SportsBetting - The Lies, The Myth, The Losses. How to Recover from SportsBetting Gambling!!

Is your so-called insider knowledge in sports betting actually putting you at a disadvantage? On this episode, we unpack the alluring yet deceptive world of sports betting, focusing on its tight grip during football season. Many believe their background in competitive sports gives them an edge, but the reality is quite the opposite. We break down why the expertise of Vegas and sportsbooks often leaves the average bettor at a loss. Our discussion also expands beyond the betting line, touching upon the everyday risk-taking we all engage in, from business ventures to personal relationships, highlighting the essential role of community support in overcoming gambling addiction. Join our Recovery Freedom Circle for a safe space to share experiences and find healing.

Shifting gears, we explore the toll sports betting takes on personal time and relationships. Hear firsthand stories of how gambling can consume your weekends and distract from life's simple pleasures. Imagine spending a carefree day at Newport Beach without the constant need to track scores—this freedom is achievable. We champion emotional courage, urging listeners to nurture meaningful connections and be present in their lives. By stepping away from the grip of gambling, you open the door to greater happiness and personal fulfillment. Let’s embrace a life where intimate relationships and personal growth take the spotlight.

Chapters

• 0:01 The Truth About Sports Betting
• 11:05 Life Beyond Sports Betting

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Sports betting the lie, the myth, the losses, how and where to get help with a sports betting problem, sports betting addiction. Welcome again to another episode of the 1% in Recovery podcast, where we encourage you to laugh every day, to work hard, work hard in recovery, work hard in your relationships, work hard in your jobs, business school. You need to work and then you get to enjoy life and also to love unconditionally. There is nothing better in this world than to love yourself, love others, love God. Just put so much love out there, love unconditionally. You will receive so much love back.

Speaker 1: 0:50

Now I encourage everyone to join and participate in the Recovery Freedom Circle. It's a Facebook group. The link is in the show notes. Click on the link, go to Facebook, join the group. It is a community, a community of recovery, a community of people that just want to excel in life and want more out of life, where they can share their ideas around recovery, a question, around steps, relationships, something that's hanging them up. Maybe it's a motivational quote or something inspirational that they want to share. But everybody has a voice and that is the beauty. That's the beauty of community. Everybody has a voice. Everybody gets to share. Thank you for the people in the community that have posted things and shared, because I think it's vital that we all get to know each other and really realize that the community of addicts is really the community of the world, because addiction hits every single family. Everybody has a story, whether it's themselves or somebody in their family that's in addiction. So this is how we grow, we learn, we heal and we get to enjoy life.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Now let's jump in to this week's episode Sports betting. Now we're in the middle of football season and most every single sports better, whether they are continuing to gamble right now or they have stopped sports betting or they're trying to stop sports betting. I'd say about 90%, 80 to 90% will always begin with football. Football is like an American pastime, it's, even though baseball is America's sports, it really isn't, especially in terms of gambling, because everybody wanted to start off small or something that's not so kind of inclusive, something small or something that's not so kind of inclusive. You can bet on the NFL. The NFL has only now 17 games about, you know, and it's just on Sunday. Most people are off. They can watch the game after church, not go to church during lunch, whether they're by themselves with their family, and that's how they start to gamble. It's always something kind of small, whether it starts in high school or college or once you're out of college and then you start, especially if you've been an athlete.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Number one demographic of sports bettors is that they played some type of competitive sport, at least at the high school level. Most people have and they actually were very good at the high school level. So they actually feel like they know their specific sports and other sports, Because most athletes, especially in high school, no matter what school you're in, you probably play more than one sport. I know nowadays they try to isolate and you want to actually almost concentrate on one sport. But number one it's unhealthy. It gets boring. No one wants to play baseball or basketball or run or whatever every day since the age of 8 to 18. You're just going to burn out by the time you're 15, 16. In reality, you get more fun by either playing other sports or just resting your body.

Speaker 1: 4:03

A lot of people that have played competitive sports. They actually think they have an understanding of what other athletes think do how they're going to play. Oh, you're the home team, the road team, you're traveling, weather, all those types of things that come into play, and then they think that they really can have an advantage. And you may know certain things you may also know. You know how the sport is played. You know what they would do in specific situations, whether it's third and eight with two minutes left in the first half, or whether you're talking about the bottom of the seventh inning and there's a runner on first and third with one out. What are you going to do? You have all these scenarios that you can play and you understand. What's the pitcher going to do? What's the batter going to do? What's the quarterback going to do? What's the point guard going to do? Who else is going to actually showcase how things are going to play out? And so it's important to really understand. That's how a lot of people get sucked in. They think they know, and here's the thing and especially the NFL I will tell this to anyone and everyone the one sport to be most concerned about and to be most concerned about is the NFL.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Why? Because the NFL knows, Vegas knows and the sports books know the NFL better than any other sport. That's why there is very few mistakes done in the lines in the NFL, and even though you think you may have a gauge in the team. The teams are all professionals and there is very little that is consistent. That's why, from week in to week out, you seem to understand or they're the home team or the road team, or there's an injury, or whatever. It is the NFL.

Speaker 1: 5:44

The Vegas knows the NFL better than anything else, so they have the number on where you think you have an advantage. You don't they do. You have to understand that Vegas is smarter than you. You also have to understand that Vegas has more resources than you and now, because they want more of your money quicker, they've introduced all this other BS which just takes the whole gambling question is are you okay with gambling in society? I would say yeah. Three quarters of the people would say yes. They think that gambling is healthy, because it's not only gambling with money on, let's say, sports or casinos or the lottery, but a lot of people will take certain. A lot of people take gambles in life, whether it's a love interest, whether it's a business, whether it's some type of new career, whether it's a religion. There's always types of gambles out there. So the actual word gamble risk is inherent to success. You have to actually step out and do something.

