- When casinos look at how a slot machine is performing, the most basic number they look at is the drop. That is the money deposited by the player in the machines. Another number you might hear is handle, which Ambrose defines as the total amount bet by a player.
- The best way to ensure that you go home a winner is to lock up your initial starting money along with a small profit. I suggest about ten percent of your win. You can then play with the remainder of your winnings. If you continue to win, add a percentage to your profits and keep playing.
Gambling is taking a risk of losing something of value on an unpredictable outcome. When you gamble at either an online or land based casino both you and the casino take a risk in losing something of value. The risk is greater for you because the casino only offers games that provide a statistical advantage to the casino.
However, much statutory and some case law has been devoted to ensuring that casinos and players don’t cheat each other by subtly altering the conditions of gambling games without each other’s knowledge and permission. You can, though, change the terms of the game. The casino often provides a way for you to do this.
But should you take the offer?
Also do not count on the same winning odds on free casino games as on real money gambling games, we have played at a Danish gaming site called CasinoSpil.me and it semed a lot more easy to win on the free games compare to real money games. There is only one winner when gambling online and thats the casinos.
There are two things you need to understand before you can start improving your chances of winning when you gamble. First, you can change the outcome of a gambling game. Second, you will almost always confuse yourself if you try to do the math. These two most common of gambling mistakes help the casinos earn tens of billions of dollars every year.
How You Change the Outcome in a Gambling Game
Many casino gambling games allow and even encourage players to change the stakes, the odds, and even the percentage chances of winning. Here are a few examples of how you can change the outcome of a gambling game (almost always for the worst).
Say you are playing a slot machine game and you win a prize on a spin. A special “Gamble” button lights up. You are now prompted to play a secondary game, maybe betting on the outcome of a virtual coin toss, using the prize you just won as the stake in your new bet. This is an exciting feature. It also means you are risking the loss of what you just won on a game with a better “edge” for the casino.
Most slot games have a theoretical return to player above 75%. Games developed after 2010 usually have better than a 90% theoretical return. The RTP is an estimate of how much money would be retained by a hypothetical player who spun the reels continually for a period of several years. It’s not a realistic estimate of how much money you will win, lose, or hold on to. It’s a statistical measurement used to gauge how friendly the game is to the gambler.
In a coin toss the theoretical return to player is 50% or 1 in 2. So let’s assume you just gambled $5 on a spin in the basic slot game and that you won $10. You have doubled your money. Now the “Gamble” light activates and you are invited to take your $10 and bet it on the outcome of a coin toss. And suppose the “Gamble” feature allows you to wager on the outcome of two concurrent coin tosses. Now you have a choice: bet on 1 coin toss for a chance to double your $10 to $20 or bet on 2 concurrent coin tosses for a chance to quadruple your money.
Your chances of winning the double concurrent coin toss are 25% or 1 in 4.
You would have a better chance to keep your $10 prize and just spin again on the basic game. By taking the “Gamble” challenge you improve the casino’s chances of winning your next bet. It’s like paying $5 for a quarter of pie at one restaurant and then paying another $10 for an eighth of a pie at a different restaurant. Are you really getting a better piece of pie at the second restaurant?
In the game of blackjack if the dealer offers you insurance most experts tell you not to take it. Why? Because you are betting that you will lose your basic wager. The chances of being correct (that the dealer has a blackjack) on your insurance bet are worse than the chances that you can beat the dealer’s hand (your original wager).
The bottom line here is that casinos will sometimes offer you ways to change your stakes and your chances of winning to their own benefit. If you want to win at gambling, don’t take the deal behind door number 2. Stick to your original game and be consistent. Let someone else win the goat.
How to Confuse Yourself at Any Gambling Game
There is a certain idea among gambling experts that comparing the “house edge” in various gambling games helps you to make informed choices. The edge is a theoretical return to the casino, the complementary percentage for the theoretical return to player. In other words, in every form of gambling, there is only a 100% allocation of money. Gambling does not generate new wealth; all gambling does is pool wealth between the bettors and redistribute that wealth between the bettors (and sometimes also a middle man).
In the 1-on-1 game of blackjack there are only 2 bettors in your game: you and the casino. The casino is willing to pay up to the full amount of your bet if you win. It’s an even money match up, and that is really what makes blackjack so profitable for a casino. They risk less per round than they do with, say, roulette or a slot game. But if you have been reading blackjack tutorials you should know by now that the house edge is lower in blackjack than in other games, and therefore you have the best chance of winning in blackjack.
