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The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2024 7:17 pm
by Da King
Just kidding. I am not a degenerate gambler. I never bet my house's mortgage or my kid's college accounts.

Quite the opposite actually. When online betting first went live in NY, I took advantage of all the signup offers. (IE, bet $5, get $200 in free bonus bets!). There were 6 different legal apps at the time. I made my required bets to get my bonuses, and then took my initial investments out of each app. I am playing with house money ever since.

I am not oblivious to how these things work. I understand that "the house" is going to get about a 10% vig on every bet. I understand the odds are stacked against me. So I tend to only make bets when it works to my advantage. IE, "Here's a 50% profit boost on..." or "Here's a same game parlay boost" or some such thing. 90% of my bets fall under this model. It's the only legit way to make money (unless you do this for a living, in which case you probably work for a sports betting site already).

In this thread, I will list my most fun bets that I have won.

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2024 7:25 pm
by Da King
My favorite (and most profitable) bet was November 30 of this past year.

I had some kind of offer requiring me to make a "long shot" bet of greater than +1000 odds (meaning that it would pay better than 10:1).

The Cowboys were scoring a ton of points then, and I seem to remember Seattle's defense being quite porous. So I decided to go all-in on Dallas. I had Tony Pollard, Brandin Cooks and Jake Ferguson all to score a TD. Final odds? +2053. Pollard and Cooks both scored early-ish in the game. At the same time, in fantasy football, I was in a tight game with the guy who owned Jake Ferguson. I figured "Shit, my FF game doesn't really affect the standings", so I was rooting against my FF team so that I'd win the bet. Sure enough, with 4:37 left in the game, Ferguson catches a TD.

$10 to win $215.30. SCORE.

I will not be retiring on that bet, but it was a fun one to win.

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2024 7:31 pm
by Da King
Today's fun hit.

I know nothing about soccer. Like, almost literally nothing. I've heard of Messi. And that Brit who came over to play MLS for a couple years (who all the women went crazy over). That might be it.

Until I got an offer for a 50% Same Game Parlay boost on any soccer game. I'm like WTF? How am I going to do this?

So I looked at the games for today, and saw some guy named "Mbappe" for Paris St-Germain. Hey, I remember his name from... I dunno... World Cup last summer? I watched a game or two towards the end. I think he's good. So I took him to score a goal, PSG to win (they were favored, this was not a stretch), and over 7.5 corner kicks (I think close games usually have several corner kicks).

I log into my account today, and BAM, all 3 hit. Odds were only +310 (this is what happens when you bet on things likely to happen).. but with the boost, it was +465. So it was a surprise $56.50 win.

I should learn more about soccer.

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2024 10:39 pm
by Tdarcos
I just thought of something. If a human bets too much, it's degenerate gambling.
If an AI bets too much, it's generate gambling!

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2024 10:45 pm
by Ice Cream Jonsey
I just saw this thread but I have to go to bed. This isn't over.

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2024 7:00 pm
by Da King
Tdarcos wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2024 10:39 pm I just thought of something. If a human bets too much, it's degenerate gambling.
If an AI bets too much, it's generate gambling!
I like what you did here.

However, I just asked ChatGPT what the best bet was in the NBA tonight.

"As an AI, I dont have access to real-time sports data or betting odds. It's important to do your own research or consult a trusted source for the latest information on NBA games and betting odds to make an informed decision."

No, that is what I am asking YOU to do. Bastard.

MS Copilot DID return some results. One was on the NBA 3-point contest (which isn't for 2 more days), one was a collegiate game, and one was an NBA game. I guess one out of 3 aint bad. It did suggest I take a huge underdog though. So WTH... I just put $10 on the Grizzlies to beat Milwaukee. Lets see what it knows.

