blamed for causing a multitude of financial crises all over the world. He's a professional gambler of the financial variety. This man built himself up from being a poverty-stricken Hungarian immigrant to one of the richest men in the world, and he did it all as a professional gambler in the financial markets. It's estimated that Soros has a personal net worth exceeding $11 billion today.
How did he do it? He left Hungary to study economics at the London School of Economics, and after getting his degree, he started trading the financial markets. After a little while, he moved to NYC, and before long, he was running his own trading firm. Investors gave Soros money hand over fist because of his spectacular returns, and his offshore hedge fund named the Quantum Fund is one of the most successful of all time.
Soros is obviously at the extreme end of the spectrum when it comes to successful financial traders. Only one in a million can ever hope to reach this level, but it is possible if you have the gift. Most wannabe professional gamblers would be happy with 0.1% of this man's success, which would still make you rich to the tune of tens of millions.
Professional Gambler Tips
Unfortunately, you also go through periods where you can't catch a break. You may make a lot of seemingly good sports bets, only to continue losing again and again.
These downswings can certainly be depressing. However, they're something you must be fully prepared to deal with when gambling for a living.
You Need a Large Bankroll
You won't make much money through gambling if you don't have a big bankroll. After all, your bankroll determines how large of stakes you'll be able to play for.
You don't have to compete in DFS tournaments with four-figure buy-ins or poker cash stakes worth $200/$400 just to be successful, but you do need enough money to cover fairly high limits and your bills.
$50 sports bets and $10 buy-in DFS contests aren't going to cut it. You instead want a bankroll worth thousands of dollars so that you can make the type of bets that'll bring in serious profits.
Must Maintain Skills to Succeed
Just because you become a professional bettor doesn't mean that you maintain this status forever. You instead need to work on your skills so that you can improve, or at least remain at the same level.
You're not guaranteed a tomorrow with card counting, esports betting, poker, or any other legitimate gambling profession. If your abilities erode, then your chances of winning also go down the tubes.
You definitely want to study your respective game in order to keep up. Unfortunately, this means putting more work in away from the gambling side.
Hard to Stay Disciplined
Earlier, I covered how gambling can become boring when you have to do it every day. This problem can cause you to become undisciplined and take unnecessary risks.
You may start out with every intention of doing the right thing and placing bets with positive expected value. However, your plans can go off the rails after you've been playing poker professionally for three years and are bored with the matter.
Many poker pros make prop bets with each other because they want to spice up the action. They get tired of playing numerous hands and want to try a different type of gamble with each other.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with a fun weight-loss bet or challenge on how many lunges one can do. But players should never make the type of wagers that could put their career in jeopardy.
Travel and Casino Life Can Become a Grind
Earlier, I discussed how traveling can be a perk for professional gamblers. Those who've always dreamed of going to Europe, the Caribbean, or elsewhere will appreciate where gambling can take them.
But traveling also becomes a drain, especially when one has to do it often. Many poker tournament pros tire of constantly being on the road.
Even if you don't have to go far to gamble, simply spending hours in the casino is also a grind. Card counters and live poker pros know this all too well.
Some Look Down Upon Professional Gamblers
Having an interesting job as a pro gambler is good to some degree. However, you also have to consider that general society frowns upon this profession.
The average person doesn't realize that you're making money through skill. They instead envision you as a degenerate gambler who sits around drinking and smoking cigars.
This stereotype is no longer as true today, but that doesn't stop many people from seeing professional gamblers as degenerates.
You're Not Contributing to Society
You probably won't get much fulfillment out of gambling when considering that you're not producing anything substantial. Instead, you're merely winning money off the casino or other players.
Many poker pros have cited this aspect when they retire from the game.
The same ex-grinders often find work in a field where they're actually fulfilling a goal beyond just earning money.
You May Not Develop Meaningful Relationships With 'Coworkers'
One benefit to working at a regular company is that you can develop friendships with your coworkers. You may even find yourself hanging out with them beyond the workplace.
Some gamblers have developed the same relationships to a certain degree. However, not everybody appreciates rubbing elbows with fellow gamblers on a daily basis.
Hard to Maintain a Work-Life Balance
The problem with making your own hours is that it's hard to figure out where your personal life ends and your job begins. You have to gamble whenever a favorable opportunity presents itself, or leave profits on the table.
If you're a DFS pro who makes most of your money through NFL games, then you'll need to spend a lot of time on Friday and Saturday crafting your lineups. This is a point when you have the most information possible to make decisions.
Likewise, many online poker pros play during European evening hours. This is the time when the largest number of recreational poker players is online.
