If you could live your life again, would you still gamble?

this time next year, Del, this time next year.

no

eh that would also be a big NO from me.

no

Wouldn't it be lovely to just go on holiday and not worry about the racing or the stupid German match live on BT europe extra 3?
Weekend's not mulling over the Footy accumulators and placepots (that never ever ever come up)
Day's off work not thinking about 4 legged mules
Day's at work not thnking about any of it?

Aaaggghhh, what a lovely life it would be.

Sorry if i'm putting a bad slant on it all, experience maybe!

Hang on, got to go, might have a roll up "CASHOUT"

milo how much do you think you've lost through your gambling career?

no

If any of us knew the answer to that then we'd probably never bet again, Boga.

No. It definitely consumes too much of my time/money. I do enjoy it though.

tell u after the 410 uttox

tell u after the 410 uttox

Only ever bet what you can afford and it will be an enjoyable pastime.

if i knew how much money i"ve lost over the 40 odd years i"ve been betting i would top myself .....the answer is  NO NO AND NO again

Sorry to buck the Gamblers Anonymous thread but absolutely yes. I'd gamble. I'd drink. I'd sleep with as many or more women. The rest of the time I'd probably waste.

After this week and the 4.10 absolutely no.

TIZZARD

Well, what else would you do to fill up your days?

In A Word...No.

Yes... not a big ''billy bunter'' but the ''blag's'' & the ''craic's'' 100 per cent YES !   

Some very happy times at the race course.... make up for the numerous bad un's !     

Yes but not until I was 35 so I would hopefully have been mature enough not to let it rule so much of my life especially in my earlier years

apparently...at GA you get a free cuppa and some biccies at half time....could be worth a visit?

Yes, Love it and make a few quid as well.

No I would not want. Funny thing, I never bet when I am away from England.....holidays etc. Never even think about it,
step foot back in England and the buzz returns.

Paul Merson, Kenny Sansom, Stan Bowles, et al.....


... only bet with what you can afford to lose.....


... IT SHOULD BE a bit of fun.....


...if you get involved you'll go skint !

Oddest thing I found about betting was the lies and deceit it caused. 4 mates got me into racing, my fault I followed etc.
However the one the lost the least of the 4, was the one who admitted to, losing. The other 3 lied about their supposed wins,
not sure who they were trying to impress, they appeared to be making not losing bucket loads.
2 no longer bet on here and regularly boasted on he here about winning and laughing at losers'........they were the losers'.

^ Very true mate.... a lot of gamblers are deluded idiot's....


....there's a famous one on here who hails from Edinburgh !

Gambling is very much a double edged thing.  You have to control it and not the other way round.  If you are in control then its a great way to spend your leisure time.

Oh yes have you noticed how boring the people are who don't gamble !

either you can be tied to a machine in a factory being told what to do

or use your knowledge in a certain sport to earn the same or even more

ive done both and know which I prefer...

Mar 19, 2016 -- 10:52AM, milo222 wrote:

Wouldn't it be lovely to just go on holiday and not worry about the racing or the stupid German match live on BT europe extra 3?Weekend's not mulling over the Footy accumulators and placepots (that never ever ever come up)Day's off work not thinking about 4 legged mulesDay's at work not thnking about any of it?Aaaggghhh, what a lovely life it would be.Sorry if i'm putting a bad slant on it all, experience maybe!

Saturday morning, fry up for breakfast while mulling over the horses/football for a Saturday, love it!! Also, why would gambling cause grief for your family if your not a massive gambler?

been to work today 10 hours earned £80
last night put £30 bet 15 £1 e way doubles on tom scudamores 6 rides at Uttoxeter,
just checked results 9/1, 8/1, 20/1 (early price) 3 winners...528 quid back....yippeee stuff work, it sucks
poor tom scud fell on 2nd ride and hospitalised different jockeys on other winners
get well soon tom

^^^^ That's what makes gambling such fun. Nice one, Tunnocks.

Jeez tunnocks not to do the treble's must hurt ! 

NO.I would have invested the money each month into an investment trust and reinvested the dividends from the age of 18. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

For sure, I would remember a lot of the winners second time round.

halcyon days.... the treble would have paid £1900.....for another £40 to cover the e-w trebles...
in hindsight yes it hurts a little, but I'm still happy

Gd man !

I agree with North Berwick, but I cannot imagine life without it now. I get up and look forward to the day because of it.

