Crazy experiment in trying to earn more income

Now that I have my own house, I have a little less each month to spend/save so I have been investigating ways to earn money in my free time, preferably at home and substantial (at least minimum wage equalivant). So far, I haven’t been able to find anything that generated enough money for time spent. Examples of these include Mystery Shopping and earning tiny amounts for writing reviews/filling surveys.

I did contemplate about writing games or applications for XNA and the iPhone but my current work contract doesn’t allow it and there is an upfront fee to become a developer for either of these two platforms for something that isn’t guaranteed to generate a profit. However, with some negotiating on the part of the contract and making sure I have a viable idea to develop, market and sell before putting any money down, this path may still be an option in the future.

This left me with the idea that I am currently trying and been thinking about for several years now however, the reason why I consider it ‘crazy’ is because it involves gambling and we all know how this could end up once you are on this path.

The base theory is simple and sound but assumes you have a bottomless pocket and a no limit roulette table. Essentially, you place your initial stake on an even money bet (i.e double or nothing bet with ~50% chances of winning) and keep doubling the stake every time you lose until you win and then revert to your initial stake. Everytime you win, the amount won will always be the initial stake.

This method is mathematically sound as the chances of losing X times in a row decreases dramatically, going from 50% from the first bet to less then 1% on the seventh. However, 1% is still not 0% hence why a bottomless pocket and a no limit table is assumed as an initial £5 bet becomes £320 after losing £315 on the seventh and it keeps doubling after each loss.

As to why I haven’t tried this before is due to:

• Casinos usually have a minimum bet of £5 or £10 on even money bets at roulette tables.
• I don’t have a substantial amount of money to risk losing to test a theory.
• The betting time between spins is too long to continuously bet in such a methodical manner.
• Normally you go with friends to a Casino as a night out and this isn’t exactly an ‘exciting’ way to bet.

This situation changed due to three things:

1. Online gambling places are now offering bonus chips (with T&C) when you signup and deposit money into the account thereby giving more money for free to try this theory.
2. I have since joined the cashback site QuidCo which has cashbacks for various online services including gambling sites (with T&C).
3. Online betting times between spins is not fixed and is up to the user when the spinning starts.

With this in mind, I essentially had a no risk situation as if this does go wrong, the worse case scenario ends with me breaking even. Additionally, the gambling site I picked had free play tables where no money is involved to further try this method and really low minimum stake of 10p on even money bets.

I started this experiment 4 days ago and have spent ~5 hrs of time over those days with the initial stake of 25p, I am now £175 up excluding the cashback from QuidCo (which is £70). That works out to £35 an hour which is a decent conversion rate of money earned against time spent. What I have found so far is:

• It is incredibly boring to the point where it feels like gold farming. I can do it while watching/listening to the TV but not when I want to concentrate on what is on.
• Losing more then 5 times in row can be a little nerve wrecking and a few times I had to cut my losses and start from the initial stake again.
• Knowing when to stop. The temptation to get more ‘free money’ is always there so a lot of self control is needed to know when to stop and call it a day.

Despite the fact that I am in profit, it is still gambling and I have now set some iron clad rules to make sure this doesn’t become an addiction or out of control:

• Transactions from my gambling site account will always be one way (i.e out). I will never deposit any money into this account.
• When the account hits £0, I will close/delete the account to remove any temptation to gamble further.
• When the account hits £75 or more, money will be transferred out of the account to the balance of £50.

I am interested to see how long this will last for and if it lasts till the end of the month, it will be a surprise. In the meantime, I am still investigating other methods to increase my income which are more sustainable and consistent without the financial risk. If anyone has any ideas, I am more then happy to hear them.

Disclaimer: I do not endose or encourage gambling in any form. If you think you have a gambling problem or wish to find more information on gambling then please go to the Gamble Aware website.