Bet behind the ears

Ever felt the urge to take your chances on the horses? How about the League of Ireland? Perhaps the golf? Declan Lynch has, and in his new book, Free Money: The Gambler's Quest, he recounts his punting experiences – the highs of winning and the crushing lows of loss.

Having spent nine months betting on a dazzling array of sports all in the name of research, is he still risking his cash chasing winners?
"I am," he admits. "I bet a fair bit less in term of money though. When I was doing the book I almost felt a moral obligation to crank it up a bit, but part of the point of the book is that you can have the same kind of buzz winning twenty quid."
The possibility of free money and the thrill of picking a winner are obvious attractions, but says Lynch, part of gambling's lure is based on false premises.
"One of the great illusions of gambling is that the more you do it, the better you get at it and in fact you're not at all, you're just starting again and again. That's one of the most attractive things about it – the illusion that you're starting with a clean slate even when you're actually considerably behind."
If you win, gambling may result in free money, but with all the calculations and worry it entails, it certainly isn't easy money.
"After all my hard work, I'm exactly where I started," laughs Lynch, "The myth of Sisyphus must have been based on punting in ancient Greece – you're constantly rolling this rock up the hill, constantly starting again. If at the end of it you've achieved anything at all, it's almost miraculous. Breaking even is a monumental achievement."
As a keen fan of sports, Lynch didn't find it to difficult to back winners – in fact he chose far more winners than losers – but even this knowledge didn't stop him losing big on a few occasions.
"There was one core philosophy that came out of it – backing winners is the easy part – the talent is somehow putting the right amount of money on the right winners. But no matter how much you think you're applying logic and reason to it, there's something just mysterious about gambling – it gets away from you like a three-card trick."
With gambling there's no such thing as a sure thing. Even "buying money" – backing something that seems completely certain to win, can result in spectacular losses. Free Money recounts a cautionary tale of a gambler who bet £100,000 to win £1,000, only to lose the lot.
"It doesn't seem like you're actually risking money at all, but what's incorrigible about sport, it sometimes just doesn't work. They will get you in the end – always."
Free Money may be about betting and Lynch's nine-month odyssey through the nether regions of televised sports, but it's really about the psychology of gambling. Although women may indulge in 'fun bets', bingo and sometimes the horses, sports betting, notes Lynch, is essentially a male indulgence.
"It [gambling] is about men, about thinking you're very smart, about feeling that you've been vindicated and that's a very male thing."
Risking large amount of money may seem stupid to those who don't bet, but generally gamblers have above average intelligence. Punting is one way they look for mental stimulation.
"Betting is often just about boredom, and the ridiculous thing is you shouldn't bet when you're bored – bookies don't put on prices when they’re bored."
Lynch extrapolates the lure of gambling to look at the global financial system, which as the recent economic meltdown has shown, seems to be nothing more than a sophisticated form of punting.
"If you think over the last year or so, all this gambling on a grand scale that's been going on in the financial services, we've read an awful lot about it, yet we've read very little about what it feels like. What motivates these guys? What sort of people are they?"
"It would be shallow to say they're just greedy people or ambitious people – there's more going on there. The gambling impulse has become so important and has had such a catastrophic influence. Financial correspondents don't deal with that kind of stuff, they're only interested in the numbers."
While Lynch enjoys a punt, his mixed feelings about the subject are obvious. Gambling can ruin lives quicker than either drink or drugs, and far less noticeably too.
As the recession takes hold, he notes that while shops and businesses have closed down in a number of towns, the bookies appear to be doing better than ever. Add to that the 24-hour world of online gambling, and sports channels bringing you games from all across the world, and your punting opportunities are endless.
"If you have television you can start betting at nine o'clock in the morning and continue around the clock. It's become a very normal part of daily life and yet it's got all these dangers as well. It's never been more enjoyable – or more dangerous."

Free Money: The Gambler’s Quest is published by Transworld