I’m a 47-year-old gambler’s wife. With my husband and my youngest son I live in Aschaffenburg.

About 4 years ago a Tipico betting office opened in my neighbourhood. My adult son and I went in for the first time out of pure curiosity.

We had just as little knowledge of football as of sports betting itself. We only knew that the club with the lower odds was the favourite. My son combined several bets where the odds were very far apart. He lost. I didn’t take the matter seriously at all. For fun, I bet on clubs that had names that sounded particularly nice to me. With a stake of 5 Euro I won 178 Euro.

After this first experience I dealt seriously and intensively with the clubs of the Bundesliga. On Fridays I got with him betting office the program for the weekend and selected at home my games.

Women are a rarity in betting offices. Nevertheless, after initially sceptical looks of the male players, I was always treated very friendly and taken seriously. I often received useful advice from long-time players.

Every week I bet a maximum of 20 Euro on sports bets. I could at least double these amounts regularly. Depending on the number of correct tips, I also won up to 250 Euros.

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I didn’t always listen to the other players’ advice anymore. In a Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and Dortmund all other players bet on Bayern. I was the only one at the betting office who bet on Dortmund. Dortmund won 1:0 in Munich. Since I had correctly predicted two more games, I won 240 Euro with 20 Euro bet this Saturday. When picking up my win, the owner of the betting office took my betting slip, showed it to the other players and said: “To bet like that, you have to have eggs in your trousers. From the point of view of a woman this sentence is quite remarkable.

Players also have the option of betting online. To do this, you receive a card at the betting office, which is loaded with a self-chosen amount of cash. The minimum stake per bet or combination bet is one euro.

I loaded my card the first time with 50 Euro. I have placed many combination bets with one Euro. Since the chances of winning fall with every further bet – all games must be correct with combination bets – the success failed. I could register a few profits, but over the map I gambled the money again immediately. To compensate my loss, I loaded the card a second time with 50 euros. I also gambled away this money.

Playing online is no longer an option for me. I came to this decision not only because of the money I had gambled, but also because I had never seen a player at the betting office who had received money from his card. Many of them, on the other hand, made deposits.

I have noticed that greed is a bad advisor. It makes more sense not to wait for a big win but to play according to the motto “small cattle makes crap too”. This works for me most simply with my betting office method.

As a player you have to be aware that there are no “safe” games and therefore no profit guarantee. Using money that doesn’t belong to you, or that you need elsewhere, can mean the safe way into the debt trap. Debt traps or gambling addictions endanger livelihoods and have nothing to do with the fun of betting.

Experience report written by Maria, 47 years, from Aschaffenburg.