When and why did I first get into gambling? Well, I was pretty good at math at school, and I really enjoyed probability theory, but this just lets you know you can't beat the house: however, that still leaves the 'fair' games like poker....
My dad used to do the football pools, though he never won any large amounts, but it lent an air of OKness to that kind of thing. I won a couple of competitions early on, so that showed me it is possible to get something for nothing sometimes, I guess - notably a motorcycle, at the age of 15.75.....
However I never got to play cards seriously until I was at least 30, and I never entered a betting shop until I was about 25, which is roughly when I first did the football pools myself. I enjoy doing semiserious stats on the soccer results for pools prediction, and I'm sure I can do slightly better than random. The pools is the only valid reason for soccer's existence, I reckon! Horses are fun but you need to put in a lot of effort to make anything out of it. The dog track is more amusing, really. Poker is my favourite though. It's a great game. Everybody should learn it.
Anyway... Some gambling stuff:
