Blogging

This has been my first time in keeping any sort of blog, and I must say it has been an interesting experience. Although I am not sure if anyone has viewed my blog, it does give a sense of talking to someone even if you may just be talking to yourself. Nonetheless, this has been an enjoyable assignment, and I do plan to continue blogging in the future.

Final Results

By going 2 for 4 last week, with one being a push (a push is when the spread was exactly on, which in turn makes it a "No Bet" and the money is returned to you)my final results of the season picks was 21 of 37. Prentending I bet $100 dollars on eacdh game, I would of ended up making $308.00 on the year. Although a decent amount of money, considering I picked 56% right on the year, you can see where the juice comes into play and keeps some money. The hard part about my experiment in comparison to real life situations is that often on a bad day a gambler may bet even harder on a late night game, lose that, and then bet even harder on the next game, and lose again. This is a common problem for gamblers in that they can never settle for a losing day, and in result, this can make for a very disastrous day.

Dangers Of Online Gambling

Gambling is most certainly an addiction, and being able to do it online makes it mush easier to come across and have this addiction affect you. Now, I personally gamble online, and when controlled, it is simply a source of entertainment. When you start risking the money you have to pay bills and feed your family, that is when you crossed the line. Many of the thrid party sites where the money is initially transfered from the bank acoount have deposit limits that restrict such activity to a degree, but nonetheless, it still has the power to be a negative factor in one's life. Having a family member or close friend monitor your betting habits is another preventive way of keeping you gambling under control.

Job Opportunities Anyone???

As seen in movies such as "Two For the Money," I would love to work as a professional pick man (as in picking the winner with the point spread and having people pay for the opportunities to hear my picks, I really don't know what the official title is). I was just seeing if anyone out there has noticed my semi-impressive record along with my great intellect of the teams. So if anyone out there is interested, my number is 260-486-6367.

Locks of the Week, Week 8

My current record is 19 of 33, so I am on pace for a solid seasons end. After this week, I will summarize my final standings and see how much I could have won if I actually had bet with the online gambling sites.

Tennessee +7 (vs LSU), The SEC Championship game has traditionally been a close one. Tennessee has also shown the capablities of handling such a team.

Oregon -1 (vs Oregon State), Ever since Dennis Dixon has been injured, Oregon has been able to do nothing offesnively. I expext this to change in their final home game.

Missouri +3 (vs Oklahoma), National Championship Game - Missouri vs West Virginia

Washington +14 (at Hawaii) Barring the Washington players have not had TOO good a time in the Aloha state, I expect the greater tested Washington team to keep it very close.

NCAA BASKETBALL Indiana +3.5 (at Southern Illinois), Trying my luck on the college basketball season, and who better to be on then an underdog IU team, who has already lost one game. I don't expect to see another loss to a less talented Saluki team.

Horse Racing

The final way the majority of online gambling sites allow you to gamble your money is through good ole' horse racing. Its an American pastime with great tradition, so why not offer you the ability to gamble on these horses through the comfort of your own computer. Almost every track is offered, along with every race that occurs there. The one thing that strikes me as very interesting is the gambling site does not keep any "juice" or any of your winnings. They allow you to bet straight up for horses. The only reason this must be is that people have a lower chance of success in gambling on horses then on other sports. I am sure that if the sites were not making decent money on horse bets, they would not offer it to the customer.

Online Casino's

Along with sports wagering and poker, there is another way these gambling sites make there money: Online Casinos. http://www.bodoglife.com/casino/ is a link to Bodog's online casion. Who needs Vegas when you got the games, flashy lights, and even pictures of gorgeous women, all available right from your home on Bodog. The biggest issue with these is no where does it show how this "online" casino is regulated. Vegas is heavily watched by the gaming commission, and for the most part, people who go to Las Vegas trust that what they are doing meets regulations. Sadly, online, there is no such gurantee. It is beyond me what kind a person would trust playing on an online casiono, other then the fact it offers the chance to play with real money. From my experience, the "play money" games have a much greater chance of success then the "real money" games. Coincedence? I think now.

