A few weeks ago I saw a post on bitcointalk which was asking people how many coins they had lost over time and I found someone who mentioned they had lost most of their coins to gambling. I have always found the mind of a gambler interesting and messaged this person to see if they were willing to do an interview with me over skype about their experience losing the majority of their holdings to gambling and being an early adopter. They said they were okay with it as long as I did not reveal their identity because of the nature of what they are talking about. I am splitting the profits here 50/50 with the individual.
How old are You ?
I just turned 26.
When and how did you Discover bitcoin?
I discovered bitcoin around early 2012 while I was in my junior year of college, from a friend who only used bitcoin to buy drugs on the Silk Road marketplace. My friend was his frats weed dealer and bought some different stuff to sell. We had been roommates and friends since freshman year so he would always show me the stuff he was buying. I didn’t actually buy any bitcoin until I saw the price was going up and he was telling me I should invest.
What was the first price you purchased bitcoin at?
Pretty sure I purchased it at around $3-$4, I think I bought 300 coins. I remember going to a cvs or Walmart and sending a sketchy wire transfer to somebody to get my coins. I was surprised I didn’t get scammed at that point. I just found someone on a forum that was willing to sell the coins for a wire transfer. I didn’t even use an exchange. My friend had used this person in the past with similar amounts so I figured I was fine.
How many coins did you have at your peak?
I think when bitcoin finally passed $100 I was sitting at around 500ish coins. I worked part time for my university library so I kept buying more as the price continued to rise. When the coins hit $100 I sold off around 200 of them and bought a new Honda Civic because I was going to graduate college and needed some spending cash.
When did you start gambling?
I think the first time I actually started gambling was when the price started to go down after the bubble up to $100. I was getting bored with waiting for the price to go up and thought that I could earn back some of value. Originally I did really well, maybe I was able to earn 50-75 coins, which for me felt like winning the lottery, but that didn’t last.
How many times were you gambling a day?
Im not sure how many times per day I gambled , but I can tell you it was multiple hours a day. I would wake up, flip open my laptop and satoshidice would be the first site I would go to in the morning and the last one I would go to at night.
What do you think was the allure for gambling as much as you did?
I was always trying to get that next big hit. In the beginning I made money and did well but over time I started to risk more and more to cover my losses, which ended up destroying my holdings. I would see people hitting huge jackpots and think maybe the next winner will be me.
When did you realize you had a problem?
There was never an Aha moment for me with gambling. I never actually hit rock bottom until I had lost almost all of my coins. I never really gave up gambling completely, even now I still gamble occasionally. At that point in 2013 I was unemployed and looking for a job so in between waiting for interviews I would just go on satoshidice for fun when I was bored. If I had been more productive I probably wouldn’t have lost as much as I did.
How much did you lose in total?
I think I started with 300 when I started, was able to get up to 375 within the first month, but in the 3 ish months I went down to about 100 coins, at this point I stopped playing on gambling sites and started speculating on altcoins.
Can you talk more about the altcoin speculation?
2013 was a great time altcoin speculation, with new coins coming out everyday, I could put 4-5 bitcoin into them and sometimes make 5 times that amount. It was very hit or miss though , sometimes I would make 5x and sometimes I would lose the majority of my money. I learned what to look for though and was able to make an okay return in the long run. I probably ended up with around 50 coins from that.
What happened to the rest of your coins?
When the price started rising again I was able to sell 50 more coins at around $300 and planned on holding the rest of the 50 coins I had left. Unfortunately I was holding about 15-20 of them on mtgox for if I needed quick cash, which ultimately I lost. I didn’t think that mtgox was going to come back so I sold them on bitcoinbuilder. In total I had about 35 coins when all was said and done.
How much do you have today?
I have spent some of my coins over the years now and have roughly 21 now. It’s far from what I had at my peak, but it’s still better than what many other people have and I don’t plan on touching them. I never want to go below 1 in a million. I have them on a paper wallet and they are just going to sit there.
Do you regret the decisions you made?
I mean if I could go back and not lose any of the coins I had, I would probably do it, but I definitely did learn a lot, granted it was a very expensive lesson. I try not to think about it honestly because it would drive me insane.. Im more embarrassed than anything though, which is part of the reason I don’t want to be identified by my username. People look at you like an idiot and to be honest sometimes I feel like one when I think about it.
Ive definitely matured since that time and Im still young so I have time to make more money
What do you think was the biggest lesson you learned from your experience?
That taking calculated risks is ok , but not to take risks where the house has the edge. Most of my money was lost playing on a platform that was made so I lost in the long run. When I was speculating on altcoins and knew what I was looking for, I actually made money so in the future when im trying to make money I am definitely going to be smarter.
Do you have any other advice or anything else you want to say to people?
Don’t store your money on exchanges or else you’ll eventually get fucked. It might not be today or tomorrow but anything you have on an exchange is risky. I learned that mistake the hard way. Also the house always wins.
Id like to thank this person for doing the interview and hope that you guys enjoyed something different from me.
-Calaber24p
Photo Citations
(http://www.ronedmondson.com/2016/04/7-leadership-lessons-from-the-gambler.html)
(http://www.coinwrite.org/my-experience-with-bitcoin-gambling/)
(http://www.catholic.org)