In fact, the dealer has a better chance of coming out ahead because at a busy table the dealer is playing multiple hands at once by the most conservative of rules. In other words, the casino is taking less risk per round in blackjack than the players while at the same time multiplying its chances of winning.
Players make mistakes when playing blackjack. Blackjack dealers don’t have to make hard decisions. In fact, by always going last the dealer often doesn’t have to make any choices at all. The players make most of the decisions in blackjack. And yet blackjack remains profitable for the casinos. The casinos are profiting from player mistakes.
Players make several types of gambling mistakes. One of the most common mistakes is to confuse the probability of winning with the theoretical return to player. The probability of winning is limited to the next round of play. The theoretical return to player is an estimate of what all the players of a game will collectively receive over the life of a specific game (or an arbitrarily large number of rounds in the game).
The rule of thumb is that the more rounds played for a given game the more the actual results of that game will average out close to the theoretical return to player (or the house edge).
But what are the chances of your drawing a natural blackjack on the next deal? What are the chances that the dealer will not win against you on the next deal? These are probabilities that can be computed on the basis of how many cards are left in the shoe, less the cards that have already been played. Those probabilities change as more cards are played but they rarely if ever line up with the theoretical return to player.
The mistake players make is assuming that the house only has a 2.5% chance of winning the next round. The dealer’s chance of winning that next hand can be as high as 100% and as low as 0%. The house edge is always irrelevant with respect to any individual round played on any gambling game from keno to slots to blackjack to baccarat.
When you gamble, it’s nice to know how much money the house is expected to retain over the next 30 days but that won’t help you predict how much you win or lose in any of the next 10 rounds of play.
Expert gamblers like to calculate probabilities but probabilities do not predict the next round’s outcome. The roulette wheel always has a 1 in 37 or 1 in 38 chance of landing on any given number. The chance that the ball will land on number “7” 100 times in a row remains 1 in 37 or 1 in 38. That never changes (allowing for truly random spins, although the laws of physics mandate that the spins won’t be completely random).
On the other hand, what is the expected probability of a random spin of the roulette wheel producing “7” 100 times in a row? This is where you multiply your individual spin probability (1/3x) by itself the number of times in a row (100 in this case). The expected probability of the wheel hitting “7” 100 times in a row is 1.51296e-157 (a very, very small number). But that low probability has no bearing on the probability of the next spin.
This is the dichotomy of probability theory, where you are dealing with large sequences of independent events. The expected probability does not mean you cannot or will not see the unlikely outcome. In this hypothetical example, we are simply computing how many possible outcomes there are and assuming the chances of producing the same result 100 times in a row are equivalent to a certain percentage of those possible outcomes.
Unfortunately (even semi-) random events have a way of defying the probabilities. But if someone offers you 100-to-1 odds that a roulette wheel will land on “7” 100 times in a row, verify their ability to pay and take the wager. They lose as soon as a different result turns up before the 100TH spin.
The bottom line here is simple: don’t try to do the math like an expert. Random chance will always eventually prove the experts wrong.
What You Must Do to Improve Your Chances of Winning
Here are a few basic rules for improving your chances of winning when you gamble.
- Stop second-guessing yourself.
Every casino game offers you a fair chance of winning. The games, when played fairly and legally, pay prizes that correspond to the expected probabilities of given outcomes, although casinos will hold back a little bit extra in most games to ensure they make some money. Hence, in roulette, the most you can win is 36-to-1 instead of 37-to-1 or 38-to-1.
The odds are always stacked against you. But random chance favors the fool, as the old saying goes. You just cannot guarantee you are the fool upon whom random chance showers its favors.
- Take the least possible risk.
In a hypothetical game where you win 100 rounds out of 100 rounds, you will kick yourself if you only wager $5 on each round for the chance to win $5 instead of wagering $100 on each round for the chance to win $10,000 on each round.
In reality, positive thinking doesn’t work when you gamble. The more you assume you could win the more you are likely to lose when you do lose.
Risking less does mean you win less per round but that’s okay.
- Manage your money so that you play as many rounds as possible.
