Greek Gambling Legacy

A story about how Haralabos Voulgaris was introduced to gambling through his father and early experiences at the racetrack.

"I grew up around gambling. My dad was what I'd call an unsuccessful gambler - some might refer to it as degenerate. He gambled a lot unsuccessfully and it caused problems in our family.

I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada at the Assiniboia Downs racetrack. Every Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday during my teenage years, from ages 12 to 18, I was there. It was interesting to me, though I didn't realize when I was younger how nearly impossible it was to beat the horses because of the high takeout - 30 to 36%.

My dad was a first-generation immigrant. He moved to Canada when he was 20, didn't speak English, started as a dishwasher at Kentucky Fried Chicken. He worked his way up from dishwasher to restaurants, and finally got involved in real estate development with strip malls all over Winnipeg.

If it was daylight hours and he had money in his pocket, he was gambling. What struck me was how emotional everyone was - they'd be upset when they win, upset when they lose, always arguing with each other. Being from a Greek family, I saw this a lot, but I was very low-key, very different from them."