I've been going racing for over 60 years and loved every day of it. Paid off our first mortgage in record time from winnings and moved to leafy Surrey and retired from actual work when I was 59 though the stock market helped as well.   
What I've lost is sleep from sitting up to 2am studying form.

I don't know about others but I only bet on horses. I gave up on Dogs when I was 21 and have very seldom ever had a bet on football.
I usually try to get to a race meeting when abroad just out of interest.

Has taken me all over the country and am now actually making a few quid after serving my apprenticeship.Is definitely character building, but is not for most people in my opinion.Still a better option than watching Coronation Street and X factor every night though

Oldgit1,s 1st post spot on, been up many a night finding team info out, afraid it comes with the territory.

halcyon days
19 Mar 16 19:07

Jeez tunnocks not to do the treble's must hurt !


What, when he's only backed them cos Tom Scu was riding them and Tom Scu didnt ride them?! Think he's done pretty well out of it as it is!

Been doing it since mid 60s when 6 or 7 with tanner ew with me grandad lots of ups and downs but would do it again.

I started gambling at around age 11 and regularly lost for about 45 years. Since retiring in my mid fifties and having the time to work on systems centred on the aw i've made a regular income. The way i look at my earlier losses is that it was paying for my hobby.I'm at my happiest on the racecourse preferably with a friend or my son there too. I don't play golf but if i did it would probably cost me up to £6k a year to join a decent club where i'd be surrounded by the type of people who'd bore me silly.

If I didn't face the daily challenge of taking on the bookies/betfair don't know what else I could do to pass the time.

My first bet was Red Rum's first National win. Used to love going racing to some of my local ( Midland's tracks)or into our local bookies on a Saturday afternoon,some great characters in there.Definately down over the years,and in the 80's had a few problems.
I'm not sure the 'craic' is as much fun as it used to be with the advent of so much online/unpersonal betting.
So yes would def do it again with a few tweaks.

All those that say NO are "victims". An activity that CAN be fun, enjoyable&profitable CAN also be incredibly destructive and soul destroying. But so can many good things in life. Take alcohol as an example; when drank in moderation it is a beautiful thing. But once it becomes excessive, crossing the line into "addiction", that once beautiful thing can slowly but surely turn sour. 

The multitudes that become victims of the gambling game are those that bet irrationally. Drunken slobs like Merson, Sansom etc are ideal role models for such stupidity. Constantly lumping on anything that moves, grossly overstaking, chasing losses etc is a sure fire way of bank-busting time and time again. This can only be rectified once A) a realistic sense of probability is grasped. B) the mind is no longer ruled by emotion.

good point about other activities and comparing costs

I don't go to football,not a member any golf club

I can't win on the NH or AW racing in the long term, so have largely stuck to quadpots and placepots this winter and it has worked out well, with a few decent payouts covering the longish losing spells. They are tough to land, especially the placepots! I stake them ca 1 : 3-8, with the extremely tough placepot being for the smallest stake. I do single lines only. I'd suggest people place all their bets before the racing, print out their bets and don't be logged on to your pc/laptop/phone. You'll not then be tempted to place ill conceived bets or chase. The placepot/quadpots across all the afternoon meetings give you an interest in most of the races and can be done for a minimal outlay.

Gambling is in human blood. Those that say they wouldn't gambling again but still gamble now are addicts imo. The bad addicts that blow months wages and lose homes are idiots and give gambling a bad name.

I used to drink too much, but I was never addicted to alcohol.
I used to take loads of drugs, but again I was never addicted to any them.
I couldn't/wouldn't stop smoking. Totally addicted.
I like to have a bet every day. Probably addicted.

At least w@nking's free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a w@nker ^

I would answer 'No' but as against that all life is a gamble isn't it ...so it doesn't matter too much whether tangling with sporting odds is part of the deal or not.
Buying a car or house ,choosing where to live , taking this or that job ,sexual relationships -all gambles or investments that can work for you or go  can against you  through no fault of your own.
Primitive and peasant societies knew this reality very well. Almost every activity was hedged around with magic/mumbo-jumbo/sacrifices to get 'luck' or the gods/spirits on your side...especially in key matters of survival -e.g. war ,hunting.
In today's society we're still obsessed with stuff like this but maybe in a more covert way.