You are more likely to win back $100 in wagers if you divide them into twenty $5 wagers than if you divide them into five $20 wagers.
Instead of playing numbers games (which is second guessing yourself) or assuming you will win a certain number of times (which is taking more than the least possible risk) you should assume you are going to lose more rounds than you win. When you play slots or even a modest keno game (like a 5-pick) you can still come out ahead when you play more rounds with small wagers than fewer rounds with large wagers.
But how does playing conservatively work in blackjack, when the average prize is an even money bet? If you lose only 49% of the rounds in blackjack you lose. Okay, smart guy, you know you need to double down a few times. Instead of playing numbers games and assuming you can lose X number of hands and double down on Y hands, just accept that once in a while you’ll have to double down to improve your chances in blackjack.
When should you double down? The experts agree that if the dealer is showing a 5 or 6 and you have an ace and anything less than a 7.
You don’t need to double a lot as long as you can double enough to come out ahead.
- Don’t try to win big.
That’s the real fun in gambling, though, isn’t it? You want to win the jackpot, hit the long odds, and outwit the dealer at every hand.
Going for the big win is the worst possible way to gamble. You may not be playing all-or-nothing but you are playing too much.
Still, you can adjust the amount of your wagers upward if you are doing well. Just keep them proportionate to your bankroll.
- Use a consistent percentage ceiling in your wager to bankroll ratio.
Although it is prudent to limit your initial wagers to 5% of your original bankroll, at some point you may double or triple your money. Does it make sense to continue playing by the original 5% measure?
Most gamblers will feel confident enough to increase their wagers. But while it’s usually good advice to ignore all betting systems when you gamble (because each has its flaws), you can set a limit of “5% of your current bankroll down to half”, meaning you gamble with $5 bets until you lose half the money you came in with.
If you double your money then you can double your wagers as long as you don’t go above 5%.
Five percent is not a magic number. You can set the percentage at 1%, 5%, 15%, or even 20%. You should be consistent about not going above your percentage. You still have the flexibility of making larger wagers if you roll up your money.
- Divide Your Bankroll At Certain Split Points.
This technique works best in land-based casinos, especially when you can put your money into tickets that are easy to carry around. A split point is a multiple of your bankroll. Say you begin gambling with $200 and you roll that up to $400 at the craps table. Now take half your money and put $200 of it into a ticket.
You can continue playing craps with the remaining $200 or you can try another game. When you roll up your second $200 to $400 again you split the money into another ticket plus money to play with.
Ways To Win At Casinos
After you have 3 or 4 tickets you can rotate them. Never play a ticket all the way down. Leave at least a few dollars on it so you can leave the casino with some money (and a little dignity).
When you gamble online it makes some sense to shift money from the game balance back to your main account. As long as you have money in your game account you should be good. It helps you to stay focused on conservative betting if you take money out of the game when you get ahead of your original bankroll.
- Play with Casino Bonus Money Whenever Possible
Land-based casinos may not offer you signup bonuses but many online casinos do. Play conservatively with the casino bonus money to increase your chances of fulfilling your wagering requirement with just the bonus money. While that won’t always happen the longer you can delay putting your own money into the game the better the chances you’ll start winning.
You can try this strategy with the “no deposit” welcome bonuses some casinos offer but they do limit how much credit they extend to you. You have more bonus money to work with when you accept a deposit match bonus.
- Stick to the Basic Game.
Whether you play slots, craps, roulette, or blackjack the less complicated you make your game the less likely you’ll place dumb bets.
The casino is counting you to make dumb bets. You should count on the casino to be less than generous with its odds on the best most likely to pay off.
There are few progressive wagers that are worth the money. The more you throw into a round the harder it will be to recover from a loss.
In craps bet on Pass or Don’t Pass and play the odds but keep it simple.
In blackjack bide your time and don’t split every time you get a pair of cards of the same value. Should you really split two 5 cards when you’re showing 10 on the table? Should you split two tens? Two nines? You have three options: play the basic game, double down, or split. On some tables you may be able to surrender if you don’t like the dealer’s cards but look at the strength of your cards first and your options for splitting second.
- Assume the free games are more generous than the paid games.
When you have a chance to “try before you buy” at an online casino the free game just may be slightly more generous than the paid version. There are several reasons why this might happen. If you can check the theoretical return to player for a free game and the paid version, look for differences.
