"Not me, but a friend"
Not so much a 'little' victory, and indeed not even my victory, but still a tale that deserves telling I feel.

Got a call last Friday from a mate who, sounding quite sorry for himself, explained that on the previous night he had gotten right royally smashed on a combination of booze and various drugs and in a foggy haze had gambled his last £50 away on an 11 bet accumulator on Ladbrokes. Upon looking at the betting form the following morning he realized he didn't even recognise half the teams and had obviously just picked a load of random results, essentially throwing away fifty English pounds.

Got an email from him yesterday with this attached.



Alright for some!
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 9:09, 14 replies)

Seems foolproof, he should reinvest.

(oneinthepink is at your cervix m'lady, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 9:11, closed)

All on red

(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 9:12, closed)

Lucky bas....

(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 9:13, closed)

Can I borrow his Almanac?

( evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 10:35, closed)

This is how gambling problems can start.
In all seriousness, if this guy is your friend, try to keep him away from attempting to reproduce this effect. It's easy to forget that odds of 80 to 1 come up less than one time in 80!

Great luck for him thou' - hope it makes a useful difference.
( Ugi , it's a game of give and cake, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 11:00, closed)

Really?
If he's put his last £50 on an 11 bet accumulator, I think you can assume that the problem started long ago. I'd put good money on that.
( evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 12:26, closed)

I'll take that bet!
*sells kidney*
( barryheadwound Mul-ti-pass? Multipass!, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 13:41, closed)

Hogwash
He clearly has a knack for this whole gambling thing. My plan is to encourage him to nurture his talent until he inevitably wins big.
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 14:34, closed)

Precisely!
He should "reinvest" it all immediately... in scratchcards!
(flimflam_machine, Wed 16 Feb 2011, 10:39, closed)

The issue seems to be that he was wasted... happens to be best of us.
Where it becomes a problem is if he starts doing this sort of stuff sober because he thinks it will happen again.

Sorry if that sounded patronising - that was not my intention. I just happen to have been reading this board recently, which is a little scary:

MSE Wannabe ex-gambler's thread
( Ugi , it's a game of give and cake, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 16:23, closed)

He's just got time to stick that in an ISA

( Sonic the Hedgetrimmer doesn't care what you think, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 11:41, closed)

This is one of my favouritest ever posts...

(Chopsey, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 19:38, closed)

Your friend is clearly an idiot
and probably has a gambling problem...but I do like this, so consider yourself clicked.
(berk, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 21:03, closed)

Why?
If you've got £50 spare, there's no real way to invest it. Stick it in the bank, it pretty much loses value. So why not stick it on the horses? Worst that happens, you're £50 down.
( multijoy, Tue 15 Feb 2011, 21:25, closed)