Bill Benter – Maths Genius Supreme. Bill is a perfect example of how to make money gambling.

• What Is A Professional Gambler Called
• What Is A Professional Gambler For Tax Purposes
• What Is A Professional Sports Gambler
• Professional Gambling As A Career
• What Constitutes A Professional Gambler

Find 14 ways to say gambler, along with antonyms, related words, and example sentences at Thesaurus.com, the world's most trusted free thesaurus. A gambler is considered to be a professional if they gamble full time to earn a living and not merely for fun and excitement. Professional gamblers report their income and related expenses on Schedule C as self-employment income. Net Schedule C income is subject to federal income tax and to the self-employment tax, plus any state income tax.

What is professional gambling? First of all, it means earning your livelihood from gambling activities.

These betting activities might include betting on sports, playing poker, or any US casino games. This requires getting a mathematical edge when placing bets.

My plan with this post is to cover some of the subtleties of professional gambling by looking at some of the possible roads leading to this career. I’m also going to dispel some myths about pro gamblers.

If you’re under the impression that professional gamblers career from one fancy party to the next with a beautiful model on each arm, you’re likely to be disappointed by the reality of the gambling profession. Professional gamblers don’t spend all their time eating at fancy restaurants with supermodels.

In fact, they spend an obscene amount of time studying math and finding ways to put the odds in their favor. Neither task is easy. Keep reading below to learn more about professional gambling.

What You Think You Know About Pro Gambling Is Wrong

If you’ve seen movies like 21 or Two for the Money, you probably have a distorted perception of what professional gambling is like. 21 is based on a heavily fictionalized book, Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich. I don’t even know how it got categorized as nonfiction.

Two for the Money is an entertaining look at the tout industry, but it’s ludicrous. In comparison, The Lord of the Rings movies aren’t as filled with fantasy as Two for the Money. In real life, tout services are some of the sleaziest businesses you can give your money to.

Card Counting Is One Way to Become a Professional Gambler

I don’t mean to give you the impression that people can’t make a living playing blackjack, though. Blackjack card counting might be one of the easier ways to start learning about advantage gambling.

What’s advantage gambling? It’s using techniques and loopholes in the rules of a casino game to get a mathematical edge while you play.

With casino games, the casino has an edge because they schedule their payout odds to be lower than your odds of winning. With poker games, the house takes a 5% rake from every pot. With sports betting, the bookmaker has you risk $110 for every $100 you stand to win.

For now, let’s focus our discussion on getting an edge at blackjack.

The first thing to understand about blackjack is that the house has an edge because it makes you play your hand first. If you go bust, it doesn’t matter what kind of result the house has. You’ve already lost your money. This is true even if the casino goes bust, too.

But blackjack has some distinct qualities which make it a possibility for an advantage gambler.

For one thing, the house edge is tiny, especially if you’re playing in the right games. The house edge in some blackjack games in the US, if you play with perfect strategy, might be as low as 0.4%.

For another, the composition of the deck of cards changes as the cards are dealt. Imagine a roulette wheel where a number gets blacked out once it got hit. If, for example, the ball lands on a red spot and that number gets filled in, the odds of getting a red result just got lower.

If that happened twice or three times in a row, it would be smart to bet on black. Your odds of winning would improve.

Of course, that’s not how roulette works. Every spin of the wheel is an independent event, and it’s impossible to get an edge at roulette by looking at what happened on previous spins.

But in blackjack, once a card is dealt, it’s gone until the deck gets re-shuffled.

The Payouts in Blackjack Are How You Get an Edge

The payout when you win in blackjack is even money, with one exception. If you get a blackjack (also called a natural), you get paid off at 3 to 2.

A blackjack is a two-card hand totaling 21. It always consists of a 10 and an ace.

If a deck has more aces and 10s in it compared to other cards, you have a higher probability of getting that bigger payout.

In fact, card counters can get an edge of between 0.5% and 2% over the casino. This doesn’t mean they know what the next card will be. It doesn’t mean they’ve memorized the deck.

It just means they’ve kept a rough accounting of high cards (10s and aces) versus low cards (2s through 6s) and increased their bets when there are a proportionally higher number of aces and 10s in the deck.

One of the Big Problems With Counting Cards

The problem with most advantage gambling techniques is also one of the biggest problems with counting cards—you’re not guaranteed to win.

