A Look at Making a Living Through Gambling

Professional gamblers are glorified on television broadcasts and treated like celebrities at casinos around the globe. Through uncanny intuition, nerves of steel, and bald-faced bluffing, professional gamblers actually make a living for themselves by doing what most of us consider to be a recreational activity. Their lives look glamorous from afar, and the idea of playing poker using millions of dollars makes our heads swim with possibilities. But how great is the life of a pro gambler?

The truth is, most pro gamblers are addicted to gambling. They make bets on hands of poker - in games that they're actually competing in. They go on the golf course and bet fifty thousand (or more) against other pro gamblers. And online gambling ropes them in, more so than the average person. One pro gambler stated that, after a million-dollar win, he gambled it all away on a bevy of online gaming sites within a matter of days. Being a pro gambler make look cool, but in some cases it may not be all glitz and glamour.

It's an unstable career choice at best, one fraught with dangers. A slump, a run of bad luck, a much better poker player may all contrive to take a huge dent out of big winnings, and some prizes (like the World Series of Poker) may remain out of reach for even those seasoned gambling veterans. To the professional gambler, poker may still be fun, but it is also a job. In order to maintain gambling as a job, pros must spend their lives on the road, traveling from casino to casino and circuit to circuit to make their living. Family is far away, and there are always new faces showing up at casinos - amateur gamblers who want nothing more than to unseat the pros. Pros must constantly adjust to new styles of play and continuously polish their game. And when the cards don't come and the money doesn't flow in, chalk it up to bad luck and hit the gaming tables harder than before. When income depends on the cards, it's not always going to be smooth sailing.

Sure, you can hobknob with big names like Doyle Bruson and rub elbows with former celebs like Jennifer Tilly, but can you handle the up and down pay scale of being a pro gambler? The separation from home and family for long stretches at a time, and the influx of young hotshot players who think they've got the game all figured out? While professional gambling sounds like a whole lot of fun, in the end it's still a job, too. Bills come in and the cards have to be good, bets are thrown around the casinos and pro gamblers have to always stay sharp and ahead of everyone else.

But if you think you've got what it takes, professional gambling can be a great job for many. Travel, excitement, and the rush of getting those perfect cards - it's unlike any other job in the world, offering bigger prizes than any other. If you can handle bad luck, new faces, a little bit of notoriety, and the ebb and flow of casino living, you have the makings of being a pro. But watch out! There's always another pro, or even an amateur, to compete for the same pot you want to take down.