Quote:
Originally Posted by thaskalos
I won $96,000 on a twin trifecta in 1986. I was 25 years old at the time...and I immediately quit my job to become a professional gambler. I was begging my boss for my job back four months later.
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I was 25 in 1979 & also tried to be a professional gambler at that age. I lost my job in real estate appraisal in Dec 1978 and had to move back to my parents house about 7 miles from Belmont. In February 1979 I went to an employment agency & spoke with this guy who after a bit couldn't find me a job at that time. I didn't find a job & eventually got hot at NYRA from May until early July. I was averaging about $800/week (which was good $ in 1979) & thought I could make a living betting horses. I told my father of my plans & how well I was doing and he just said "When you lose it all, are you going to get a real job?" One day in the middle of my streak I got a call from an appraisal firm that was hiring & they wanted to know if I was interested in a job interview. I told them no, I had found other employment & wasn't looking. My father was home at the time and asked who called me & I told him what I said. Obviously he was not happy with my choice. In July I crashed & burned at Belmont and had to start looking for a job again. I went back to the employment agency to see if the guy I talked to in February had anything for me. When I told him why I hadn't contacted him since the winter he thought I was nuts for trying to be a professional horseplayer and told me to see a psychiatrist.
Eventually I moved out of my parents house in 1980, got back into appraising & spent the next 30 years working as an appraiser, still betting the horses. One time in the early 1980s I was in the field collecting data and I got sick. I called the office to tell them I had to take the afternoon off. The person who took my call told someone in the office that I sounded a little hoarse, & they replied "He went to bet a little horse." I retired in August 2010 and the 1st day of my retirement I went to Saratoga.