This sort of lifestyle creates problems when trying to maintain non-poker friends and a relationship with a significant other. The difficult work-life balance of gambling is another reason why many end up quitting the profession.
Is It Worth Becoming a Pro Gambler?
You really need a passion for whatever game you're playing — at least in the beginning. Having this feeling gives you fuel to continue learning and excelling in your chosen game.
If you enjoy DFS then you not only need to like creating lineups and watching sports but also researching players and in-depth stats.
You can't be successful when you just enjoy the fun parts and forget the rest.
Of course, you may eventually lose this passion after years of playing a specific game. Any of the downsides that I covered earlier can eat away at your desire to gamble for a living.
But you'll only know this if you try becoming a professional in the first place. The reverse side is that you might grow to love whatever game you're playing and embrace it for decades.
You, therefore, have to evaluate how much you really like gambling before jumping head-first into it. Try gradually increasing the number of hours you spend with a particular game to see if you still have the same feeling or if it begins fading.
I definitely don't recommend that you go down the professional gambling path without the proper bankroll. You won't have enough money to survive gaming's volatility.
- A card-counting team, for example, is advised to start out with at least $20,000 to $25,000. They only have around a 1% edge, meaning they'll suffer losing sessions almost as often as they win.
- A poker or DFS tournament player should have around 100 buy-ins for their respective stakes. Big tourneys are extremely volatile, meaning one needs a large number of buy-ins while they're waiting for sizable scores.
You also need to be okay with the lows of professional gambling discussed here. Ideally, you want to feel like the pros outweigh the cons.
Conclusion
Being a pro gambler isn't as glamorous as it's made out to be in the movies. You won't constantly be involved in dramatic games or win six or seven figures on a regular basis.
Instead, this job is about getting an edge, maintaining it, and slowly grinding out profits over time. As long as you know and accept this going in, then you may be right for this profession.
Of course, everything begins with having the necessary skills to win on a regular basis. You can't call yourself a card counter or pro esports bettor when you lose over half your money.
You need to dedicate yourself to learning strategy and improving your skills. With enough time and effort, you may eventually have what it takes to succeed.
Gambling as a pro definitely has its benefits. You can set your own hours, control your destiny, have an interesting job, and win lots of money.
However, this profession also comes with drawbacks. Your favorite game can suddenly become boring, the income is volatile, you have to maintain your skills, and travel may become a regular thing.
Not everybody is cut out for this line of work. That's why so few people actually gamble for a living. But if you want to be a pro bad enough, then the opportunity is there in several games.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.So, you wanna know how to become a professional gambler, do you? You're fed up with the daily grind, you're ready to start living a little, and you see gambling as a way out. That's ambitious, and it is achievable, but we want to kick you the real deal about gambling professionally so you have the best chance of success.
The name of our website is Gamblerspro.com, so we know a thing or two about gambling professionally. We've watched the rise and fall of countless poker players, financial traders, and sports betting pros over the years. We even have some gambling success stories of our own to draw lessons from.
The first thing you need to know is that there are many different types of gambling. Your chances of making it as a pro gambler in these different disciplines differ wildly. As you'll see, your odds are much better in some fields than in others, so it's worth your time to find out the pros and cons of gambling in each different discipline.
Ready? Let's study the different types of gambling before deciding which one you're going to pursue professionally.
Becoming a Professional Gambler – Choose Your Discipline
We like to say that gambling is a lot like martial arts. You can be a black belt in Muay Thai, and a complete beginner at Jiu-Jitsu. The same goes for gambling – you can be a semi-pro level poker player, but not have the first clue about trading the financial markets for a profit.
Each gambling discipline is unique. Which one you should choose will come down to your temperament, your appetite for risk, and your current understanding of how that type of gambling works. So, what do professional gamblers bet on? All kinds of things! Let's look at each one by one.
Become a Professional Casino Player
We've got to be honest upfront – becoming a professional blackjack player or slots savant is not the best way to go about things. Most casino games, with very few exceptions, are down to pure luck. We'd rule out becoming a professional roulette player, or playing slots for a living, from the beginning. You're 100% at the mercy of the casino and the whims of lady luck, and that's no way to make a steady living, friend!
There are some skill-based casino games. For example, you can play blackjack for a living with a reasonable degree of success. That's because the blackjack house edge is tiny if you play with a proper strategy. With an optimal blackjack strategy, the house edge can be as small as 0.5%. That still puts you at a slight disadvantage, though, even if it's only a minor one.
