Can You Really Make Money as a Gambler?

Posted by Harry Kane on Friday, November 26, 2021

History is chock-full of financially successful gamblers, who have utilised their bankroll to generate a viable profit and turn their passion into a career. Such gamblers include Edward Thorpe and Amarillo Slim, with the latter known as an exceptional poker player and someone who made huge gains through risky wagers placed at race tracks. However, consistently making money as a gambler is far easier said than done. But what steps can you take to achieve this objective while managing your risk? Let’s get into it!

The Link Between Gambling and Investment

Before we start to address the best methods of generating income as a gambler, we need to understand how this type of objective is possible. In truth, this has much to do with the intrinsic link that exists between gambling and investment. The most successful gamblers of all time have recognised this basic relationship, using it as a solid foundation on which to build their careers.

With both gambling and investment, the underlying goal is to take an existing amount of capital and leverage this to secure a return. At the same time, the management of this bankroll is crucial in the pursuit of success, both in terms of optimising gains and minimising the risk of loss.

Risk is also a factor that binds both investment and gambling. After all, there’s no single investment that can be made without risk, while different casino and sports betting verticals also carry different levels of risk and potential returns. In gambling, the risk is determined by the so-called “house edge”, which describes the mathematical advantage afforded to an operator through each game or vertical.

The converse value is the return-to-player (RTP) rate, which describes how much you can expect to recoup on average for every £1 wagered. To provide some context, let’s look at NetEnt’s online slot Starburst. This has a published RTP rate of 96.01%, meaning that players can expect to recoup a little more than £0.96 for every £1 wagered through the game.

By subtracting the RTP rate from a value of 100%, you can also calculate the house edge. In the case of Starburst, this translates into a house edge of 3.90%, and understanding such numbers can help you to deploy your bankroll wisely in line with the probability of winning and your potential returns. This is a very similar process to how investors calculate the value of particular markets and asset classes, and even basic numerical ability can prove a highly effective weapon for both investors and gamblers.

How Can You Make Money as a Gambler?

As we can see, there are numerous elements and considerations that gambling and investment have in common. From here, we can surmise that developing an investor mindset may underpin any attempts to achieve a profit as a gambler, with this impacting every single decision that you make. Similarly, you’ll have to determine which gambling vehicles offer the most practical value from the perspective of profitability. Here are some options to keep in mind.

Make the Most of Matched Betting

From a sports betting perspective, matched betting offers the best value to professional and profit-oriented gamblers. Matched betting refers to a process whereby punters look to monetise free bets and welcome bonus offers. Because it relies on bonus funds rather than physical cash, it’s considered to be a largely risk-free theory that’s based on various mathematical equations rather than chance alone.

With most free bet promotions, you’ll receive a complimentary wager up to a fixed value (depending on how much you deposit). While this type of bet can’t be withdrawn or cashed out, you’ll often be able to retain any associated winnings, in many cases without wagering requirements being imposed.

The key is to effectively hedge your bets when wagering on specific outcomes, in order to optimise your chances of winning and driving desirable returns. Another key strategic element is to utilise matched betting and welcome offers at a number of different casinos or sportsbooks, as the value of your winnings will subsequently accumulate over an extended period of time.

However, it’s important to note that matched betting has a finite earnings cap, meaning that it won’t necessarily be enough to sustain you for an extended period of time. So, once you’ve made between £15,000 and £20,000 from this endeavour, you may want to move on and consider alternative betting vehicles.

Explore the Concept of Value Betting

One potential way of expanding your gambling career is through value betting, although this requires you to be a prominent expert in a particular team, player, market or sport. It can take time and effort to build such a broad and insightful knowledge base, but this enables you to create a competitive advantage over sportsbooks and fully leverage this to your advantage.

With value betting, you’ll use this unique expertise to analyse an array of market factors and conditions, before calculating your own odds and probability of each potential outcome being achieved. You can then measure these odds against published sportsbook prices, before identifying opportunities to optimise value and betting the difference.

In many ways, the value bettor remains the purest type of professional gambler. After all, they’re not leveraging loopholes or bonus offers to secure an advantage, while they’re also deploying their own hard-earned cash to pursue optimal returns. However, it should be remembered that taking on sportsbooks is a challenging discipline, particularly when you consider that all wagers and markets carry a built-in house edge.

What About Being an Arbitrager?

Last, but not least, we come to the role of being an aribtrager. In simple terms, an arbitager will study particular markets and a comprehensive range of bookmaker odds, before identifying differences between prices at different sportsbooks and betting on all outcomes to lock in a guaranteed profit.

If you ask most professional bettors, sports betting arbitrage is where most have achieved the highest profits. In practice, you simply have to target matches and even-money wagers where there’s a sizeable price difference between both potential outcomes. If the difference is big enough, you can bet on both sportsbooks on opposing players to achieve a viable profit.

The returns here can be incremental over time, but the good news is that identifying arbitrage opportunities in the market remains incredibly easy. You can even use dedicated services that send you notifications when arbitrage opportunities occur, as well as using your own research and insight to your advantage.

You’ll just need to tread carefully as a sports betting arbitrager. The reason for this is simple; as while the practice is inherently legal, it may be frowned upon by sportsbooks and they may look to limit or close your account instances where it’s proven.