Poker

Through researching these online gambling sites, I think I have discovered the number 1 reason why they are so profitable: Poker. Poker is offered n almost every gambling site out there. The example I used was Bodog Poker (no link because it requires a download). After downloading it to my computer, I saw that every hand of poker played on this site, costs the winner of the hand 1 cent. Does not seem to be all that much, but then a did some number crackdown. There are roughly 100 to 150different "real money" poker rooms offered. Different styles of poker. amounts of players allowed in the room, as well as different buy-in requirements seperate certain rooms. Nonetheless, each room takes 1 cent per hand. Although in no way, shape, or form is this reasearch scientific, I came up with that there are around 30-40 hands of poker played, depending on how many players are in each room. So, by taking the average of both, lets say there is 125 rooms with an average of 35 hands played each hour. This makes Bodog $435.50 per hour, roughly $10,500 per day, and an astounding $3,832,500.00 a year. ALMOST 4 MILLION DOLLARS!!!!!!! For what? Running a computer program that allows people to play online. I mean, there is no risk involved here. Its just a mere 4 million Bodog gets to pencil in for expected profits each year. Although this 4 million comes from people all across the world, the vast majority of all online gambling comes straight from American citizens, directly to Costa Rica or some other country that has a company offering online gambling.

Locks of the week, week 7

15 of 28 is my current record betting on football this season, and I am beginning to find out how gambling can be so difficult and why such sites make so much money. With the football season coming down to the end, hopefully we can improve our record and get some right.

Tennessee +3 (at Kentucky), Kentucky has been up and down all season, and I just feel like the mor talented Volunteers will get the job done today.

Notre Dame +5 (at Stanford), Even though no team (other then maybe Wisconsin) has let me down more times then the Irish, I'm putting my faith in that they will finish the season on a strong note and beat Stanford.

Kansas -1 (Missouri), This game is being played in a neutral site, but Kansas's offense will be a little too much for Missouri to handle.

Alabama +5 (at Auburn), Nick Saban has had an embarrassing first season as Bama's head coach, so he will probably use every trick in the bag to get a victory here, and that will keep it close.

Cincinnatti Bengals +1.5 (vs Tennessee Titans), The Bengals offensive fire power will be a little too much for the Titans and Vince Young to keep up with.

Locks of the Week, week 6

After another dissapointing week 2 weeks ago, I had to do some real soul searching. This has been a bad year, even though i'm 13 for 23, for football betting. Well, i gurantee a better than 50% outting for this week. Here they are:

Michigan -3 (at Wisconsin), Wisconsin has really been lathargic on offense, and Michigan just has the better talent overall.

Tennessee +1 (vs Arkansas), At home, Tennessee is as tough has they come, and they will will beat a one dimensional Arkansas offense.

Kentucky -4 (at Vanderbilt), After an embarrassing loss for Kentucky, I expect them to play a great game and blow out Vanderbilt.

Notre Dame +3.5 (vs Air Force), After a humiliating loss to Navy, its is just unfeasonable to see Notre Dame lose to two state instituions in a row.

Dallas Cowboys -2 (at New York Giants) Although this is a biased pick (seeings the Cowboys are my absolute favorite team), I know the team better then any, and the Giants will not be able to hang.

Locks of the Week. week 5

Currently 12 out of 21, making progress, but now good enough. Once again, last week, one of my locks was on a NFL game, and I lost. Surprise, surprise. This week I will just be doing 3 picks, as I am confident they will all hit.

Tennessee -1.5 (at Alabama), Although this will be a tough fought road game for the Vols, they have looked a lot better then Alabama this year, and there superior talent will prevail in a hostile Bama environment.
Cal -3 (at UCLA), UCLA has been looking horrible up to this point, and without their starting QB playing, I think Cal will pull away at some point in this game.
Michigan -1 (at Illinois), Michigan has been playing with a chip on there shoulder since their first two games where they got embarrassed, and I don't see Illinois matching up to well with Michigan.

Parlays

Parlay - A parlay is when a better picks more then one bet and puts them together to increase the value of the payout. Maybe the better sees five sports bets he all believes will hit, he can parlay them, so if everyone of the bets hits he has a very substantial payout. The payout values for parlays involving point spreads and/or over/under bets is the same for virtually all sports gambling providers:

Parlay size: Fixed odds:
2-team 2.6/1
3-team 6/1
4-team 12/1
5-team 25/1
6-team 35/1
7-team 75/1
8-team 100/1
9-team 150/1
10-team 300/1
11-team 450/1
12-team 600/1

This chart is courtesy of https://www.bodoglife.com/. If the better chooses to do a parlay including money line type bets, these payout odds change depending on what the moneyline odds were.

