For me it was 5-6 years ago where as a newbie i flipped $50 into $16,000 over the course of a week parlaying the start of the NBA season... a string of 7-8 game parlays that i got right. I thought i was a fukking genius.
Of course, my luck ran out and i lost it all 3 days later .
I just remember being alarmed at how i fell into that rabbit hole. Part of it was that as a 6 figga breh, the idea of cashing out at "just" 1k or 5k didn't really move the needle for me.. not even 16k, which would be before taxes. That's definitely how the "house" gets you everytime. The thrill of being just one more bet away...
To my credit at least, i never spend big bucks of my own pay check. I know it's too volatile for that and I actually give myself a budget per year that i'm pretty strict too. The "play" money is where temptation definitely hits me tho.