Swain Scheps - Casino Gambling For Dummies

Take advantage of tools at your disposal to limit your play. Most banks set a limit on the amount you can withdraw from your debit or credit card at an ATM in a 24-hour period. Once you determine your trip budget, call your bank and set the daily limits to match your maximum spend. Some online gambling sites also offer dollar and time-limit tools that help players who need a little extra support for their willpower.

If you lose your daily gambling limit early in the day, do something else. The free activities in and around casino towns can be pretty entertaining. If you’re in a megaresort in Nevada or Atlantic City, take in the mountain air or the boardwalk (respectively, of course). If you’re in a big city casino in Chicago or Boston, go explore the sites around town. If you’re in a smaller establishment, there might be a swimming pool, workout room, or a quiet lounge. One certainty about casinos: the people-watching is second-to-none. A big mistake many people make is getting so engrossed in gambling that they miss out on all the other attractions.

After splitting your bankroll into daily increments, the next step to budget your gambling is bet sizing — breaking down your budgeted bankroll into the amount you allocate for each bet.

A general rule (for most table games) is to have a bankroll with at least 40 times the maximum bet you plan to make. So, if you decide to ration your trip bankroll into daily allotments of $400, your betting units are $10 per hand. Proper proportional betting reduces your risk of tapping out (going home flat broke).

Minimum bets at table games depend not only on the kind of establishment you’re visiting but also on the time of day and day of the week. If you’re at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas on a busy weekend night, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything less than a $25 table. But on a Wednesday morning, those same tables might drop down to $10 or $15 per bet. Off-the-main-path casinos might have $5 tables at all times. There’s nothing worse than showing up at a casino and finding out you’ve only budgeted enough for eight or ten hands of your favorite game because the table minimums are higher than you planned on. Do yourself a favor and research ahead of time to find out what bet sizing will look like when you’re there. Either call the establishment or look online at travel forums like tripadvisor.com .

Unless you’re a professional card counter or an expert sports handicapper, you don’t benefit from changing the amount of your bets. The simplest and safest strategy in most casino games is to bet the same amount each time. That doesn’t mean you have to bet the table minimum every time; it just means you should stick to a bet size that’s right for your budget and fits the table betting range. For slots and video poker, that may mean playing the max number of coins or credits each time if you are playing a progressive machine (see Chapters 12and 13).

Most players change the amount they bet on each play — typically increasing the bet size — because of two circumstances:

They’ve been losing, so now they’re desperately attempting to regain that money. Consequently, they steam, or increase the size of their bets.

They’ve been riding a hot streak and are playing on house money (funds they’ve won from the casino).

Although games do run in streaks, you can’t know when those streaks begin or end. After you have the money, it’s yours. How you obtained it doesn’t matter, but you still need to be judicious about how you spend or bet the money.

In addition to establishing a budget and portioning it out on a daily — and bet-size — basis, you can employ some simple strategies that help you stay within the framework of your budget. This section contains a few time-honored methods of limiting your losses.

You may be familiar with stop-loss limits from the stock market. Stop-loss limits are predetermined rules you set up on your brokerage account to automatically sell your shares if a minor downturn in the market turns into a nosedive.

You can apply the same rationale to gambling. Decide in advance how much you’re willing to risk per trip and per day. (See the section “ Determining your daily limits.”) When you lose your preset amount, stop, head for the door, and spend the rest of the day golfing or sightseeing.

Big comebacks — erasing your gambling debt by winning big — are the stuff of legends. And that’s where those stories belong. You’re not gambling in the casino to make a living or pay off your bills. Treat gambling like a vacation, and leave the dreams of making a fortune in the casino for Hollywood movies. (Check out “ Resisting the urge to chase losses” in this chapter for more about how this strategy can get you in trouble.)

Another good restraint is to set limits on how long you play each day. Marathon sessions at the tables usually spell disaster. The longer you play, the more likely you are to lose your focus and perspective.

Don’t play for more than two hours at a time without mixing in a meal, a shower, or a nice long break. And don’t play for more than four to six total hours a day. Casinos are tough enough to beat anyway, but when you’re mentally foggy or hungry, you add an extra burden to the job.

Figure out how to take breaks because they can help you clear your head and protect your bankroll. Stopping for lunch or dinner may seem obvious, but the number of players who totally forget to eat when they’re gambling is amazing. Reasons to take breaks abound. Here are just a few:

Visiting the bathroom: Drink plenty of water, so you have to take frequent trips to the powder room. Those short walks stretch both your legs and your bankroll.

Scoring in the sports book: Place a few minimum-bet sports wagers over in the sports book. (See Chapter 15for more about this intriguing part of the casino.) When it’s time to take a break from the tables, you can find a spot and watch the games you have a financial interest in.

Exercising: Even if it’s just a brisk walk around the casino floor, do something to get your circulation going. Even better is a real workout at the hotel gym.

Calling your loved ones: Sure, you’ve sent texts. You might have even posted some photos to your favorite social media app. But dialing the digits of a significant other, friend, or family member from time to time is a perfect way to take a break from the hurly-burly of a casino floor. A check-in call before all your chips are lost and won can also get you back in touch with the real world and remind you of why it’s important to stick to your budget. You can easily lose touch with reality while gambling, and a quick phone call can remind you of what’s important in life.