Does the free game run on a different server? The different server may be using a different random number generator, a different random seed number, or a different estimated percentage for the theoretical return to player. Variations in all these things can affect the randomness of the outcome of the game.
- Play low variance games.
Sad to say, but the less volatility there is in the prize to wager ratio of a game the more likely it will pay you prizes. Volatility is an important measure for a casino because it needs to know how much cash to keep on hand. But you need to know how long you may have to play a game before you win a nice prize. That is where the variance comes into play.
Think of variance as “how much any random outcome of a game varies from the average expected outcome”. There is a relationship between variance and volatility (in fact, some gambling writers use these terms interchangeably). The casino cares more about the volatility and the player cares more about the variance.
How do you judge variance? It comes down to how long you can play the game with your initial bankroll. A low variance game has a tendency to take less of your money.
Hence, as noted above, you can affect the variance of the game in a limited way by playing conservatively and ignoring the extra bets the house offers.
Conclusion
Think of gambling as an endurance race between the bettors. Whoever can go more rounds wins the most money, unless random chance steps in and hands a big win to the individual gambler. Then gambling is more about who has the most self-discipline. The casino is playing a numbers game and just has to be there with enough cash on hand to keep the games going. The player has to have the wisdom and the self-discipline to walk away with the cash.
Harvard Medical School published a trove of data about online gamblers that was collected from 2005 to 2007 by an online casino (Bwin). Researchers who studied the data concluded that about 11% of gamblers were likely to win and that winners were more likely to play less frequently. Subsequently, researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Connecticut compared that analysis to their own analysis of data from a Native American casino’s database. The second study found that about 13.5% of the land-based gamblers were winners.
The good news for most gamblers is that fewer than 5% of them contribute about 50% of the casino’s net revenue, and about 10% contribute 80% of the casino’s revenue, so most gamblers are not big losers. That means approximately 80% of gamblers share the burden of about 20% of the casino’s net revenue between themselves. Given that most people cannot lose enough money (for lack of wealth) to drop into the lower 10% (the Big Losers) changing how one gambles increases an individual’s chances of moving into the upper 10%.
Gamblers with little wealth to lose should still learn to make better choices. You cannot guarantee you will win but you can always cut your losses short or take fewer risks. Gambling is more fun when it is just entertainment. If your losses amount to no more than what you would spend on other types of entertainment such as concerts and travel, then have fun.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.What makes gambling fun?
Is it only winning or is it the sense of challenge?
Casino games are designed to take advantage of gamblers’ superstitions and misunderstandings of how probabilities work. The percentages that casinos take in from players may seem small but understand that in any gambling relationship the party with the percentage retention (the “house edge”) is the one who wins over time.
In other words, the longer you gamble the more likely you will lose your money.
But gambling is not based on a fixed outcome.
Even where they have an edge of 30-40%, casinos are taking a risk on every wager they cover. Sometimes they lose a lot of money.
And yet most casinos are profitable, which means the players are losing more money than the casinos.
That means your biggest challenge is to stay in the game long enough to become one of the 1 in 4 players who comes out ahead.
If that sounds like a paradox to you then you are correct. The Gambler’s Paradox is that the longer you play the game the more likely you will both win and lose.
How can that be so?
In an honest gambling game neither you nor the casino knows the outcome of the next wager. The chances the casino wins are better than the chances you win, but there is still a chance you can win. They cannot take that away from you, and that is what makes gambling so appealing and so risky.
If you’re going to gamble, the best way to enjoy the games you play and improve your chances of winning is to manage the risks you take. Here are 15 ways you can manage risk across a variety of games. There are no betting systems that ensure you will win. You just have to make shrewd choices about where, when, and how you risk losing your money.
1. Only Make Small Stakes Wagers
The number 1 mistake gamblers make is to increase their wagers above the minimum requirement for the maximum payout. Whether you are playing slot games or table games, you always lose money faster by playing for high stakes. If there is no improvement in your chances of winning the next round when you bet more money than the minimum, then you should not bet more money than the minimum.
In most cases, casino games pay the same odds regardless of how much you wager. There are some slot games that do offer better payback percentages and sometimes better odds if you increase your bets, but unless the game rules explicitly state this is the case, you should assume you have as much chance of winning or losing with a $5 bet as with a $50 bet.
