didnt really take much analysis,ODM-there were 2 big reasons why I got into gambling but I should point out that for most of my life I didnt gamble.I also dont really want to gamble-I actually,once Ive finished my book,intend to buy a bar and take up(for the 2nd time)djing.
when I was a child my mother did the pools every week and I could see how much she wanted to win so she could leave me some money when she died.
so,naturally I tried to help,then in 68 I saw a certain game(on tv)at wembley that ended 4-1 in extra time and I became totally enthralled by football.
then I noticed that by the age of 11 I was better at tipping the results than the so-called (pools)tipsters in the paper(as they were useless!).
thus,on reaching 18,I simply had to find out whether I could make soccer pay-at no point did I think i could become addicted cos apart from other things,I was AWARE of the danger.
had a big win from an 8-way acca at 19(£7-8,000 in todays money)then lost it all over a period of 18 months.
SO I STOPPED.........
not just because I believed that it was probably a mugs game but also cos I had discovered music.....and spent what little money I had on records.......
then I left my job in 92 to become a dj,had my records stolen,was devastated,had unpaid debts so pretty much dropped out for a few years...slowly becoming a bigger an bigger loser(on the dole just reading books 14 hours a day).........until one fateful day when I found myself locked out of the flat I was sharing with,among others an alcoholic, a "careinthecommunity job who was a kleptomaniac and an estate agent who was having his house decorated...
(thats how low my life was...sharing with an estate agent!!
)
and,not having any money,took shelter in the shop underneath the flat.......which was a branch of whills.............
which was VERY lucky cos it had a machine in the corner with all the latest odds so I started looking at the antepost odds.....
and,believe it or not,I noticed something that would,in time change the whole course of my life.
I have since become,what shall we say,proficcient at antepost betting which is,of course non-addictive and now try to encourage others ESPECIALLY people who do accas or who may have a gambling problem to try such betting.
and now,this season,I am going for 1 last big hit which is looking very good so far and if I succeed the bar may be a more successful one than otherwise
the saddest part of all this is that I had my first BIG win not long after my mothers alhzeimers had become so bad that she didnt know who I was.
Ive never been motivated by money but if i was,I wudve been well and truly cured by finding myself in the situation of wanting to tell my mother that "I am going to be alright,,it took a long time but,in the end we WON"and not being able to make her understand.
Gambling DOES INDEED run in families ODM,as do so many other things...but it was the pools and my mothers hope of winning the ultimate acca-8 draws in a line-rather than my fathers interest in horse-racing(YES he bet on horse!)that made me able to do what I now do..