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2024 9:08 pm
by Da King
Da King wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2024 7:00 pm MS Copilot DID return some results. One was on the NBA 3-point contest (which isn't for 2 more days), one was a collegiate game, and one was an NBA game. I guess one out of 3 aint bad. It did suggest I take a huge underdog though. So WTH... I just put $10 on the Grizzlies to beat Milwaukee. Lets see what it knows.
Great success. Copilot won me $55 on a $10 bet, taking the long shot Grizzlies.

I will attempt another Copilot bet tomorrow.

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2024 6:57 am
by Flack
Do you track your wins and losses? I found my memory was quite unreliable when it came to that (I seem to remember the wins and forget the losses) so I tracked all of our casino spending, wins and losses last year. It was pretty eye opening. Here's the link where I tracked everything. You'll have to switch to the 2023 tab at the bottom to see last year's stats. This year's not looking good so far. (Edit: the forum inlined the link, so no clicking around necessary!)



I've only gone to the horse races one time and it was many years ago with a friend. I think they run 10 races and he and I did terrible for the first six. Before the seventh, we were standing near some mob-looking guys who were talking about their bets and they picked all the winners for the seventh race, so our new strategy became following those guys around and betting on whatever horses they bet on. Over the last three races, we broke even for the day. We never went back because who knows if those guys will be there again!

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2024 9:32 am
by Ice Cream Jonsey
I only remember the losses and I have SHAKEY HANDS!

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2024 8:01 pm
by Da King
I do not track my individual wins and losses. However, I know that my balance across all 5 apps that I use (I believe there are 6 legal in NYS... WynnBet and BallyBet were AWFUL promotion-wise, and PointsBet required too much thinking) represents my total net gain since they were legalized two years ago. If that balance ever goes to zero, then I quit betting. I'm just playing with house money at this point, and thats how I like it.

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 7:35 pm
by Da King
Today's fun gambling hit:

Draftkings now offers a Same Game Parlay Insurance bet. If only 1 leg out of 3 on a SGP loses, you get your bet back (up to $20) as a bonus bet. Its a no-brainer every day.

I didnt see this until almost 8pm last night. The NBA is off for the All-Star break, and all NHL games had already started. College basketball SGPs are a total crapshoot. So I figured, "Hey! Why not soccer?"

UEFA Champions League had games today. Let's give that a shot. Of the two games, one of them (PSV Eindhoven vs Dortmund) had somewhat favorable odds for a tie. PSV Eindhoven was at home, so I looked for their leading scorer... Luuk de Jong scored almost 1 goal per game, so he should be a good pick. And close games always have a lot of corner kicks, so I went over 7.5.

Today, I look at the box score... SCORE. $20 bet for a $200 return.

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2024 3:50 pm
by AArdvark
I couldn't drop a twenty on something that I might not get products/services in return. The last time I can remember gambling was the slots at Del Lago. I made twenty bucks last about four minutes and the went to the bar for the rest of the night

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2024 10:08 pm
by Da King
AArdvark wrote: Wed Feb 21, 2024 3:50 pm I couldn't drop a twenty on something that I might not get products/services in return. The last time I can remember gambling was the slots at Del Lago. I made twenty bucks last about four minutes and the went to the bar for the rest of the night
TOTALLY get that. No way I'd be continually throwing new money at this. I'm playing with all house money now though, so its like I can't even lose anything.

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 6:01 am
by Tdarcos
AArdvark wrote: Wed Feb 21, 2024 3:50 pm .. last time I can remember gambling ... I made twenty bucks last about four minutes and the went to the bar for the rest of the night
As I said here, "There are waaaay too many jobs you wouldn't want to do unless drunk, high, and/or stoned."

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 10:50 am
by Da King
As I posted earlier, WynnBet was BY FAR the worst betting app in NYS. So bad I wouldn't even use it.

Well, good news! Penn Gaming has acquired Wynn's license in NYS, so ESPN Bet is coming later this year.

I've heard that ESPN is aggressive in their promotions, so this can only be good for people like me.

https://www.oddstrader.com/news/espn-be ... k-license/

Re: The degenerate gambling thread

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 6:09 am
by Flack
From last night's SNL. Something new to bet on!