One of the major problems in the early portion of the game is that you don’t have much money. That means you won’t really be able to purchase new weapons, or anything that affects your appearance. There are a few methods, though, in which you can get rich quick very early in the game. One involves gambling, and the other will involve finding the right NPCs. Note that to get a small nest egg, before trying the other methods, you can do the Taxi side mission. Remember that the longer you do the Taxi side mission, the more money you will earn, although it will become more challenging, too. You can also do the Roboi’s Food Mart asset mission, which is available from the beginning of the game and can reward you with a nice sum of cash (as well as help boost your Cycling Skill).

Inside Track Betting¶

One of the buildings you can enter straight from the beginning of the game is the Inside Track Betting building. This is located in Downtown Los Santos, directly south of the Mulholland Intersection, underneath the bridge. This is northwest of Glen Park, to give a better perspective. As you may have guessed, the Inside Track Betting allows you to gamble on horse races, via one of two little kiosks inside of the building. It should be noted that to make the big bucks from this method, you might have to reload a save, so make sure you save before doing it.

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(1 of 3) The location of the Inside Track Betting place

So, what do you do to get a lot of money with this method? Well, you take the horse with the worst bet (ex. 12-to-1 odds) and bet as much money as you can on it. Let the race take its course and if you win, then you will gain a lot of money. If you don’t win, then you simply reload the game to try again. Yes, it’s not the most glamorous way of gaining a lot of money, especially if you don’t have any close safehouses, as you will need to drive all the way back to the building after loading up the game again. However, should you bet something like $10,000 (the max) and win, then you will be swimming in money.

Drug Dealers¶

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(1 of 2) Drug Dealers are pretty easy to spot, as they typically stand a certain way

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Drug Dealers are pretty easy to spot, as they typically stand a certain way (left), Killing them will always yield a good bit of money in the early game (right)

The other method of gaining a decent chunk of money in the early game is by hunting down drug dealers and killing them. The reason this is nice is because the drug dealers have a good amount of cash on them, upwards of $2,000. It should be noted that there are three models that the game uses for the drug dealers. The two most notable ones are an African-American guy with a mesh shirt, black hat and gold chain around his neck, as well as a white guy in a grey hoody (should say Rockstar on it). They may be a little sparse in the beginning portion of the game, but should spawn with more frequency once you reach the end parts of the Los Santos missions (like Doberman).