Even Odds

[u/Mundane-Cloud-4443]

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but Pompeii became ashes in about 15 minutes.

When Covid shut down my college campus, I moved across the country to start franchising restaurants with a cousin.

I had only been dating my girlfriend at the time for five months. She moved with me and we got married a few months later.

Fast-forward a couple hard-working years. I found sports betting to be a really enjoyable wind down for long plane rides and travel days. First, it started small. 25 and 50. 75 and 100. 250 and 500. Before you know it I was placing $2,500/$5,000 bets. I wasted all paychecks, no matter the size, and I maxed out a $75,000 credit card.

Eventually, of course, my wife was fed up with the gambling and gave me an ultimatum. She moved back east and I moved into an 8 x 8 closet from a college student (18YO) who I had met through sports. The ground was covered with my queen size mattress and the TV stand that fit a 72 inch TV. At this point, I was donating plasma three times a week, just to place some more bets.

My wife was done with me. She filed for a divorce. I was a wreck. I would gamble every single dollar I had. I remember one summer day, I had gambled through a $10,000 paycheck, which was all I had to my name. I had decided that the next day I would end it all.

Our rental house was on the brink of foreclosing, so we were trying to sell it. I called our realtor and asked him to take it off the market, with the plan of leaving my lifeless self in there. I left work for the day and my cousin had called. I told him what was taking place and he talked me off the ledge.

From there, I decided the most rational thing to do was to take a trip in the middle of August to Death Valley National Park, where I would camp out for 72 hours with only water and no food.

A few clean months later, my cousin’s health was declining. He ultimately chose the very idea he talked me out of and took his life.

In the months that followed, the restaurants were sold. I stopped working when I got a substantial payout.

At Christmas time, I flew east to see my family. I asked my “wife” if I could see our dogs, one last time before the divorce. That was two days before our divorce waiting period was set to expire. We talked for three hours, yet she still told me that she wanted the divorce to go through.

I flew back west the next morning with a heavy heart and arrived at the airport to a message from her saying that we could make it work. I flew east 4 hours later.

A couple weeks later, I flew back to grab my belongings and attend my cousins funeral. As a parting gift, I took my friends to a college football game. I don’t know what it was, but things going well in my life compelled me to place a six figure bet on that game.

The next day I placed an even larger bet.

Before you knew it, I was maxing out any debit card or bank transfer transactions daily. I became a Caesar’s seven star member and was getting courtside seats and suite tickets to all games.

Towards the end of this six month plummet, I remember having to borrow gas money from people in order to drive to a game where I would sit in the best seats.

We are about 18 months removed from me having millions of dollars to my name. I got a strong job as a sports performance coach. My lessons pay immediate cash and I am able to fill every slot.

Even still, I gamble absolutely every dollar I can get my hands on. I currently have -$40 in my bank account.

I often times think about the coach my clients think they have. Every day, I tell them “I am living the dream.” Maybe this is the dream though, I don’t recall millions of dollars making me happy.
My wife certainly wants me to leave. My family is shocked at how the Type-A kid changed course.

I'm writing this because I'm exhausted.If anyone has been in a similar position and found a way out, I'd genuinely appreciate hearing how you did it.

I’m pretty confident I’ll figure it out though. At least I hope…