And while it’s tempting to tell yourself you’ll win more money with higher stakes wagers, the truth is that on average you lose your money faster with higher stakes wagers. Casinos only limit the size of your bets for two reasons:
- They have to make sure they can cover any extraordinary player wins
- They want you to have a good time while you play so that you return repeatedly
The casino will retain a percentage of the money you wager but that percentage increases rapidly as you make higher stakes wagers.
2. Only Gamble with Bonus Money
With over 2,000 licensed and regulated online casinos to choose from, you can almost always find a casino offering a few dollars for free. You either go with a low balance “no deposit” bonus or you deposit some money for a matching bonus. Either way you have to meet a playthrough requirement before you can keep any money you win.
If you join only one casino a week you could play with 50 deposit bonuses a year, giving yourself a couple of weeks off without playing. Unless you are reckless and foolish, you should win some money during those 50 weeks. By playing conservatively with the minimum bets, you’ll extend the life expectancy of your welcome bonuses.
How does play through usually work?
You will be asked to gamble anywhere from 10 times to 50 times the amount of your welcome bonus or your deposit plus welcome bonus. You might be tempted to cut that requirement short by making larger wagers, but remember that you are less likely to come out ahead when you bet more than the minimum that the game requires.
Be patient and fulfill the gambling requirement with smaller wagers. Your chances of keeping some of the welcome bonus money are better, and your chances of winning some money are better.
3. Only Use Betting Systems that Conserve Your Money
The idea that you can “get back” money you have lost is the doom of many a gambler. The Gambler’s Fallacy is assuming that any streak of bad luck will be balanced by a streak of good luck. Too many betting systems assume that if you increase your bets by some percentage or multiple after each loss you increase your chances of winning back money you just lost.
In reality the less money you risk on each wager the more wagers you can make and the more likely you will recover some losses before your money runs out. There are no guarantees in life or gambling, but you do improve your chances of winning by playing more often and the least expensive way to play more often is to not throw your money away on big stakes wagers.
But everyone likes to make a big bet once in a while. There are ways you can enjoy taking a larger risk without losing all your money. Set some ground rules for yourself so you know when it is safe to make a higher stake wager.
For example, you could arbitrarily decide to double your wagers every four to six rounds of play. This is a random process that makes no promises about the future.
How To Win Money Gambling
Another way you can give yourself free rein to play higher stakes wagers is to decide on a percentage of your available money that you will play with on each wager. Say you choose to make 5% wagers. If you start with $200 your first wager will be $10. If you lose your $10 you continue to make $10 bets until the basic rules of rounding tell you that $5 is required to stay close to your 5% bet.
If you have a streak of good luck and start winning then sticking to the 5% rule allows you to increase your wagers without risking most of your money at any time.
There are other systems that allow you to gradually or randomly increase your bets while conserving most of your money.
4. Only Play Games with Reasonable Payback Percentages
Everyone will immediately tell you to play blackjack or baccarat and to stay away from roulette and slot machines. But the truth is that blackjack requires some skill. If you don’t know when to hit and when to stand, your chances of hanging on to your money are just as poor with blackjack as with many slot games. You can lose your money quickly at the games with the lowest house edge if you don’t know what you are doing.
The house edge is the percent of player wagers that the casino expects to keep over time. This is by no means a reliable predictor of how much you will win or lose. Regardless of what the game is, if you don’t know how to play it well then you should assume that the payback percentage for you is somewhere between 60% and 80%. That leaves you enough statistical room to do well on a random basis but nowhere near as well as a skilled player should do.
One advantage of a slot machine game over blackjack is that if the game declares the payback percentage is above 95%, you have a better chance of winning more money on the slots than at a game of skill where you don’t know the rules very well.
Play to your level of skill or else find a game that randomly pays better than others.
5. Play a Simplified Blackjack Strategy While You Learn the Game
Everyone asks for advice when they learn to play blackjack. But when it is your money on the table you will be more overwhelmed by watching other players as you try to understand the rules of the game.
Blackjack strategy is based on knowledge of the probabilities of how the cards can be played. The casinos require their dealers to play by the simplest strategy possible because they are counting on the players to make mistakes. Because the dealer only draws cards after the players the casino is more likely to win on a weak hand than the players.
So here are three simple rules that beginning blackjack players can use to stay in the game without having to worry about counting cards and knowing all the probabilities.
