My run in with the Russian Mafia
On my history with sports betting.
Disclaimer: I am not a fan of gambling. I do not condone it. I do not recommend it. In fact, I believe online gambling and sports betting will irrevocably damage entire generations. I was terribly addicted and it really gave me bad thoughts all the time. Do not, do not gamble.
With that being said, I used to gamble, a lot. I started really young: when I was 11. It began innocuously with Team Fortress 2, betting in-game currencies like refined metals in raffle groups for larger prizes. I was on the edge of my seat for pennies. I never told my parents (hint: my family was poor). While this wasn't particularly profitable, it was my introduction to the habit. Trading virtual items in Team Fortress 2 was more lucrative and in fact how I made most of my early spending money, but that's beside the point here.
My journey into gambling got deeper with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It started with case gambling, unboxing cases until I got my first knife. Later, this would lead me to discover YouTubers promoting online case unboxing sites, roulettes, and pooled jackpot sites. I lost a lot of lunch money there.
Later, I started playing Dota, and I discovered sports betting. It turns out I had quite a knack for it. I even discovered an early bug in a sports betting platform (nope, I didn't report it). My betting wasn't confined to Dota; I ventured into Overwatch, Call of Duty, even Olympic Basketball. I became great at this too, and I took to sharing my successes frequently on sports betting Discord servers. The responses always varied from jealousy to congratulations, but on a fateful day, one particular message stood out.
It was an invitation to bet on table tennis from someone who claimed to be an expert. You would get these a lot; self-proclaimed experts wanting to hustle you into a paid betting group. But he explained that he was seeking a betting partner because his capital was restricted by maximum bet limits on sites like Bovada (illicit betting sites). Plus, he let me have a loss free wager with bitcoin in escrow. We set off on a large series of successful bets. I took my internship money and said fuck it. I started with $100 a hand, to $500 to $1,000 to $5,000. I was ridiciously happy; I thought I had hit the jackpot.
We would lose too, but suspiciously, probabilistically less than we should have. And then I came to a conclusion; something definitely wasn't right. It was always tier 3 competitive leagues, it was athletes with certain ethnic backgrounds, it was odd lines.
I came to the conclusion they had rigged matches in obscure table tennis leagues. I said I was happy with my profits and that I was good. They were okay with that. Good. I paid my taxes; I went about my life. I see on the news later that the Russian Mafia had been rigging table tennis. Jesus fucking christ.
At the end of the day, I had become a Bovada Hall of Fame member, I saved enough to pay for my college tuition for the rest of college and paid off my student loans. For my last bet, I threw $5k on the France moneyline (vs USA) in basketball in the 2021 Olympics because I was a huge Gobert fan. I went to sleep, slept through the game, and woke up $29k richer. And then I quit gambling.
Now I just trade professionally.
Until an asteroid,
boon