Can You Really Make a Living as a Professional Gambler?

The majority of the adults living in Australia these days enjoy gambling. Studies have shown that more than 80 percent of them gamble at some point during a given year.

If you fall into this category, you might just enjoy gambling for fun every now and then. But you might also love gambling so much that you’re thinking about starting a new life as a professional gambler.

It is entirely possible for you to transform yourself into a professional gambler. Success stories like the one authored by Australian billionaire Zeljko Ranogajec are proof of that.

But if you’re serious about going pro as a gambler, there are steps that you’re going to need to take to ensure that you don’t flame out within just a few months. You could end up flat broke if you go in without a plan.

Here are some tips for becoming a professional gambler.

Start By Putting Together a Bankroll

In order to kick off a career as a professional gambler, you’re going to need to put together a bankroll that you can use.

There are some people who have money saved up already that they can put towards becoming a professional gambler. There are others who have to spend a few months gathering money to use on gambling.

It’s a good idea to start off with a relatively small bankroll at the beginning while you’re still getting your feet wet. The absolute last thing you want to do is utilize your entire life savings as your bankroll only to discover that you’re not cut out for life as a professional gambler.

Regardless of how big or small your initial bankroll is going to be, make sure it’s money you can afford to lose. If it turns out that you’re not going to be able to make it as a professional gambler, you don’t want to put yourself in financial ruins as a result of it.

Find Out Which Games Offer the Best Odds

Once you build your bankroll, it’ll be time for you to sit down and figure out which games you’re going to focus on as a professional gambler.

There might be one or two casino games that you play and excel at right now. But ideally, the games that you play as a professional should be the ones that offer you the best odds.

Slots or pokies are usually not the best options for gamblers who are going pro. You’re much better off playing games like:

• Blackjack
• Craps
• Roulette
• Baccarat
• Sports betting

Choosing the games with the best odds will increase your chances of walking away a winner at the end of each and every gambling session. It doesn’t guarantee success by any stretch of the imagination, but it does improve your odds greatly.

Learn Everything You Can About Your Preferred Games

After you’ve selected one or two games that you want to spend most of your time on as a professional gambler, you’ll need to devote time to educating yourself about them.

You might think that you already know everything there is to know about, say, blackjack after reading a beginner’s guide to the game. But to be a professional, you need to take an even deeper dive into the casino games you’re going to be playing.

Read a book about baccarat and develop an advanced strategy for playing it. Find out some of the ways to minimize your risk when it comes to sports betting. See how to make the most of your money at the roulette wheel.

Your goal should be the learn all the ins and outs associated with your preferred games. This will give you an opportunity to make more money when you’re placing bets later.

Make Sure You Have the Time to Focus on Gambling

The life of a professional gambler can, at times, be a bit of a lonely one. That’s because you don’t have a ton of time to spend with family members, friends, or even associates in the gambling community.

Most professional gamblers love that they don’t have to work a normal 9-to-5. But at the same time, they often spend upwards of 70 or 80 hours playing casino games every week. It doesn’t leave much room for a social life.

If you love gambling, that might not matter to you. But you should, at the very least, consider this aspect of things before going pro.

Create a Money Management System Based on Your Bankroll

You’re almost ready to sit down at a blackjack table or stand near a roulette wheel and start your professional gambling career. But before you do, you need to come up with what’s called a money management system.

When you’re gambling on a professional level, you’re probably not going to experience many big jackpot wins. Rather, you’re going to slowly and steadily build up your bankroll over time.

Therefore, you should figure out how big the bets you’re placing on games are going to be ahead of time and resist the urge to place bets larger than what you’re comfortable with.

If you’re starting with a bankroll of $10,000, playing $500 hands at the blackjack table is going to be out of the question. Even $50 hands will likely be a little too rich for your blood at the beginning.

Set up a money management system that’ll allow you to make small bets that will add up over time. This will help you stick with the strategies that you want to employ.

Stay Disciplined When Gambling

When you first start gambling professionally, you will be tempted to throw your money management system out the window when times get tough. If your bankroll goes from $10,000 to $8,000, the temptation to place a $2,000 bet to bring yourself back up to even will be there.

The difference between a good professional gambler and a bad one is that the bad one will give in to temptation and try to get back to even by any means necessary. The good one, meanwhile, will stay the course and avoid allowing their emotions to get the best of them.

Prepare to Ride Out Cold Streaks

It doesn’t matter how good you think you are at gambling or how amazing the odds seem to be stacked in your favour while playing certain games.

You are going to lose every now and then, and furthermore, you’re going to get ice cold at times and start to wonder if you’ll ever win again.

Part of the reason you need to have a money management system in place, though, is to deal with the cold streaks that will inevitably come. Your system will prevent you from doing anything stupid and allow you to ride out the toughest of times.

Keep Accurate Records of Your Wins and Losses

From the moment you decide to become a professional gambler, you’re also going to need to become diligent about keeping records related to your wins and losses.

Your records will give you an opportunity to look back and evaluate the progress you’re making while gambling. It’ll also help you out when it comes to paying taxes on gambling-related income.

It’s a great idea to purchase a small notebook that you can use to write down wins and losses while you’re gambling. You can then transfer your records into an online spreadsheet later.

Over time, you can utilize your records to spot trends and to figure out when you’re doing your best as far as gambling is concerned.

Try Not to Allow Gambling to Consume You

This is usually the toughest part for most people who take the leap of faith and become professional gamblers. It’s so easy to allow your new life to completely consume you and take over.

While it might not always feel like it, being a professional gambler is just like being a professional in almost any field. You’re doing a job that is providing you with an income that you can live off of.

If it ever becomes more than that and starts to turn into a problem, you could have an issue with gambling addiction. Problem gambling is something that routinely affects more than 100,000 people in Australia every year.

Try to give gambling a rest if it ever starts to take over your life and take a different path for a while. If this presents problems for you and you find the pull to return to gambling almost irresistible, it could indicate a problem.

As long as you don’t allow it to consume you, you can strike a balance between living your life and working as a professional gambler and enjoy a lot of success in the process.

Consider If Becoming a Professional Gambler Is Right for You

Life as a professional gambler isn’t for everyone. It requires a great deal of determination, focus, discipline, and more.

If you’ve been thinking about trying it out for yourself, come up with a small bankroll and see how things go. As long as you take some of the tips listed here into account, you should get a good taste of what being a professional gambler is all about and see if it would be a good career for you.

Take a look at our blog to find more tips for making money on casino games.