Speaker 1: 6:48

But when it comes back to sports betting, which we are talking about is that Vegas knows more than you. You understand that. Then you have to be much more conservative. Now you may find certain lines or bets that are more favorable to you, whether it's baseball, because 162 games, basketball, it's 82 games, or whether it's different totals, different things. There's a lot more variables. Even college football. Or you're talking about all the other sports out there, even sports that are not actually that you can actually find on espn or the newspaper, or you can find actual results that you really have to search for some type of foreign country and some type of weird sport like ping pong. I've heard people you know come into the room saying that during COVID they bet on Ukrainian ping pong, and I'm thinking, man, that's compulsive betting, that's pathological gambling. Thank God, I wasn't doing it, I wasn't gambling during COVID, I had already stopped in April 13th 2000. So there was a lot of distance.

Speaker 1: 7:57

But now that it's on your smartphone, now that it's available everywhere on your computer, the advertising is incessant, nonstop. It's just like the beating of the drum. It doesn't end, and so you've got to understand that the odds are against you. It looks like, I swear to God, it looks like it's 50-50. One team's going to win, one team's going to lose Absolutely, that's the myth. The myth is that you're saying that you're almost like flipping a coin, heads or tails. I know who's going to win. It's going to be Detroit. No, it's going to be Tampa Bay. No, it's going to be Tampa Bay. No, it's going to be.

Speaker 1: 8:35

It's not that simple. That is how they lure people in. It's almost like you're fishing, and that's what Vegas is doing. They're fishing. They're throwing out all kinds of lines. They're throwing up all their BS marketing messages like sweat-free bets, free bets, insurance. These are insurance for your first bet. You have automatic insurance. You can't lose. If you lose, you will get refunded your money.

Speaker 1: 9:04

They do everything to hook you in, no different than a heroin, meth, even coke weed dealer. They'll start giving you those free drugs and start getting you hooked. It's all about getting you hooked and then they always tell you it's your fault for becoming an addict. Yeah, that's the lie. It's always my fault that now my brain has been hijacked by you. You don't people don't understand is is that all that advertising, all that subliminal messaging has hijacked your brain? And now your brain really does need to have some type of almost like rock bottom, some type of event, someone to shake you, and you've got to understand.

Speaker 1: 9:52

Gambling is a lie. They tell us all the time. Gambling is a lie Because, number one, you can't get anything in life for free. So stop believing that, even if you won the lottery for $500 million, that your life is then going to be on easy street. It's not. It's going to create so many problems. I can talk to you about the lotto purse. I can tell you about so many other things where gambling is the lie, and that is why you need to stop believing that you actually have a chance in sports.

Speaker 1: 10:15

But where to get help? Right here, baby Recovery, Freedom Circle. I've designed something in 18 weeks 72 questions. We go through it and you actually have coaching where I'm on your ass and I am pushing you. I am getting you to reveal more of yourself so you get to live your best life. That's how you recover. You can also go to in-treatment. You can go to 12-step rooms. You can hire a therapist, or do you want someone that's got over 25 years of experience? Those other things help. I went to 12-step rooms. I still go to 12-step rooms. I was in therapy all different types of therapy, mainly individual therapy for seven years, but later on I even dabbled in some couples therapy. I'm a big fan of therapy, but I'm also a big fan of people that have actually lived in and know it, and I actually know the steps, because the steps are designed for me. See, that's how I'm going to get you to the other side.

Speaker 1: 11:05

People don't understand is how do I get? How is Hugo going to help you? How's the recovery freedom circle going to help you? Well, first of all, I stop. I get you to understand that you can never win.

Speaker 1: 11:18

And then the problem is even if you have a winning season, you're spending your whole weekend, your whole weekend, sucked into watching football, for the most part because most people you bet you're going to start watching, you're going to at least start following the scores. You're going to constantly, you know, going online or listening to it on the radio, or something. You can't enjoy your weekend Like this past a week ago I was out in LA and I was on the beach on Sunday at Newport Beach. God, that was just so beautiful, just hanging out on the sun, not worrying about watching football, not even caring who's playing, what was happening, and just enjoying my weekend, and that is how sports betting robs you. It just takes your nights, your weekends away from you when you can be doing so much. And that's why, when we talk about, when I talked about on the live stream, you can always catch me on the live stream, catch me on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 12:09

I was talking about emotional courage. I was building intimate relationships. That's the beauty, that is the beauty of life Intimate relationships. And I get to spend time, whether it's birthdays, whether it's meeting up for dinner, meeting up with two people, friends of mine, here later in a few hours for dinner, Going to meetings, being present, being there, listening to people. And that's why gambling becomes the lie and the myth and you cannot get away from it. And that's how I teach you. I teach you how to constantly be present in your own life and in other people's lives. So with that, I encourage you to not gamble, because there is no benefit from it. It's no different than I would say is why take a snort of Coke or an alcoholic drink or eat fast food? It does your body no good. It really does. So try to get there to feel better by not sports betting and by understanding and tapping in with me in any which way that is possible. With that we're going to end this podcast of the 1% in recovery podcast. Remember, life is beautiful.