Money Lines

Money Line - This type of betting is the most frequently seen, as it exists on almost every possible sports activity available. Money lines are set, and the better just has to pick who the winner is going to be. The way sports betting providers do this is by making "payouts" (or what the better would win) greater for the underdog. For example, betting $10 dollars would win you $20 dollars betting on the underdog, but betting $10 dollars on the favorite would only win you anywhere from $3 - $4 dollars. Its a risk-reward type venture. The favorite usually wins, but one loss by the favorite can mean big losses to the better, because the better must bet more to win anything substantial. Betting on the underdog pays back more, but the chances of hitting are less. They also have money lines thatare virtually equal for each side. This will happen a lot in baseball or hockey. Such sports as tennis and boxing usually has it where one side is very heavily favored on the money line, and the other side is a big underdog.

Over/Under Bets

Over/Under - This type of betting is very similiar to point spread, except for instead of betting on a specific team, you bet on whether the total score of both sides will be over or under a certain number provided by the sports betting provider. The "juice" is still the common 9.09%, and they will also sway this number they come up with to try and keep it as close to fifty/fifty as they can. As one could imagine, this type of betting in virtually all sporting events, and they will even change the over/under to rounds or sets to make it an available option for boxing or tennis.

Different Types of Sports Bets - Point Spread

I WILL NOW GO THROUGH AND EXPLAIN EACH DIFFERENT WAY TO PLACE A SPORTS BET

Point Spread - Using point spreads is the most common way of betting on such sports as football and basketball. They will make it so the "favorite," or team expected to win, has to win by a certain number of points. If they accomplish this, then you win the bet. The underdog is given extra points, so even if they lose, they have to lose by a certain number of points or you will still win the bet. The "juice" the house keeps is 9.09%. That means if you bet $10 and win, your winnings will only equal $9.09.
If one of the teams is getting a clear majority of bets, the gambling supplier will simply change the point spread to get the sides as close to equal as they can, because they do not want to risk losing a lot of money. The gambling sites make their money off the "juice" and having each side as close to fifty/fifty as they can reduces risk.

Locks of the Week, week 4

OK, although I said I was picking 7 last week, I accidentally only picked 6, and ended up being 3 for 6 out of those. This brings me to being 9 out of 16, which when you consider the "juice" being tooken out by the gambling site, makes me pretty much even. Lets see if we can make some real money this week.
Iowa +4 1/2 (vs Illinois), Coming off an embarrassing loss at Penn St., I expect Iowa to bounce back and keep it very close with an overacheiving Illini team.
Wisconsin +7 (at Penn St), After losing last week, this upperclassmen led squad will be extra motivated not to get their 2nd loss of the season, which makes me believe they will play Penn St. very close.
Kentucky +10 (vs LSU), Being given 10 points at home is a lot, especially when your a great squad like Kentucky, and after losing lazt week, Andre Woodson and the rest of the Wildcats will sat their sights on LSU to try and get back in the National Championship race.
Louisville +10 (at Cincinati), Louisville was a top ten school at the beginning of the year, and 10 pts is a lot to a team still trying to proove themselves.
Dallas Cowboys +6 (vs New England), Now I know I said not to bet on the NFL, but when they are giving a undefeated home team 6 points, take it. New England has never won in Dallas, and just like last season when thE Cowboys beat the undefeated Colts, the Patriots will be leaving Dallas with a loss.

Locks of the Week, (week 3)

