Professional gamblers - are they mavericks or charlatans?

Professional gamblers are the subject of wild speculation. Are they charlatans, are they mavericks, are they good role models at all? These questions are all valid, and if you search around the Internet, you will arrive at different answers, depending on how much you want one or the other to be the truth. But what is the definition of a professional gambler?

As it turns out, there are different ways to look at that, too! From anecdotal evidence, such as someone with a swagger who has won a lot of money from casinos to the legal definition of a "professional gambler" which exists in certain jurisdictions.

Today, we take a look at all of this, how much a pro gambler's salary is, and if sports gamblers can actually beat the sportsbooks. We also take to answer some hot questions, such as who the most famous people to succeed this way are.

Let’s first agree – who is a professional gambler?

Defining a professional gambler shouldn't be too difficult. A professional gambler is someone who makes a living by playing games of chance and skill. You can add that the person’s main or only income comes from gambling.

Pro gamblers are not clearly defined by law in all jurisdictions, but some countries have laws that establish them as a legal profession. The United States distinguishes between professional and recreational gamblers, and the Internal Revenue Service specifically pays attention to these categories.

Why? Because of tax. If gambling is your main income, you will be subject to tax law as a professional gambler, and there are benefits to having this signed into law.

For example, you can deduct gambling-related expenses when calculating how much tax you owe to the IRS this way, including travel and lodging, tournament entry fees, and so on. However, this definition mostly applies to games of poker, as casino games are still considered games of chance.

This has been made possible thanks to a landmark US Supreme Court decision in the Commissioner v. Groetzinger case, in which the court ruled that:

"If one's gambling activity is pursued full-time, in good faith, and with regularity, to the production of income for a livelihood, and is not a mere hobby, it is a trade or business within the meaning of the statutes with which we are here concerned."

To sum up, however, the definition of a professional gambler is a person who derives their main, or most of their income, from gambling activities, regardless of the activity.

Sports, casinos, or poker – what games do professional gamblers play?

When it comes to professional gamblers, you can expect to find them involved in virtually every type of gambling activity there is. In other words, a professional gambler can be involved in games such as:

• Poker
• Sports Betting
• Video Poker
• Baccarat
• Blackjack
• Roulette
• Slots

This is quite true, and although we would generally advise against trying to become a "professional gambler" playing slot machines, we could offer some examples of cases where this worked out to a certain extent. All of these come with some caveats, and you should not try to become a professional gambler yourself!

Successful examples of professional gamblers

Now, for the best part. We have taken a look at successful professional gamblers in each of the game categories we mentioned before. Here are their stories and what you can learn about being a professional gambler in a game you enjoy.

Bryn Kenney – Poker

Bryn Kenney is the world’s most successful poker player. He has earned $75,778,346 from playing poker so far, and he is still active. His best live win was $20,563,324, and he is a great example of what it means to be a professional gambler and a success.

However, there is one important caveat to observe here. Poker is generally recognized as a game of skill, in which people with a better core understanding of the game will always defeat their less experienced and less knowledgeable counterparts. In a sense, poker is a game in which you could set out to earn a living, but the odds are still incredibly low that you will succeed.

Billy Walters - Sports Betting

What is a professional sports bettor? You need to look at Billy Walters and ask no more. The sportsbooks call them "sharps," or players who bet on certain outcomes, and nearly always end up in the red. The story of Bill Walters fascinates. He is credited with winning for 30 straight years, but not before he racked up significant debt as a young man and even lost his house to a game of pitching pennies.

Regardless, he joined Computer Group in the 1980s and used computing power and statistical analysis to identify winning outcomes. Walters is said to have ended each year for 30 years in profit one after the next.

Bob Dancer - Video Poker

Bob Dancer is, hands-down, the world’s most prominent video poker gambler. He used $6,000 and turned it into $1,000,000 in the course of six months which forever won him accolades. Dancer then described his success in Million Dollar Video Poker, which is one of the most-read books about gambling.

His fame has actually brought him more tangible employment gigs, and he has worked with casinos to help them improve their games, as well as teaching video poker strategies to others. It’s no happenstance that the man is called "The King of Video Poker." He has also written two other books about video poker and gambling.

Mikki Mase - Baccarat

Mikki Mase is another interesting character, and you may have heard about him as "the professional gambler with the face tattoos." This is an accurate description of the man, and not much is known about him, at least not much other than what he likes to say about himself.

He has won $32m from his time hitting casinos in Las Vegas, and he claims to have been permanently banned from all casinos in the world. Mikki Mase has insisted that he knows how the casinos "cheat," and he could expose and sink their entire business model but has never volunteered to say how he does it.

Mikki Mase also prefers to play baccarat because he argues that the casinos "cheat less" in that game. He has not really revealed anything about his strategy, and many people have called him a fraud. Yet, Mase is an intriguing member of the gambling community, and you can find out more about him here.

Dana White – Blackjack

The boisterous and often down-to-earth Dana White is a man of many parts. He enjoys slap contests and mixed martial arts, but he admittedly also has a soft spot for blackjack – so much that he was temporarily banned from casinos in Las Vegas!

White has been known for his annoying playstyle, where he will always quit while he is ahead. Although White has not always won and admittedly got hammered a few times, costing him a small fortune, he has generally been happy about his gambling exploits.

In 2022, he claimed that he won as much as $7m in a single night in Las Vegas, where he is a familiar sight. Find out more about Dana White’s gambling and whether he is truly a professional gambler to begin with.

Niko Tosa – Roulette

Niko Tosa does fit the definition of a "professional gambler." The enigmatic Croatian has been silently terrorizing casinos all over the world, yet it was his escapades in London’s Ritz Casino that made him famous. Tosa and his two companions would be arrested for how they would bet in the very last moment and always or mostly win.

Tosa would simply bet in the spur of the moment and place a certain roulette bet that would come up as a success, emotionless and even disinterested in the game and its outcome – as if he knew and know he did. Tosa was, of course, apprehended by the police and accused of cheating, but nobody could prove how he did what he did.

He and his companions are said to have won £1.3m in just several weeks of play. How did they do it? We tried to answer this in our story about this enigmatic professional gambler.

Brian Christopher – Slots

Brian Christopher is not exactly a "professional gambler" per se. He has more to do with traveling land-based casinos around the United States and streaming & recording for his channel on YouTube – Brian Christopher Slots. He is said to have a net worth of around $3 million, and he has achieved this through his genuine love for gambling.

Eventually, Christopher decided that gambling was fun, but he could try and make his pastime a full-time job by simply using YouTube’s monetization program. He was banned for a short while from the platform, which said that he had committed "violent or dangerous acts" on camera.

The ban was lifted shortly after the appeal, though, and Brian Christopher remains one of the most successful players of slots to this very day. However, be forewarned that Christopher doesn’t win more often than anyone else. He just shows the raw joy of gambling for what it is.

Can I become a professional gambler?

Becoming a professional gambler is within the realm of possibility, although it comes with important caveats. Gambling for a living is not guaranteed to earn a living, the same way holding most regular jobs is.

You may face challenges getting started, and even maintaining your bankroll to continue playing. Another concern is that people who play excessively may develop a gambling addiction. This being said, many professional gamblers pick games such as poker and sports betting as side gigs, something they do for a hobby, before they transition to full-time.

The dream of making a living from gambling is alive and well, but the reality is far more complex. For every Brian Christopher, at least thousands of players lose more than they win. Professional gambling isn’t just risky - it’s a lifestyle that few people have the mentality to handle.