If you have your mind made up on casino games, becoming a professional card player is the best option. Playing games like slots and scratch-offs will mean you have no control whatsoever.
Become a Professional Sports Gambler
Successful gamblers know that they need as much control as possible. While there's most definitely an element of chance in sports betting, you do have more control than you would when playing casino games for a living.
Gambling on sports is what we'd call half luck, half skill. There's no accounting for freak events like Leister City winning the EPL. However, you can tap into your existing knowledge of certain sports to win more often than not. Our EPL tipster is a prime example of that – he would never be able to win the majority of his football bets by luck alone.
Pro sports bettors are rare, but they do exist. Millionaire sports bettor Billy Walters is an example. We'll tell you more about how he succeeded below.
Of course, betting on sports for a living has its pros and cons.
One of the major advantages is the excitement involved. If you love sports, you can basically make a living doing what you love. You can jump around between football, horse racing, martial arts, tennis, golf, and any other sports you please. For some, that's much more exciting and interesting than spinning the reels or flipping endless numbers of cards over.
One of the major disadvantages is that random events can happen, and you can get wiped out and go without any money for a while. You can go on a bad run of luck where your knowledge and skills just fail you, and you need to be able to weather these financial hard times until the storm passes.
Become a Professional Poker Player
If you have dreams of making your way to the WSOP, the good news is that you do have a better chance of becoming a professional poker player than almost any other form of gambling; just ask Amarillo Slim. That's because poker is a game of skill. While there is most definitely an element of chance involved, you can compensate for bad luck with your poker skills.
What's the earning potential? A professional poker player's salary largely depends on what level he or she is playing at. It's not even correct to call it a salary since the word salary implies something steady which you can depend on month after month. That's not the case in poker – if you don't finish in the money regularly, you'll be broke, but that can all turn around with one big win. Some pro poker players do manage to score sponsorships for a steady paycheck, but you won't be eligible for those until you enter the big leagues.
To become a professional poker player, you need to practice, practice, and practice some more. The great thing about this being a skill-based game is that every hand you play gets you closer to the goal of turning pro. You're acquiring a skill, rather than just wasting time. We suggest reading all the books and poker articles you can and then applying what you learn in online poker tournaments. Of all the ways to become a professional gambler, turning pro at poker is among the most realistic. If you have an interest in or aptitude for it, we'd focus on this over sports betting or casino gaming.
Become a Professional Financial Trader
Don't let anyone tell you that gambling for a living is a fool's game. Just tell them to ask George Soros or any of the other multi-millionaire financial traders, and ask them why the world's biggest banks have entire floors filled with professional financial traders. Financial betting is serious business, and if you have the desire to learn and study, there are ways to make money at it.
Financial traders attempt to predict the future price of stocks, commodities, and other assets. They bet against other traders, so there's no house advantage. Each trade is a zero-sum game – someone wins, and someone loses, so it's a lot like peer-to-peer betting.
Becoming a professional gambler in the financial markets is not like other forms of gambling. That's because there is not much luck involved – it's all about having experience, discipline, and intuition for what's going to happen next. With proper risk management strategies, you can make sure that your wins (when they occur) are always bigger than the sum total of your losses. This means that you only have to be able to survive financially until an inevitable win comes.
We'd almost go as far as to say that financial trading isn't really gambling in the strictest sense of the word, but at the end of the day, you're risking money in the hope of walking away with more, so it does fit the definition of gambling for our purposes.
Successful Gamblers Stories
There are plenty of successful gamblers out there, and to be frank, most of them keep it quiet. They want to keep their financial business to themselves, and they don't want people pestering them 24/7 with questions about strategies, or begging them for cash. Yet, there are some famous professional gamblers, so we decided to pick three of them and share their stories with you. They can serve as inspiration, and if you read more about them, you might learn a thing or two about how to be a professional gambler yourself.
Antonio Esfandiari
Being A Professional Gambler On The Football
We said above that playing poker for a living was one of the more realistic options for becoming a professional gambler, and this man is living proof. At the time of writing, he has earned well over $20 million as a pro poker player.
Nicknamed ‘The Magician,' Esfandiari has won three WSOP bracelets and has won the World Poker Tour twice. He also holds the record for winning the largest poker pot in history – a cool $18,346,673.
Esfandiari has a colourful life story aside from being a professional gambler. He grew up in Iran, moved to California when he was nine, and went to jail for selling marijuana not long after graduating from high-school. After a brief stint as a magician, he began playing poker and eventually founded the poker website Ultimate Poker. This poker legend is an inspiring example of how everyday people can become pro poker players with enough dedication and skill.