Since gambling games like blackjack are games of chance, you can do everything right and still have huge losing streaks. If you don’t have a big enough bankroll to weather those losing streaks, you can go broke before your edge ever kicks in.

Many people don’t have enough faith in their skills or in the laws of probability to stick with it.

On the other hand, some people get on hot streaks and overestimate how good they are. You can be a lousy card counter and get lucky repeatedly. Eventually, your lack of skill will result in massive losses, though, and you’ll be scratching your head wondering what happened.

In other words, professional gamblers see wins and losses just like other gamblers do, but their overall trajectory through time is upward rather than downward. Imagine a line graph with a crooked upward trend. That’s what the earnings of a real professional gambler looks like.

An average recreational gambler will often see a winning session only 20% to 40% of the time, depending on luck and how well they play which games. Even gamblers who enjoy playing casino slot games walk away winners 20% of the time. Blackjack players who know how to use basic strategy might walk away winners 40% of the time.

What Is A Professional Gambler Called

But a professional gambler might have winning sessions 60% of the time. Sure, that sounds great, but when you’re losing during 40% of your sessions, it’s easy to get discouraged and think you’re doing something wrong.

Other Ways to Gamble Professionally

I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time talking about card counting, but I think it’s an interesting perspective into professional gambling.

A few years ago, I read a book about professional gambling written by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth. It was called How to Make $100,000 a Year Gambling for a Living.

In that book, they list some of the ways you can gamble with an edge. They include:

1. Blackjack
2. Horse betting
3. Sports betting
4. Poker

I think they mentioned a couple of other possibilities, but those were the most realistic ones. Of those, they suggested that becoming a professional sports bettor was the most profitable way to be a professional gambler.

I think poker is a legitimate avenue toward making a living as a pro, too.

Statistics seem to bear that out. I’ve done some reading about the percentage of poker players who actually show a profit after a year of playing.

The number is about 5%, which means that 19 out of 20 poker players lose money at the tables.

Unless you’re keeping detailed records, you’re probably one of those losers, too, even if you think you’re breaking even or winning small amounts regularly.

Professional gambling requires an amount of humility that most of us just don’t have.

Conclusion

Professional gambling is a real thing. Some people really do earn their livelihood from their gambling activities. Some of them are blackjack players who count cards. Others play poker for a living, and others gamble on sports. All of them have a few things in common.

The most important of these things is their refusal to bet money without a real mathematical edge. A real professional gambler insists on having an advantage before placing a bet.

They also take a hard, cold, realistic view of the results of their gambling activities. It’s impossible to make a living as a gambler unless you’re willing to face the real facts of your situation.

So, you’re looking for a career change? If you’re wondering what it takes or if you have what it takes to become a professional gambler, you’re in the right spot. Before I get started, though, I want to be clear on what you should NOT expect from this post. Do not expect me to give you a sugarcoated, rainbows-and-unicorns look at what it takes to become a professional gambler. Instead, I’m going to give you a gritty and in your face breakdown that does include some harsh realities.

Why am I opting for the more intense approach? I’m doing this because I assume a lot of you that are here are seriously considering what to do with your time or your future. I think it would be a gross disservice not to give you the raw information. If you only get the good side of something, you can’t ever be prepared for the realities that come along with it.

Why should you listen to me? Well, without going into too much detail, I was a professional poker player for 12+ years. It wasn’t just something that I did on the side of my real job; it was my job. Poker was my sole source of income. Because of that and the time I spent in casinos, I was able to meet a lot of people that made their money from the gambling industry (not just poker). Today, I want to share some of that insight with you, hopefully give you the information you need to decide if this is the road for you, and then tell you how to get there.

Skill Games versus Games of Chance

If you take nothing else from this article, please take the information I am about to give you. You CANNOT be a professional gambler at a game of chance (with one exception). This means, if the casino has a statistical advantage in a game, there is no way that you can ever beat that game in the long run. No matter what “system” you think you have, you are not Houdini, and you cannot defy math.

Many people have tried, and all of them have failed miserably. I’ve personally met people that claimed to play games like craps or roulette for a living thanks to their systems. Here’s a spoiler. They were all poor and broke. I asked them why they weren’t rolling in the dough (yes, I am forward), and they informed me that they were just on a bad run. Ummm, hello!!! That is what gambling is. You can potentially win in the short run, but in the long run, the house is always going to come out on top.

