New Podcast Series Highlights Diversity of Underground Gamblers, Shows Winning Traits

Posted on: November 22, 2020, 11:45h. 

Last updated on: November 23, 2020, 11:39h.

Steve Bittenbender Read More

Expertise: Legislation, Sports Betting, Horse Racing.

A new podcast series focuses on the lives of professional underground gamblers. The podcast goes inside the world of professional gambling and attempts to show what traits make these players successful.

Gamblers is hosted by David Hill, a veteran writer on gambling. The idea for the series came after he wrote an article on sports bettors for The Ringer, which produces the podcast for Spotify.

In the six-episode series, Hill said he wanted to show people from various backgrounds and how they got into the games that turned into their livelihoods.

I wanted to show their craft, to show how they work,” Hill told Casino.org. “How they are able to do what they do and what all it entails. And to give people a little bit of respect for the amount of craft and skill that goes into being a professional.”

New episodes will appear every Wednesday and will be available on all podcast platforms.

Gamblers Backgrounds Vary, But They Share Common Traits

When Hill talks about a variety of gamblers, he means it. The series showcases not just a sports bettor and a horseplayer and a poker pro, it also profiles a pool hustler and a gin rummy player.

While they may come from different backgrounds, one thing they have in common is that they put their own money up and bet on themselves.

The biggest common denominator between all these folks is a tremendous amount of self-confidence and willingness to take risks,” he said. “In that sense, I think you could put any of these gamblers up against any of the most successful entrepreneurs in America, too.”

Another common factor is their love of games of all types. They may have mastered one, Hill said, but they’re captivated by others, too.

“Something that they have a kind of an innate attraction to and connect to is the playing of games, of learning the rules of a game, and quickly figuring out how to master those rules quickly, figuring out how to solve that puzzle, how to play that game,” he added.

Second Season? Hill Says There Are More Stories to Share

Work on the series started over a year ago, Hill said, and like pretty much everything else, COVID-19 played havoc with the schedule.

“If this show could live on for multiple seasons, I think that one of the things that I want to do with this show is to show people that the type of person that makes their living from gambling is varied,” Hill told Casino.org.