''You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from''( Cormac McCarthy)

If we could have our lives again wouldn't we know what was going to win - no contest here

I am by nature one who enjoys gambling in the widest sense so yes, I'm sure I still would do it even after 60 years of losing on horses. It is hard to get through life without a gamble in the broad sense. As a farmer I used to use futures markets sometimes and made money as a result. When I mentioned it to other farmers they all said "that is gambling" but I pointed out that producing a food product takes anything from 3 months to 3 years with no guarantee of a profit at the end so they were all gamblers and futures trading could reduce the scale of the gamble. Very few of them grasped what I meant. My main "gambling" is in the stock market which now provides about 40% of my income.

RLKINGPUNTER:
It is easier now being able to get the advance runners on line and go through the form on the RP.
In the late 50's I used to go out to a local bus garage at 10.30 where a Guy came round with an early edition of the Daily Mail printed locally. The evening papers then unless you could get the Final Edition had all the entries rather than the declared runners. Then home to use the Handicap Book index to go through the form.

Anything I have came from gambling,but then again I was a bookmaker for 40 years before I retired.

yes...........would be a boring life without gambling..........but next time I would like to have at least half a chance of winning

2-7 yes i would     9-4  no i wouldnt    (based on typical thieving overrounds )

ghost............700 0n yes please

NO   NO   NO  NO   NOO  NOOOOOOOOOO

sorry cardiff your account has been restricted max stake £0.07p  come racing

No. I wouldn't have picked up the Sporting Chronicle either!

YES - I love it ...

My life has been sport, sport and more sport - football was a passion and then golf was an addiction (loved every minute).

Retired and unable to play golf (back problems) - I would only have got worse anyway - "found" horse racing again - used to bet a little as a young fella but for the bulk of my life I have not gambled.

As with my other interests I take gambling on the horses (flat only) very seriously and spend untold hours on it - it's terrific - as I said I love it!!

No, I wouldn't... although I would put that to bed when August 2015 came around and made sure I got as much as I could on Leicester to win the Premiership at 1000/1.

Gambling is a complete and utter wasted of time. Takes over your life just like drugs. Doesn`t matter how much one wins, one wants to win more. No finishing line. And they always get you in the end. As an earlier poster commented, one goes on family outings and all one is thinking is what the score is in a stupid football match or what won the 7.30 at Newmarket. I wouldn`t even watch sport if I didn`t have a bet on. Who cares who wins without a bet? So my answer is NO.

*waste

waist.

copyright@Delta!

Crepello.
I'm sure that golf is more expensive than racing for many people.
Is a round of golf any better exercise than a day at the races?
Did you ever see Crepello run? I could not get the day off to see the Derby but a Guy I worked with had two sickies.. one for the 2000 Guineas and the other for the Derby. Before the King George I was very tempted to increase our house deposit money by putting it on him Ante Post. Just as well I didn't as he was pulled out due to tendon problems.
Story at the time was that Sir Victor Sassoon gave Lester a Lincoln Continental as a present for winning.

wildcat they were 5,000/1 with some books apparently

Probably not.
I often wonder what I would have done if not a gambler.
Started quite early (9yo)and first course bet when 15yo at York.
Ekbalco falling in Fighting Fifth finished me with the Jumps.
Gave up AW for five years but took it up again as the winter is quiet.

Similar to "posy" I have used various systems looking for the winning combination.
The computer and excel have taken up a lot of my time.
My work job in the later years involved computer and data so retirement didn't really change things.
The box room is full of flat racing cards from 1990's and there are more in the loft back to 1982.
Databases galore on disk - Trainers, Races, Form lines, various ratings over the years, blogs etc.

is gambling for fun not ruin a fine line?

I wouldn't,mind you after 20 years I'm only 1 house down so I'm not that bad!

I think most could of bought a horse

Milo222 a very honest account which many of us would empathize with,and a thought provoking question.

I took to gambling out of boredom with my rather dull,sensible,comfortable life and i've come to regret it as it occupies far too much of my time nowadays.

To answer your question would i gamble if i had a second shot at life i would certainly say no i would not.

depends if I was starting with a different personality aswell

could you be a little more clear with the conditions of re start mate !

I would need different parents next time round otherwise I doubt I would have any choice in the matter...!

Born into a gambling family I knew no other life in my early years, though in many ways those initial experiences had a longlasting effect on me as they ensured that I never wanted the same life for my own family.

