George Chunias

In the last month of my semester abroad in college, I was down to the final $150 in my bank account (not gambling related I just got takeout a lot). I needed money badly, and I couldn't work since I wasn't a citizen of the country. So, I did the responsible thing and decided to try sports betting for the first time. After a few losses courtesy of the Maui Invitational, I was down to $50. On my last night abroad, I put that $50 on a two team college hoops parlay. The first leg hit easily. The second leg was Loyola Chicago against UIC. Seeing Loyola down 3 with a second left, I assumed I'd lost and closed the ESPN app in disgust. The next morning I went to close my betting account and saw there was $300 in there. Unbeknownst to me, Loyola had hit a 3 at the buzzer to tie it and won the game in OT. At the Dublin airport, I threw $200 of my winnings onto a 6-team NFL parlay. When I arrived home, I asked my brother for the scores. All 6 picks hit and I made $700. A month of successful betting (and an on-campus job) later, I cashed out for $2000 and was able to make it through the rest of my junior year without going on a forced hunger strike.