It was time to put my money where my mouth was. The system was running well, more or less. Roger was busy with his summer job and then his fall classes, and thus the program wasn't destined to improve in the foreseeable future. The longer we waited, the more likely it was that some external event – maybe a hardware problem, maybe Milford changing its WWW site – would put us out of business for good. My On the Wire account was stocked with $250. It was time to put the system to the test.

A Gambler's Diary

On July 29, 1998, Maven made its first six bets for $3 each. I bided my time until late that night when I could call in to see how I did.

I was a winner! I could stop now and forever be ahead. But I was a winner! And I wanted to keep on winning.

The first few days I kept the bet amounts small as we ironed out timing problems with the autodialer. Still, risking even $20 gave me some pause.

This gave me a sinking feeling. I'd lost my winnings, and more. Was there a bug with my program? Would I ever go ahead again?

The autodialer was clearly working. The program seemed to be making money.