My parents were both compulsive gamblers with only a modicum of success, my mother actually being the more profitable of the two. I like to believe that because of them and the way they conducted their, mine and my siblings lives, that I learned very early on to be selective and disciplined in my own approach to both business and gambling. This has enabled me to enjoy my wagering in a way that they were never able to, as when wins were had the money was either keeping our heads above water or quickly recycled with further wagers.

Thankfully money is of little consequence to me these days, I still play, but for me the enjoyment/buzz now comes from solving the puzzle rather than the monetary reward, which in its own way impacts on the size of the buzz achieved, as the adrenaline rush is just not the same as it is when the money is needed or means something to you.

I tried a few jobs back in the 1970s and the 1980s, but it was never for me.

The sheer disgust I felt with myself for catching the bus to work on a sunlit Monday morning in August, while elsewhere men were boarding trains to Newton Abbot or Plumpton or Worcester ... No employer ever, ever offered anything, any reward, any sense of fulfilment that could compete with the prospect of being a face on the racecourse, however minor.

Would it be different now that we're all on here and all the faces have gone from the courses? I doubt it. People no longer work for money, which buys you nothing beyond the essentials these days. Instead they work for the opportunity to acquire debt - mortgages, credit cards, car leases, personal loans. And debt is tyranny, enslaving you to your employer. If anything the imperative to avoid work is even greater.

I enjoy gambling and until I retired, enjoyed work as well but then I was self employed (or a director of my own business which is the same thing). So long as your weekly betting turnover is no more than a good day out, it should not have much if any effect on your lifestyle. I can watch most sport without having a bet. I mainly bet on draws in Prem. league football and horses. Very occasionally on Cricket.

We get one go at this life.  One.

My sole ambition from a very early child was to never ever have anyone tell me what to do and be the master of my own existence.

Life changes so much so fast and your character and 'soul' can take a serious beating.  Friends, lovers and family all come and go and happiness and despair get dished out at equal measure throughout this scary yet fun filled gift of consciousness.

What must remain is the sole integrity and moral grounding of the person you were before life corrupted or affected your belief system.  We all must look deep within ourselves to find the true answers and block out the noise of the society we have been born into.

What remains is exactly what has always been.  I want to be in control and when im not in control i want to be swallowed up by intense distraction that i can learn from and engage with.

I dont want a boss.  I dont want to have my efforts and energy go unrewarded to me and rewarded for someone else.

What other pursuit in this life is there for a normal everyday person to break free from the capitalist/consumerist sham existence than to carve out a path on his own merit using his own wits, hard work and self belief to break free from the imprisonment of working for a wage and most importantly working for someone else.

Gambling on sport is the greatest thing in this life for the common man and championship flat horseracing is the greatest sport.

Who the hell wants to donate 40 years working 40 hours a week for absolutely nothing for a post war ideology?

Ive worked and hated every minute but ensured the PLAN was to go full time with gambling.  Im on the cusp now and used my 13+ years experience (nothing compared to a lot on here) to carefully forge a WAGE in the same amount of TIME i would if i was grinding it out for some complete **** boss or hateful company.

Time - effort - reward

Ithink addiction of any kind is bad religion,gambling , alcohol etc but the stultifying boredom as one of the posters said of credit cards mortgages etc is horrible and yes i have a house paid for and this was due to my wife more than my ambition! I worked for 45 years and my heaven is horses football and golf betting it gives me a purpose. When i see friends who do not gamble they are happy decorating etc and to me have a boring life and are happy with that!I dont watch much daytime tv but one programme i do see is escape to the country where couples demanding on suite bathrooms 5 acres of land etc and the ladies are so demanding the men look totally under control no gamblers there! Finally there are some serious unhappy people as the divorce rate shows and i think the debt and always wanting bigger houses more exotic holidays and more debt is creating the pressure i would loveto know the age of posters on this forum and what sort of jobs people do i am an elder statesman i was born the year sheilas cottage won the national ! Anyway this is a good subject during this quiet time .

Sadly, going to an airport has proved to be a big gamble for many people in Brussels this morning. Puts a £5 bet on a horse into perspective.

Oldgit1    21 Mar 16 17:19 
Crepello.
I'm sure that golf is more expensive than racing for many people.
Is a round of golf any better exercise than a day at the races?
Did you ever see Crepello run? I could not get the day off to see the Derby but a Guy I worked with had two sickies.. one for the 2000 Guineas and the other for the Derby. Before the King George I was very tempted to increase our house deposit money by putting it on him Ante Post. Just as well I didn't as he was pulled out due to tendon problems.
Story at the time was that Sir Victor Sassoon gave Lester a Lincoln Continental as a present for winning.

