I’ve just graduated and I’ve already paid off my student loan by gambling

James has just finished his sixth year in higher education, having gained a Master’s in Chemical Engineering at Swansea.

He has no debt.

“How?”, I hear you ask. James has made thousands of pounds placing multiple bets across multiple betting companies over the last two years.

He started spread-betting a couple of years ago at uni: “I was broke and running out of money, like many students do. I tried to find a part-time job but couldn’t seem to find any.

“I looked online for ways to make money online and came across a site called Profit Squad. Basically I signed up for a free trial, watched the videos and got an understanding of it.”

James says it’s enabled him to support himself through university, without getting a job.

With his earnings, when he was still a student James bought “a nice Astra Sport, which cost me about £4,000”.

Another notable purchase was his jet ski: “When I first started up, because I was making quite a lot of money I ended up buying myself a jet ski and all the gear that goes with that. It’s based at my parents house in Pembrokeshire, west Wales.”

His first bet was with Coral, he tells me, but he doesn’t remember the actual bet, “it was such a long time ago” .

He explained how the system works: “There are hundreds of betting companies out there, and they all want your business, so they offer you deals and bonuses and sign up offers every day. It’s basically a way of taking advantage of them and taking money from them basically. With no risk, literally. For example if a company has a £50 deal, you could take £40 of that as profit.”

He has just completed his MA, having graduated last month, freeing up time to place bets. “At the moment I am doing it pretty much full-time, at least four or five hours a day. I’m earning £3,000 a month, and it’s tax-free of course.

James lives with his girlfriend in Cardiff. He’s now going to take spread-betting more seriously, and use this to make a living: “As of last month I now consider this my job, whereas it was a hobby at uni. My girlfriend works nine to five, so I can do the same hours she’s working and enjoy the evenings.

“I’ve gone on some nice holidays, but most importantly I’ve been able to support myself and I haven’t had to work a proper job alongside uni.

“I can now take six to eight months off before I do my PhD and I’m not worried. I’m making more than I could in any part-time job.”

Because of his newfound income, James is now going to take most of the year off until he starts his PhD in September. “My MSc course isn’t covered by a student loan, so I’ve been using this to pay off all my fees and also support my lifestyle.

“The original plan was to get a job, but I’d always wanted to do a PhD and now I can because of this. I can keep doing this alongside my PhD.”

The site James uses, called Profit Squad, is a self-teaching betting community: “There’s a series of videos and a forum and step-by-step guide of what to do – they find the bets for you. Every day they have a calendar which shows you how much money can be made if you follow their instructions.

“They also teach you how to do stuff like dutch horse races – where you bet at different bookmakers on different odds. You put values into a calculator and it will tell you how much you can win.”

At this point I tell him online money-making schemes often come across as scams, with testimonials like his, falsely claiming to make “THOUSANDS”. He says, “that is exactly why there is not many people currently doing this.

“The only thing that stops people from doing this is the stigma and fear attached to betting and gambling, and lack of knowledge of how easy it is to do without any risks.

“They think if it sounds too good to be true, then it’s probably a scam, but this seems to be one of the only exceptions to that rule.”

He says it’s not difficult either: “The maths is behind the theory, you know exactly how much money you will make before placing any bet.”

Do you need to be loaded to start with? “Not at all. I’d recommend you put aside about £50, but within a few days, that will grow to a few hundred, and within a month you’ll have easily made your first £1000 of profit. Then suddenly you have a huge bank to play with, and the profits will snowball.

“There is literally no risk involved and there is no reason why anyone sitting at home right now couldn’t jump on their laptop, learn the basics, and be £1,000 richer in a month’s time.”