Now, I admit, it is unimpressive that I am only 6 for 10 in my first two weeks of trying to beat Vegas (5 for 7 in NCAA football, 1 for 3 in NFL), , but at the same time, if I was the average gambler Vegas would be losing. But lets see if I can walk the walk and truly show that reasonable gamblers can out smart Sin City. Here are my third week of football locks. Luckily for everybody, I will be giving 7 picks to hopefully increase my average (but according to me, there is no "hope" involved), and to all who may be reading this blog, DON'T BET ON THE NFL!!!!!!. I'm sorry, but most of the NFL games are WAY to unpredictable, as I have witnessed in the previous years, so just be careful while betting on the pros. (All spreads courtesy of bodoglife.com at around 2:15 AM Saturday.)
Wisconsin +3 (at Illinois), Illinois played Wisconsin very tough last year in Wisconsin, but still, why the #5 team (Wisconsin) is the underdog playing a unranked Illinois team is beyond me. None the less, Wisconsin will win this game straight up.
Miami -7 (at North Carolina), NC has been pathedic on offense, and I expect the much more talented offense of Miami to pull away at some point in this game.
Texas +12.5 (vs Oklahoma), although I feel Texas will lose, it won't be by more then 12 points. Mark it down.
Tenn +1.5 (vs Georgia), Tennessee has gotten off to a rough start, but do not look for it to continue at home against a struggling Georgia team.
Iowa +9.5 (at Penn St.), Iowa has played all their opponents close, and this rivalry will be no different.
Virginia Tech +6 (at Clemson), V Tech has one of the best defenses in the nation, and IF they do lose this battle, it will certainly be by less then 6 points.
Stanford +40 (at USC), When it comes to PAC 10 matchups, USC very rarely blows them out by more then 30 points. They start to drain the clock at the end, and do not expect this game to be any different.

Locks of the Week

Well, I was 3 for 5 against the spread last week, although I was 5 for 5 if I was just picking the winners. Sadly, when a better goes against the spread, winning the game does not always mean winning the bet. So far, Bodoglife.com would be losing money to me. Tough week of spreads this coming week, but we will see how I do.
Notre Dame +22, (at Purdue) The Irish cannot be as bad as they are playing, and I feel they will make a close game with their instate rival.
Louisville -9, (at NC State) Coming off too big defeats, the Cardinals are due to have a bounce back game.
UCLA +2 (Oregon State), Why UCLA is picked to lose by 2 to a crappy Oregon State team is beyond me, UCLA is a sure thing to win this game straight up.
NY Jets -3 (at Buffalo), The Bills have so many injuries and the Jets will have an easy time with their instate rivals.
Baltimore Ravens -4 (at Cleveland), Ravens will physically dominate and most likely blow out the Browns.

Gambling Can Be a Problem

Many experts have stated that gambling can be as addictive as drugs or alcohol. The simple concept of stopping when your down, or walking away with your winnings are concepts not easily accepted by addictive gamblers. Once their down, they keep telling themselves they can get out of the hole their in by winning the next one. This idea will keep repeating itself in the addicted gambler's mind until their pockets are empty. If their ahead, they just see their winnings as extra money and try to turn it into even more. The problem with this is that casinos or bookies want the gambler to keep betting, because they know the odds say that eventually the gambler will lose. If you are or you know a gambler who has a mindset such as the one I have stated, please try and direct them to help. GA (gamblers anonymous) is an organization, very similar to AA (alcoholics anonymous) or NA (narcotics anonymous), that helps addicted gamblers. They follow the 12 step program, as do the other "anonymous" organizations, and can help a great deal to a addicted gambler. Their website will answer any questions needed involving this organization.

How hard can it be??? Here are my five locks of the week.

Every week I will be giving you my five football picks (NCAA and NFL) with the spread to see how hard sports betting really is and how these web sites make so much money. My hypothesis is that my average will be above fifty percent, which means there are far more idiots betting on sports then people who actually know what they are doing. I strongly feel that I do know what I am doing, as I have been betting on sports even before I was legally allowed to do so. All spreads are taken courtesy of Bodoglife.com (previously Bodog.com and why it changed I have no idea) at 10:00 am Saturday morning.
For people not familiar with sports betting, if Team A is picked to beat Team B by 10 points, the spread would look like this:
Team A -10, favored by 10 points
Team B +10, underdogs by 10 points
Here are the Derry Slocum's five locks of the week:
Michigan +3 (vs Penn St), playing at home against Penn St., a team that historically has been dominated by Michigan, and frankly I do not see Michigan losing its third game so early in the season.
Arkansas -7 (vs Kentucky), emotional loss last week for Arkansas, emotional win last week for Kentucky, equals a blow out win at home for Arkansas.
Wisconsin -7 (vs Iowa), Iowa is way overrated this year, their team just is not that good, as where Wisconsin is one of the top ten programs in the nation, look for P.J. Hill to have a huge game.
UCLA -6 (vs Washington), UCLA got blown out at Utah last week, and the senior led team at UCLA will bounce back this week and take it out on Washington which has highly overplayed themselves.
Dallas Cowboys +3 (at Chicago), Rex Grossman is still the Bears quarterback right? He should take some notes when the #1 ranked offense led by Tony Romo is lighting it up come Sunday night. The Cowboys do not need the three points they are given, as they will win this one straight up.