The only way you can beat the casino in a game of chance, in the long run, is by cheating, or by doing something that will get you kicked out and banned from the casino.

What is the one exception I mentioned? Blackjack. Blackjack will have tournaments that you can enter that allow you to do those things that would get you kicked out of the casino on a normal day. They let you count cards, and that allows you to gain a statistical edge over the house and your opponents. The only reason they allow this is that you aren’t playing against the casino. You have paid an entry fee to compete in the tournament, and all you can win is the entry fees from other players. This scene was pretty big and growing for a while but in recent years has leveled off in popularity and prize pool sizes.

Skill games, on the other hand, are games where the better players will win in the long run. How can you spot a skill game? If you are not competing against the house but against other players and patrons, you are most likely playing a game of skill. If you are competing against the house, with the exception of sports betting, you are playing a game of chance. If you truly understand sports betting, you’ll see that you’re actually competing against other patrons as well even though your bet is with the house. That’s a discussion we can save for another day, though.

So, what does this mean? This means that step one in the process of becoming a professional gambler is to choose a game of skill. Make sure you are playing a game where it is possible for you to make a long-term and sustained living. To help you out, I’m going to list off a few of the popular games you could choose from that people do make a living at.

The Gambling Games You Should Choose From

As a quick note, while most of the world will refer to these games as gambling, they really aren’t gambling at all. Gambling is when you make a wager on a game of chance. Since you are in control of the outcome of these games, they are no longer games of chance. Therefore, they aren’t gambling. Yes, some of these games will have a luck factor involved, but in the long run, skill is going to prevail over the variance caused by that luck factor.

Blackjack

I figured I would lead off with the exception to “get it out of the way.” If you’re looking to make a living at Blackjack, the only way that you’re going to pull that off is by getting involved in the tournament scene. The problem, though, is that the scene is shrinking and the people that are currently in it are very good at what they do.

If you’re considering becoming a professional blackjack player by counting cards, good luck. I am definitely advising you against it.

The casinos know every trick in the book, and you’re just going to end up getting caught and banned from every property on the planet. My best advice is to pick a different game on this list if you are looking to play for a living.

Poker

One of the best options on this list of games to play professionally is poker. Am I a little biased because it’s what I did? Probably. However, if you take an objective look at all of the facts, it is the clear winner. It’s a game where there is a lot of money to win, several different formats you can try, and a constant influx of new and bad players to win money from.

Out of everything on this list, I would say that it’s the easiest to get to a professional level. No, I am not saying that it is easy, but I am saying it is feasible for you to do. There are a lot of varying levels of success that you can hit as well so it’s not a make it or break it kind of game. If you’re serious about getting into a “gambling” profession, this may be a great place for you to look if you want something that has some longevity to it.

Chess, Backgammon, Tonk, and Spades

Believe it or not, a lot of the games that you may have played as a kid or teenager are games that you can play professionally for a living. Now, at first you might not have thought to include these in the same category as games like poker and Blackjack, but in reality, they fit. Again, these are games of skill with lots of options for playing for a living.

Years ago, your only option for these games was to find a major tournament at a brick-and-mortar location and play against the best in the world. Today, though, you can find these games offered online at casinos. You have the option of playing against thousands of players of all skill levels from around the world for real money. The best part is that the stakes start low so you can work your way up the game ladder, and you don’t have to pony up a ton of money to get started.

Sports Betting

I mentioned earlier that when you’re betting against the house, you can’t sustain a long-term profit. The only exception to that is sports betting because even though you are betting against the house, you are really betting against other patrons. The house does their best to get even bets on both sides of a game so that no matter who wins or loses they make a profit. This means that the line shifts will happen because of what the rest of the betting public does.

You’re ideally looking for value opportunities of bad lines thanks to the ignorance of the betting public.

I could go deeper into that, but we’d end up in a full-on discussion of how sports betting works, and I’d like to try my best to stay on topic today. Sports betting is a form of “gambling” that is certainly beatable. It’s probably one of the more challenging forms of gambling to do for a living and requires a strong heart that can take a lot of pressure and anxiety.

I do know some friends that do it for a living and have done quite nicely at it, but it comes at the expense of their sanity. That being said, it is beatable in the long term which means that it is a form of “gambling” that you could do for a living.

