Football Gambling Stories
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“The Unluckiest Lucky Streak” |
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After retiring at 76 years old, Bob sold his luxurious home in Las Vegas and moved to Lake Havasu, Arizona.
Sure, he still bets on sports at this writing. He drives to Nevada regularly to place bets. It’s a 45-minute drive to Laughlin, Nevada, from Bob’s home.
...But just before Week 7 of the 1999 NFL season, Bob decided to skip that long drive. He decided to take a week off and lounge around the house.
Meanwhile, the local newspaper in Lake Havasu had a weekly football handicapping contest. Participants picked 20 games, both college and pro, against the published point spreads. It’s a simple contest, done to promote the paper’s circulation. There is no entry fee. Whomever calls the most winners against the point spread wins $150.
Since Bob stayed home that week, he passed some time one evening marking off his choices and entering the contest.
The $150 prize was definitely not his motivation. Never mind how much Bob, himself, risks on sports bets, that’s not our business, but professional handicappers generally risk anywhere from $500 to $5,000 per bet, and often more. With 20 bets, it would not be unusual for a full-time sports bettor to risk upwards of $20,000 - $40,000. Suffice it to say that entering the $150 contest was nothing more to Bob than a way to relax for an hour or so.
He went 20-0.
Did you get that? …Twenty and Oh. Those are odds of more than a million-to-one. (1,048,755-to-1 to be exact.)
Bob called me the next day at my place in Tennessee to tell me what happened. The whole thing struck him as funny. In fact, his reaction to the "unluckiest lucky streak in history" is testament to Bob’s underlying character. He had just picked up the check at the newspaper office before he called. "...And do you know what they asked me, J. R.?" he laughed. "They wanted to know what I planned to do with the $150."
This gambling story courtesy of: ProfessionalGambler.com