Imagine, if you will, a life where your time is your own, and you don’t need to be accountable to a boss. A life where you’ll be able to explore Norway’s 385,207 square kilometres of pristine beauty at the drop of a hat. You don’t need to go to an office and spend 33.6 hours of your week stuck in a little soul-destroying cubicle, making and answering mundane phone calls and sending emails to people.

How do you make income, then? It’s not like you can search nye norske casino on the internet and start making a living - right? Do gamblers make money? You may have heard of professional gamers, or professional gamblers. But what exactly is a “professional” gambler, and how do they earn money?

We posed these questions to our article writer, Jørgen Aasgen, who has considerable gaming experience in Norway.

Professional Gambling

Firstly, we need to distinguish between professional gamblers and semi-professional gamblers.

Semi-professional gamblers are hobbyists, so to speak, who merely play at online casinos to supplement their income. They still retain a regular 9-5 day job but spend their evenings or weekends placing bets and playing online casino games to earn a few extra Krone.

Professional casino gamers earn their entire income from gambling. All their household expenses, living costs, maintenance, travel - anything you can think of - gets paid from their gambling enterprise.  They essentially write their paycheck by placing bets at casinos. 

Becoming a professional gambler is, well, a gamble. There aren’t diploma or degree courses in professional gambling to get a formal education in this. You also won't search how to be a professional gambler on the internet and get a hard-and-fast guide to quit your job and start placing winning bets. Media en masse paints a romantic picture of professional gambling but the lifestyle isn’t as glamorous as you’d expect. 

What it takes to become a professional gambler

Professional gambling, when it becomes your job, becomes like any other job you’d have. It will irritate you at times, have stressful moments, and have moments where you’d want to take a break from it. The most significant difference is, your office is any location where reliable internet is to be found. Good news for Norwegians, as our internet coverage is some of the best in the world. You could be sitting in a cafe, having some coffee and reading a magazine - all while earning money from the bets you placed only moments earlier.  

Gone are days when professional gamblers spent their time in land-based casinos, playing cards, or other table games. Professional gamblers in the 21st century use their phone or laptop computer to earn their keep. Becoming a professional gambler will take grit and determination. And it comes with risk. Experienced gamblers know that any bet has the potential to bankrupt them instantly, whereby they’ll start from scratch again.

You’ll need a comprehensive view of the intricacies of gambling and the systems they use. You’ll need to be proficient in at least one, maybe two, games so your focus isn’t split between too many different things. You need to take losses on the chin, forget the loss, and work toward the next bet. You would need to risk the temptation to go “all in” and place sensible bets with your head, and not your heart. 

Every bet you place, and any wager you make on a sporting event, is a calculated risk that could be the difference between a big pay day, or having bread and water for supper until 2023. 

Conclusion

Judging from this, it’s apparent this is something that is reserved for seasoned veterans of gambling. You can’t decide to become a gambler with no knowledge of, or experience in gaming - land-based or online. It would be best if you progressed from playing games as a hobby to earning your entire salary from gaming online. A speculative undertaking that comes with risk and reward.   

And the burning question - do gamblers make money? Yes, otherwise, it wouldn’t exist as a career. Professional gamblers are very secretive, but estimates reckon that professional gamers earn roughly $40,000 - $100,000 per year in the USA.

Not a bad way to make a living, just choose your games wisely...