The best thing about online sportsbooks for me (aside from the fact that when I discovered them I was pretty much paralyzed from the waist down, and longing for the sweet oblivion that awaits us all at the end) was how convenient they are.

I mean, even if I had been physically able to rise and walk under my own power, it would have been pretty inconvenient to place a bet at one of those ‘land-based’ sportsbooks. For one thing, they didn’t have any in my state; I would have had to go to Las Vegas. Instead of being able to put down a few bucks on the Redskins when I wanted, I would have had to blow a huge wad of cash on a trip, a hotel, parking, food, tipping, and probably one or two drinks as well…and then had to cram all of my sports betting into the few days that I was there.

Plus, I doubt that they’d even have anywhere near all of the games and teams and bets that an online sportsbook has (not to mention the online slots for when no matches were being held). They’d certainly have worse odds (when you’re the only game in town, you pretty much call all the shots).

I won’t pretend that I won all the time. I didn’t even win most of the time. But I was smart about what I bet, how much and how often, and I studied the statistics…and little by little, I went from spending money to making money from my bets. I didn’t become a millionaire, by any means, but I made a nice stack of pocket money…and I did rediscover a little bit of interest in life that I’d lacked during my first few weeks of recovery.

There was just one problem: getting that money. Yep, I quickly found that I’d made the classic beginner’s blunder of choosing one of the less-desirable online casino USA sportsbooks that didn’t really want to let go of money. But I’ll cover that part of the story on another page (just trust me, there’s a happy ending).