Billy Walters
Not many pro sports bettors can claim a winning streak which lasted more than 30 years, but the legendary Billy Walters can. Walters grew up poor in rural Kentucky, but quickly amassed a fortune worth millions of dollars based on exploiting roulette and betting on sports professionally. He's a professional gambler that struck so much fear into bookies that he had to employ teams of runners to place his bets.
Waters started young – he began gambling when he was nine years old. He claims that by the time he was in his early twenties, he had lost $50,000, which in the 80s was a LOT of dough. He also claims he once lost his house, but that the winner let him pay him off in cash instead.
Walters didn't let any of this deter him. He kept gambling, kept learning, and eventually turned to professional sports betting. He joined the Computer Group, which uses computing power to analyze sports betting stats, and in a thirty-year sports betting career, he lost only once. His biggest score was $3.5 million on the New Orleans Saints to win Superbowl XLIV. Walters was so successful that he had to use runners to place his bets because most bookies were so afraid of him that they wouldn't accept his bets.
So, can you become a professional sports gambler? Just ask Billy Walters. Sadly, you'll have to write to him in prison, because he got involved in the financial markets and was put away for five years on insider trading charges in 2017. To learn more about his epic Superbowl bet, scroll back up and watch the video above.
George Soros
George Soros is so successful that he once broke the Bank of England, and has been blamed for causing a multitude of financial crises all over the world. He's a professional gambler of the financial variety. This man built himself up from being a poverty-stricken Hungarian immigrant to one of the richest men in the world, and he did it all as a professional gambler in the financial markets. It's estimated that Soros has a personal net worth exceeding $11 billion today.
How did he do it? He left Hungary to study economics at the London School of Economics, and after getting his degree, he started trading the financial markets. After a little while, he moved to NYC, and before long, he was running his own trading firm. Investors gave Soros money hand over fist because of his spectacular returns, and his offshore hedge fund named the Quantum Fund is one of the most successful of all time.
Soros is obviously at the extreme end of the spectrum when it comes to successful financial traders. Only one in a million can ever hope to reach this level, but it is possible if you have the gift. Most wannabe professional gamblers would be happy with 0.1% of this man's success, which would still make you rich to the tune of tens of millions.
Professional Gambler Tips
Becoming A Professional Horse Gambler
By now, you should have an idea of the pros and cons of gambling for a living in the different disciplines. Hopefully, you've realized that casino games don't give you much of a chance and that either playing poker, betting on sports, or trading financials are your best bets.
Whatever you decide to do, there are five professional gambling tips which will help you make a decision and succeed more often.
- There's no such thing as a professional gambler salary for the majority of players. You might land a sponsorship if you start playing poker at a high level, but it's not likely for most people. Make sure you have enough set aside to weather losing streaks and rough patches financially, especially in the beginning.
- Try the different gambling disciplines to find out which one you have a knack for. They all involve different levels of risk and will appeal to different interests. If you're obsessed with sports and the financial markets bore you to tears, that should tell you something about where your natural talents might lie. To succeed at anything, you need to have an interest in it.
- Being a professional gambler is all about effective risk management. It's as much about not losing as it is about winning. It's better to grind out a slow and steady living by gaming the odds than it is to be flush one week and sleeping on your friends couch the next. Be strategic, never risk more than 1% of your total capital on any bet or trade, and as any professional gambler will tell you – listen to your gut! If you have a bad feeling, walk away, and live to bet another day.
- A professional gambler tax will apply to wins in some countries. We don't know where you are reading from, but we know it does exist in many countries, even where normal gambling wins are tax-free. Once you turn pro, it's considered your primary source of income.
- It may be best to try your luck as a professional gambler while keeping your day job. For example, you could work 9-5 and gamble from 7-11 every evening online. When your income from gambling exceeds what you need to pay your bills, that could be the right time to make the switch into gambling full-time. This way, you'll have time to build your skillset, and you'll have a good idea if this is financially viable after a few months.
Becoming a Professional Gambler – Conclusion
Now you know how to become a professional gambler, the question is, are you going to do it? We don't recommend taking reckless risks, so even if you hate your job and can't wait to escape to a life of gambling and travelling, we advise you to take your time and test the waters first, especially if you don't have much experience.
Being a pro gambler has its pros and cons. If you succeed, you'll have lots of freedom, potentially will get rich, and might even become famous. If you don't succeed, you'll have a miserable life of financial ups and downs, will be stressed, and might end up in debt if you push your luck too far. Take your time, try it part-time with your disposable income, and built those skills before you go pro. That's the best advice we can give you!
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