Just got back to this thread

Depends how good one is at gambling as far as examining the cost of golf compared to racing!!

Golf is certainly a better form of exercise than going racing for a day but not a good enough reason (for me) to play golf ...

Did not see Crepello run live - I was the son of a miner in the North - going to Epsom was as likely as a trip to the Moon.

I fell in love with Crepello and was devastated when he was withdrawn on the morning of the King George and, as you are well aware, he never raced again - he beat real champions in 1957 - pity he could not go on - pleased to hear that you remember him.

Shortly after this my life took different turns and I had nothing to do with racing for over 40 years!!!

Have been doing it seriously from 2001 - when one thinks how little was available to punters when Crepello was alive as to what is available to punters now no wonder bookmakers were printing money - thank goodness it is a more of a level playing field these days.

And, best of all we have Betfair.

Good luck.

yes love racing and having a bet within my means and have felt the same way for last 30years

Yes, but i definitely wouldn't drink!

Yes would miss the buzz of watching a backed horse run.
As previous poster said I'd give up the drinking before the gambling.
Only pop to the pub on a Sunday now or on a session for special occasions.
But the past 20 years of sessions at any time I fancied it has cost me more than any betting slip.

nearly chased tonight

The first time that I wanted a bet in a betting shop was France to win the World Cup in '98.  I was too young to get the bet on (or so I thought, but guessing I'd have had no bother until it came to collecting), so asked my Mum to do it.  Wanted a tenner on at about 12/1 from memory.  Had done a paper round for 6 days that week to be able to front the cash.  She refused, saying I was better off keeping my money in my pocket.  I shrugged and moved on with life, watched France win the Cup, sighed knowing full well I'd have just spent it on several brilliant nights out and didn't bother thinking about gambling again until I was about 19.

From then, I spent the next couple of years putting the odd accumulator on, sometimes throwing £20 at them if I was feeling lucky, with mixed success, but safe to say that I lost overall.  I did always shop around for the best return, mind.  Had a couple of winners and ended up with about a grand from them, which probably put me slightly into the black overall.  England were playing some total dogshit in the Euro/WC qualifiers (deliberately erased the match from my memory) and I saw that they were about evens to be leading by 25mins.  Naturally this seemed like phree munny, so I went in balls deep with the full grand, opening an online account at said bookie to avail.  Seemed like information that the missus at the time didn't need to know, so I tuned in and leaned back cool as a cucumber. 

Then followed 25 agonising minutes of England doing the sqaure root of f**k all to score, Lampard hitting the post when it was easier to score and my money was done.  We won the match comfortably in the end, but I was absolutely livid with myself, as I didn't have a pot to píss in and had just chinned several months' rent.  Got a £20 free bet from the bookie and almost didn't use it in my haste to shut the account down.  Read Statto's tipping column (I know) and he'd tipped up some nag with Butterly in its name at about 5/1, so hurled the £20 on without a further thought; it hosed up, I withdrew £100 and then thought '£900 down, think of that as lesson learned and don't ever do that again'.

A few years on and I started signing up to bookies again, but only for the sign up bonuses.  I'd eke enough out of them to make a modest profit, never got attached to bets/gambling and just moved on.  The money slowly snowballed and I had a six month period in my job which was mindnumbingly boring and I had nowt to do, so I did a bit of paper trading while doing the sign up stuff and thought I might be okay at it after all, as I was so determined to ignore any thrill of the gamble and just see if I could make a steady profit.

Left my old job about 7-8 years ago now and took the fairly bold step of retiring to gamble full time while in my early to mid twenties.  I'd qualified in a half decent profession and so was pretty much squandering a lot of money by chinning it off, but I didn't enjoy it and couldn't face the next 45 years plus of turning in to do that every day.  Pro gambling has its ups and downs and, at least for me, is nowhere near as glamorous as people think it is, but I would answer yes in a heartbeat to the OP.  It's provided me with a great life in so many respects.  The £900 lost all those years ago is still my most annoying of all losses, as it was such an ill-judged punt, and I've lost way, way more in single bets since then that I simply shrug my shoulders to.

To all those who say no, what would you do with the time otherwise?

yes i would bet again, then in the next life after that i would bet again. always a gambler always.