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Old 05-14-2022, 11:50 PM   #1
btexpress
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How about some degenerate stories

Anybody ever seen guys rip through their savings and credit cards to feed the disease at the OTB.

I have a friend who loads $100 on NYRA every weekend with his eight ball of coke
and bottle of whiskey and hides in the basement with his phone app. Shuts the kids and wife off and locks himself in.
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Old 05-15-2022, 02:23 AM   #2
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Cool story bro
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Old 05-15-2022, 06:18 AM   #3
lamboguy
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i knew a guy from Maine that used to buy poached glass eels on the side of the road. the guy used to make about $20,000 a day. he blew every last dime at the track. when the feds finally caught him, he didn't have 2 quarters to rub together to pay for a lawyer. he wound up pleading out and something like 10 months in the can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshw..._and_smuggling
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Old 05-15-2022, 09:41 AM   #4
elhelmete
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[QUOTE=btexpress;2804355]

I have a friend who loads $100 on NYRA every weekend w/QUOTE]

What does he do after the first race?
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Old 05-15-2022, 10:31 AM   #5
Fred Mertz
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I have a degenerate brother, we call him fugitive or fugi for short.


He hit a $118 exacta yesterday, but he doesn't brag about his losses.
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Old 05-15-2022, 11:32 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by btexpress View Post
Anybody ever seen guys rip through their savings and credit cards to feed the disease at the OTB.

I have a friend who loads $100 on NYRA every weekend with his eight ball of coke
and bottle of whiskey and hides in the basement with his phone app. Shuts the kids and wife off and locks himself in.
Ah, the good life.
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Old 05-15-2022, 12:34 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by btexpress View Post
Anybody ever seen guys rip through their savings and credit cards to feed the disease at the OTB.

I have a friend who loads $100 on NYRA every weekend with his eight ball of coke
and bottle of whiskey and hides in the basement with his phone app. Shuts the kids and wife off and locks himself in.
Perhaps he would do better if he used a Magic Eight Ball instead of an eight ball of coke.
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Old 05-15-2022, 12:55 PM   #8
dilanesp
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I've heard a number of stories of people who took money entrusted to them to the track (or other forms of gambling) and blew the money. But I think those are relatively standard.

There was a witness in one of my cases who had been through a messy divorce where she accused her husband of winning $350,000 in the lottery and then losing it all buying more lottery tickets over the course of the next year and half. I was trying to find out if the story might have false (might be useful to impeach the witness, because she had testified to it in her divorce proceeding), but the story seemed to check out.
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Old 05-15-2022, 03:53 PM   #9
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Perhaps he would do better if he used a Magic Eight Ball instead of an eight ball of coke.
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Old 05-15-2022, 04:11 PM   #10
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$100 on a weekend seems really low-key to me. $5,200 a year for something you love is hobby money to many.

I don't have any degenerate stories to share. I do recall walking into my first OTB when I lived in NY as a young adult. The guys in there, sitting on the floor, looking like they had not had a decent grooming nor a change of clothes in a month, were not exactly inspiring to a young budding horseplayer.
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Old 05-15-2022, 08:18 PM   #11
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When the OTB’s were on the full side up until about 15 years ago or so there was always a large group of hang around guys. They literally would come to the OTB and hang out the entire day with probably 10-20 bucks. They would either mooch , wait for a fellow hang around guy to win or do a 10% signer deal. That group of degens probably did the least destruction to their lives because you can’t lose a lot of nothing you don’t have.
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Old 05-15-2022, 08:27 PM   #12
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Originally Posted by BettinBilly View Post
$100 on a weekend seems really low-key to me. $5,200 a year for something you love is hobby money to many.

I don't have any degenerate stories to share. I do recall walking into my first OTB when I lived in NY as a young adult. The guys in there, sitting on the floor, looking like they had not had a decent grooming nor a change of clothes in a month, were not exactly inspiring to a young budding horseplayer.
To a non-gambler $100 is a lot to lose in one week. That’s like a monthly car payment. If your a non-gambler married to one that is not you will never convince them with the “hobby“ angle. For someone who doesn’t gamble they will never agree that betting horses is a hobby. We are automatically labeled degenerates and looked at different. An old guy gave me great advice years ago. He said if you have a passion for betting the horses make sure whomever you date/ marry knows this going in. Don’t try to hide it make it clear from the beginning. Even with that advice most of my relationships over the years accepted the passion but would never agree to call it a hobby.
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Old 05-15-2022, 08:39 PM   #13
sharkey11
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the three stooges were degens Rember dopey dans daily doubles vernon dent runs into curly poping out of a sewer cover and stops curly wants to sell vernon dopeys sheet and curly proclaims 10 races 11 winners vernon asks hows that andcurley says last race dead heat 2 winners.vernon says ill take one for a buck to his surprise they were yesterdays entrys and he says wait a minute these horses all ran yesterday curly reply's well they all won didnt they!!!! and by the way as a kid i used to hang around the 100 dollar window @ suffok downs waiting for a high roller to say to the teller keep punching till the bell rings
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Old 05-15-2022, 11:13 PM   #14
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Back when I first got into racing I bet blindly just by looking at odds for the first year or two. $40 deposit on a Friday and turned it into $5 grand by Sunday in the same weekend. Ive never hit for that much in that short of span again.
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Old 05-16-2022, 09:18 AM   #15
classhandicapper
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This isn't a horse racing story, but it's a gambling degeneracy story.

When I was in my late teens and early twenties I spent a lot of time in a Queens poolroom that was full of terrific pool players, a lot of gamblers, and quite a few degenerates.

Occasionally, the pool gambling would spill over into other forms of gambling.

"Big" Steve was pro level 9 ball player and well known degenerate gambler around NY and NJ and even on the road.

"Crazy" Randy was more of mid level player, but all around degenerate and CRAZY.

They didn't like each other at all.

One day "Crazy" Randy offered Steve 6/5 on coin flips.

Steve verified that the coin was legit and accepted.

I can't remember the exact amount, but Randy got hot and busted Steve for his entire bankroll despite giving him odds. Steve was fuming and Randy was gloating.

Randy then offered Steve "double or nothing on the pool cue".

A totally broke pool hustler with no cue is a problem, but Steve had to accept because he was in the hole for a lot more than the cue was worth.

They flipped and Randy won again. The place went nuts.

Then Randy offered him double or nothing on his shirt. Yes, all the money, and the pool cue against Steve's shirt. Steve accepted.

Randy won again. Steve took his shirt off and handed it to Randy. Randy went outside, smashed the cue into a dozen pieces (this was a very good cue) and set Steve's shirt on fire.

It's hard to be more insane than that.
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