LSF Publications: spanking fiction ebooks

Gambling is a bad habit. More than a bad habit. More like a vice. He got that now. It shouldn't have had to come to this, his reddened ass hanging out for anyone to see, for him to get it through his head. Or maybe it did have to come to this for him to see the light.

---oOo---
Steve always thought he was pretty good at picking the winners of football games. He had played a little ball in high school, though if truth be told, as the third string wide receiver on a team which ran the ball 80% of the time, he didn't really play in high school - mostly, he sat on the bench and watched others play. It wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that the only difference between him and someone watching in the stands was that he had a better seat.

Still though, he was on the team, so he felt he knew more about football than the average fan. His first foray into gambling was also in high school. One of his classmates was running those football betting sheets which were popular in the 1970s and 1980s. All the college and pro games were listed, along with the point spread on each game. All Steve had to do was to pick the winners of at least 4 games against the point spread without any losses. The minimum bet was $10.00 for the sheet, and the odds were 4 to 1, so if he won all 4 games, he made $40.00. Not bad for a HS student back in those days.

He played those sheets and won three weeks in a row, making $120.00. From that point on, he always thought his betting acumen was, in his own words, "better than most" ... pun definitely intended.

He played through the years, mostly when he was still single. He usually bet pro football games, though occasionally he would foray into the World Series, or the odd college basketball game during March Madness. He lost more than he won, but not by too much; by his own estimate, most of his losses were not because he chose badly, but because of some uncommon event in the game. "If only he hadn't fumbled on that drive," he complained. "We would have won if he hadn't thrown that last minute interception. If he hadn't gotten hurt on the second play of the game, I know we would have won that game," he lamented. Typical of most gamblers, the fault was never his; it was some unseen force which turned the hand of fate against him.

Once Steve got married to Jennifer, his gambling habit fell by the wayside. Money was an issue, as it is with many newlyweds - plus Jennifer knew he gambled, and made it clear she didn't like it. So for the most part he stopped gambling, though he occasionally managed to get in on part of the action when a friend would bet on a game.