- Always split pairs of Aces, 6s, 7s, and 8s.
- After deciding whether to split, always hit on any hand of 12 or less.
- Always stand on any hand of 13 or higher.
Experienced players will weigh their chances based on the cards showing on the table, particularly the dealer’s cards. Beginning players are more likely to make mistakes if they try to do all the math in their heads, and it will be obvious to everyone else you don’t know much about the game if you sit there staring at the cards and trying to do calculations.
These rules are designed to prevent you from busting. All that does is keep you in the game until the dealer’s turn to draw cards comes around. At that point the dealer will either bust or end his hand with 17 to 21. You have 0% chance of beating the dealer if you go bust by drawing one card too many. Your best bet as a beginner is to force the dealer to draw cards, if you can.
6. Only Gamble when You Feel Fresh and Relaxed
Casinos will do everything they can to help you lose track of time and make poor decisions. They will fetch alcoholic drinks for you. They set up games to make a lot of noise so it sounds like people are winning all around you. They keep the light bright, the windows far removed from view, and don’t show you any clocks.
You should take a break every few minutes. Wear a watch so that you don’t lose track of time. Set alarms on your smartphone so that you stop gambling every 20-45 minutes. You need to fight that somnolent state of mind that keeps you drawing cards or spinning reels or laying down new bets on the table over and over again.
It’s okay to get up and walk around. If you play the slots don’t fall in love with one machine. Allowing yourself to believe you have to stay at any given machine is a poor decision. When you need a break it’s better to change games than to sit there and worry about how you’re going to keep other people from playing the machine.
7. Keep at Least Five $20 Bills in Your Wallet
When you have a good run at a casino you may accept high denomination bills from the cashier. Regardless of how much you win, always ask for the last $100 to be paid to you in $20 bills. Here is why:
When you walk away from the cashier’s window you’ll see some game you are tempted to play. You risk less by putting $20 into that game than by putting $50 or $100 into it. It’s just easier to live with a $20 loss than with a $100 loss, and you are more likely to want to get your money back if you lose $100 than if you lose $20.
Also, as you play different games around the casino it’s always a good idea to run up your winnings on several different tickets. Keeping 3 to 5 tickets in play assures that when you lose all the money on one ticket you can move on quickly without regret. If you don’t like filling out the tax forms then cashing in a ticket when it hits $800 to $900 is easy enough to do, and you still have other tickets to play with. Don’t just cash everything in at the same time.
8. Ask for a Check When You Win a Large Jackpot
Casinos may be willing to pay you by check if you win thousands of dollars (or more) on one of their games. Sure, they want you to keep playing so that they win some of that money back but you have the right to leave with all your winnings.
In a land based casino if you take most or all your prize money in check format then you cannot fritter it away. On the other hand, cashing a check from an online casino may be problematic.
Make it as hard on yourself to gamble away your winnings as possible.
9. Comparison Shop between Casinos
Whether you are playing at land based casinos or online casinos, draw up a list of their table minimums, special rules, theoretical returns to players, and more. Make an informed choice about where you gamble. In Las Vegas, for example, many card players prefer to play at off-strip casinos where the table minimums tend to be lower than at the main strip casinos.
You may not have to change venues to get the best betting limits. Some casinos lower their limits during off-peak hours.
10. Place Odds Bets in Craps
If you know enough to limit your table bets to Pass or Don’t Pass, go ahead and place bets on the Odds when they are available. The house has no edge on Odds bets and this reduces their advantage on the Pass and Don’t Pass bets.
11. Avoid Playing against Local Poker Players
If there are players at a poker table who know each other or the dealer you should pass on playing at that table. These could be yokels who lose their paychecks every week but experienced players often prefer to play with strangers. Local players may be regulars who are very good at poker compared to casual card players.
However if you like a challenge and want to learn poker from people who are better than you then getting to know the local players may be the best way to study the game. Just remember that they will take your money and may not be the best potential friends you can make.
And some of those local guys may work for the casino as well. They keep the tables more full and the games more interesting but they are not playing with their own money. Their interest in the game will be different from yours.
12. Play in Tournaments with a Fixed Buy-in
You can still win prizes when you don’t gamble your own money. Paying a flat fee to participate in a slot, blackjack, or poker tournament gives you a way to manage your money. If you only play tournaments you can literally plan your gambling budget by the calendar.