Fund Transfers

The American government has been extremely against any from of online gambling. Starting with the Interstate Wire Act in 1961, often referred to as the Federal Wire Act, the government made any form of electronic wiring of money for the purpose of wagering illegal with a maximum penalty of two years in prison. This was before the Internet exploded though. Although in 2002 the Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Wire Act does not prohibit online gambling, many inconveniences have been but on online gambling providers. For instance, when the Internet first started being exploited for the purpose of online gambling, all major credit cards, as well as banks, were willing to transfer money into the online gambling sites so the customer would be willing to make wagers. Then when the customer, if lucky, would win and want to cash out some of these funds, the online gambling sites would typically re-wire the money directly back to your bank account. Through rulings in the U.S. courts, this is no longer the case. Virtually no credit cards are allowed to wire money to these online gambling sites, and banks can no longer directly transfer money into these sites either. This was obviously a huge problem for these online gambling sites, and many of them either shut down all together, or closed their doors to any U.S. customers. Party Gaming was one of these sites that now denied U.S. customers, and in result of their announcement, their stock dropped 60%.
Not all of the online gambling sites shut down though. Other providers such as Bodog, BetUs, Sportsbook, and many others were able to stick around to provide to their American customers. By doing this, they had to use a third party site that money could be legally transferred into, and then allowing the customers to transfer the money from this third site into their online gambling site. This was not the end of their problems though because these third party sites had no way of paying out to the customer. Once the money was in the third party site, it either had to be spent or just stay untouched. This left the gambling sites with few options. Because many banks refused to deal with these online gambling sites, very few banks allow them to directly transfer money back into the customers bank account. So the only option really left for the sites were to send out checks when the customer decided to payout. Now this cost the gambling sites quite a bit money, so they had to make further restrictions to the customer. The majority of online gambling sites only allow for one check to be sent out each month, per customer, and any additional checks within a month would cost the customer a hefty fine. So through all these legalities that affected the business of online gambling, the business still exist, but at a greater inconvenience for both the customer and the provider.

How Online Gambling Sites do Sports Betting

When it comes down to betting on sports, it seems easy enough. There are two teams and the better must pick the one he believes is going to win. Its not always that easy though. Each individual site has an oddsmaker that will come up with a point spread to make the game as difficult to pick as possible. For instance, the Colts are clearly the favorite to win this weekend against the Tennessee Titans, so instead of just winning, they have to win by more than 7 points, according to Bodog.com. Doing it this way makes it more even (and difficult) for the better to choose the correct winner. Still, it does not change the fact that there are two teams, and the better must pick one. Virtually a 50% chance. This is where "the juice" comes into play. "The juice" is what makes these sites the vast majority of their profits. For instance, for the majority of gambling sites, the better must bet $110 in order to win $100. This means that the better must pay 9.09% more then he will get back if he wins. That $10 dollars is considered "the juice." Now, $10 is not a lot of money, but lets say a gambling site has roughly $100,000 put on each team in a particular game, they make roughly $9,090 regardless of who the winner is. The truth of the matter is, usually there is a lot more than $100,000 on a game. That can be a single bet for some rich guy looking for some action. Now lets look at a scenario where, for some reason, the majority of the bets are going with the Colts to win by more then 7 points. The gambling site has two options here; to increase "the juice" on betting with the Colts and decrease it for betting on the Titans, or they can make increase the point spread and make it so the Colts have to win by more than 8 points. The goal is to keep equal number of bets on each team, so the gambling site has minimal chance of losing any money.

Introduction

Online gambling is a tremendous money maker for online casinos such as Bodog or BetUs or Sportsbook, etc, but because of laws passed by Congress on online gambling, America sees none of these profits. All these businesses were forced to move outside American borders in able to function. The sad fact about this is that the large majority of profits to these companies comes from American citizens. This is in large part because there are so many different sports that American fans follow and love. The NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, Nascar, Golf, and almost all NCAA team sports are available to be bet on, and for most Americans, the internet is the only way to accomplish this. Through my blog, I will research exactly how these sites operate, as well as how so much money is made.