Esports

Wait, you can play video games professionally? Welcome to 2018! If you’re a rock star at a video game, chances are that you can play that game professionally. Tournaments are exploding all over the world with millions of dollars in prize money available for those individuals and teams that win. On top of that, there are millions of dollars in sponsorships available for these teams from the game creators and other companies interested in having an influence in the industry.

Your Next Steps to Become a Professional Gambler

Alright, so you’ve picked out which form of “gambling” you want to go professional at. Now what? To help you on your quest, I’ve outlined some actionable steps for you to take to get started. Remember this, though. None of this is going to be easy and most people that try end up failing. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and the ability to deal with some failures to make it as a professional gambler. Even after all of that, some people just don’t have the skill set to make it happen.

I don’t say any of that to deter you from trying, though. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do anything. If you work hard enough and smart enough, you can achieve anything you want to. I will climb off my motivational speaker soapbox now and get to those steps.

1. Research Like a Crazy Person

The first thing that you need to do is learn absolutely everything you can about playing your game for a living. Look up other professionals, how they make money, and any other information you can on the topic. Try and identify if there is a smooth road to the top or if it’s something that requires a leap of faith (avoid these situations).

What you’re really trying to do here is a get an idea of what it’s going to take for your game specifically to make it to the top. You’re also trying to identify whether or not there is enough opportunity for you to make a living playing that game feasibly.

2. Formulate a Plan of Attack

The next step is to take all of your research and come up with a plan for you to go from schmo to pro. Make sure that your plan is detailed and gives you actionable steps that you can take to achieve your goal. This should mainly be based around how you’re going to learn the game, how you’re going to master it, how you’re going to test your skills without risking an arm and a leg, and ultimately how you’re going to turn it from a hobby into a career.

Your plan also needs to have some contingencies built in for the times that things don’t go according to plan. If you think that everything is going to go according to plan, you have another thing coming. Be realistic and make a plan that you can stick to.

3. Understand the Risks

You HAVE to understand that what you are attempting to do here is not easy. If it were easy, everyone and their brother would be a professional gambler. The risks are real, and when you lose money, you don’t just get it back with a do-over. There is no reset button on a lot of this.

The good news is that the nature of the industry now allows you to start these games for very low stakes and minimal risk. Take advantage of this. Online casinos don’t have to pay additional dealers or setup costs to facilitate more games which means they can offer things at super low stakes.

What Is A Professional Gambler For Tax Purposes

Make Sure That You Have an Exit Strategy or a Stop Loss in Place.

Don’t let yourself get out of hand chasing your dream. Yes, you shouldn’t let anything stand in your way, but losing all your money trying to achieve this dream is not noble. It’s stupid and the sign of someone who would never survive gambling professionally.

4. Start Learning

The only way that you’re going to make it to the pro level with any of these games is by immersing yourself completely in the learning process. You have to soak up every bit of information out there and ultimately know more than your opponents.

Here’s the most important part, though. Make sure that the information you are learning is good information. I feel like my track record affords me the right to speak as a voice of reason on poker and I can confidently tell you that most poker knowledge out there that people pass off as pro knowledge is garbage. Make sure that you’re learning from a reputable source and that the information is current and quality. This might mean you have to pay for some of it. Do your research (Step 1).

5. Start Small and Continually Adapt

Take. Your. Time. This is not something that is going to happen overnight. This is not something that is going to happen in a few weeks. It very well could take years for you to be able to reach the skill level necessary even to take a shot at playing professionally for a living. Even if you’re good enough, you still might not make it. You might not have access to the right opportunities, or you may have issues getting your mental game or bankroll management in line.

What Is A Professional Sports Gambler

Professional Gambling As A Career

Again, none of this is to deter you from giving it a shot. It’s just a warning to take your time.

The learning process is going to be long and challenging and probably frustrating at times.

The Wrap Up

If you’ve made it this far in the post, you’ve got hope! Look, I seriously am not trying to deter any of you from giving this a shot. I loved my years playing as a professional and wouldn’t trade them for anything. That being said, I wish I would have known how challenging things would be before I jumped in. Would it have deterred me? Probably not, but a heads up would have been pleasant.

What Constitutes A Professional Gambler

If you’re serious about doing this, I wish you the best of luck and hope you follow some of the advice that I gave you. Good luck!