Some tournaments may require you to gamble with your own money. Avoid these tournaments.
13. If You Play Keno Then Do It This Way
In every form of gambling the greater the potential payoff the more people who have to lose in order to cover that payoff. Among lottery games keno is the most well-known and also the most put down. All the experts tell you not to play keno because the chances of winning are so bad. And yet people still play keno. If you’re determined to play the game then you should understand a few things.
First: Although it has been said that playing keno is a low budget form of gambling that is not entirely true. While each ticket may be relatively inexpensive you can still buy as many tickets as you wish and some keno players may lay down $20 to $50 on the game for every drawing. To keep this a truly low budget form of gambling you must limit how many tickets you buy per drawing.
Second: Your best chance of winning on any drawing is to play the smallest picks possible. Some variations of the game require you play at least a Pick 2 (two numbers). The more numbers you pick the worse the probabilities get.
Third: The best spread on potential return is on the Pick 4. The combined potential return for Pick 4 is rated at 74%. That means you have enough ways to win combined with enough pays to nearly match the return for a Pick 1 (which is rated at 75%). The next three best picks in order of preference are Pick 3 and Pick 2 (both rated at 72%) and Pick 5 (rated at 71.6%).
Fourth: No matter how many numbers you pick in keno, the highest probability always falls on a combination that pays you nothing.
Fifth: The theoretical return to player on most slot machine games is better than on keno. And yet the probability of winning the highest combination in keno improves over slot machine games as you pick fewer numbers in keno versus playing more reels in slots. The probabilities in keno are more predictable as well because you know all the numbers used in keno whereas you don’t know how many slots are assigned to each reel or how the symbols are allocated across the reels.
The key takeaway here is to keep your expectations low by gambling on fewer numbers in keno. If your casino doesn’t allow you to play the Pick 1 option then go for Pick 4 and don’t buy more than a few tickets per drawing. The less money you spend on keno the longer it will take you to lose your money.
14. Never Play a Progressive Game with Your Beginning Stake
If you have to bet extra money to win a progressive jackpot pass on playing for the jackpot. If you are eligible for a progressive jackpot without betting extra money and you enjoy the game go ahead and play it but remember that the money for the jackpot comes from the players not the casino.
The rule of thumb with progressive jackpots is to assume that they lower the theoretical return to player by a small percentage. It is better to ignore the progressive option on table games and to play slot games that don’t offer progressives.
Although it’s great to win a progressive jackpot if you’re going to take on this increased risk then wait until you are ahead, set back at least the amount of money you started gambling with, and only gamble with “won” money when you play progressive games.
Always remember you lose your money faster by betting on progressive jackpots.
15. Treat Gambling as Part of Your Entertainment Experience
How much entertainment can you get for $200? If the casino offers perks such as discounts or rebates toward meals and shows, or even free drinks, food, and shows, then count those perks against the losses you incur as you play your favorite casino games. The evening’s experience should be fun and you should definitely seek the most bang for your buck.
While some gambling advice articles say you should ask for comps from casinos, remember that casinos use comps to keep players playing. They may comp you if you lose money and they may comp you if you win money; either way the purpose of the comp is to keep you spending money in the casino. Don’t play for comps, play for fun.
The membership rewards you earn by playing are not the kinds of comps you read about. If the casino offers you a free room in their hotel you should take that as a sign that they see potential profit in the exchange.
Conclusion
Much of what makes gambling fun is based on psychology. The casino uses bright lights, loud noises, and colorful displays to keep you mentally engaged in the games and the overall experience. Online casinos have fewer advantages in this area compared to land based casinos but the online casinos are always looking for ways to keep players engaged.
How To Win In Casinos
Casinos don’t mind if you win at their games. They know that over time more people will lose than win and yet big winners are great advertising for a casino. You don’t have to treat every casino as the enemy, although you should always evaluate casinos on how greedy they are. Among both land based and online casinos you will always be able to find some who configure the percentages in their favor well above industry averages. Learn to make good choices about where and when you gamble.
Always remember that the prizes you win are being paid by other players. All you have to do is focus on paying fewer prizes to other players. Whether than means gambling less often, betting less per wager, or only playing a small number of games where you can expect to do well it all really comes down to how well you manage your expectations and your money.