Tips for Gamblers
1. Learn how to quit winners. It does you absolutely no good to have a big win if you just gamble it all back. Remember that gambling is streaky, and you can have short term winning streaks because of standard deviation. Go spend some of the money before betting all your winnings. Because if you keep playing, the house will always eventually catch up with you.
2. Don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose. If you're playing with your mortgage money, then maybe you have a gambling problem. This article isn't meant for people with gambling problems. You should assume you're going to lose because you MIGHT lose.
3. Don't borrow money or use credit cards to gamble. This is related to Tip #2 above. It's just silly to borrow money to gamble with. Silly, foolish, and it's something that losers do, not winners.
4. Set a bankroll for your gambling trip. This should be the total amount you're willing to lose for the entire trip.
5. Divide your bankroll into sessions and stick with what you said you were going to do. Suppose you're going to be in Vegas for 2 full days and your gambling budget (bankroll) is $500. That means you can have two sessions where you play through $250 each, one on each day. Or you could have four sessions where you play with a bankroll of $125 each session. Planning your bankroll this way keeps you disciplined and helps you avoid losing more money than you had planned to.
6. Betting systems are fine if you understand they don't work in the long run. I always tell people to avoid the Martingale system and all other systems, but really, there is no harm in gambling with a system as long as you don't think it's going to somehow magically change the math in your favor. Lots of so-called gambling gurus will try to convince you otherwise, but don't fall for their line of bull. A smart, well-informed gambler is a winning gambler.
7. Bet more when you're winning and less when you're losing. Not because the odds have changed in some miraculous way, but because if you're winning, you have a bigger bankroll, and you could experience some standard deviation.
8. Always join the slots club and take advantage of the comps that are available to you as a member. If you can get a guaranteed 0.3% return on every bet you make, why wouldn't you? It's just free money, and it means you'll lose less over time.
9. Take advantage of the little perks. Why settle for domestic beer if it's being comped because you're losing $20/hour playing slots? This might be the best tip in this section. I don't think it requires much explanation beyond that either.
10. Don't go nuts trying to cover your losses. You'll just lose more that way. The first step in becoming a winning player is to stop being a losing player. Chasing your losses in an attempt to "catch up" is a sure way to become a losing player.
1. Learn how to quit winners. It does you absolutely no good to have a big win if you just gamble it all back. Remember that gambling is streaky, and you can have short term winning streaks because of standard deviation. Go spend some of the money before betting all your winnings. Because if you keep playing, the house will always eventually catch up with you.
2. Don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose. If you're playing with your mortgage money, then maybe you have a gambling problem. This article isn't meant for people with gambling problems. You should assume you're going to lose because you MIGHT lose.
3. Don't borrow money or use credit cards to gamble. This is related to Tip #2 above. It's just silly to borrow money to gamble with. Silly, foolish, and it's something that losers do, not winners.
4. Set a bankroll for your gambling trip. This should be the total amount you're willing to lose for the entire trip.
5. Divide your bankroll into sessions and stick with what you said you were going to do. Suppose you're going to be in Vegas for 2 full days and your gambling budget (bankroll) is $500. That means you can have two sessions where you play through $250 each, one on each day. Or you could have four sessions where you play with a bankroll of $125 each session. Planning your bankroll this way keeps you disciplined and helps you avoid losing more money than you had planned to.
6. Betting systems are fine if you understand they don't work in the long run. I always tell people to avoid the Martingale system and all other systems, but really, there is no harm in gambling with a system as long as you don't think it's going to somehow magically change the math in your favor. Lots of so-called gambling gurus will try to convince you otherwise, but don't fall for their line of bull. A smart, well-informed gambler is a winning gambler.
7. Bet more when you're winning and less when you're losing. Not because the odds have changed in some miraculous way, but because if you're winning, you have a bigger bankroll, and you could experience some standard deviation.
8. Always join the slots club and take advantage of the comps that are available to you as a member. If you can get a guaranteed 0.3% return on every bet you make, why wouldn't you? It's just free money, and it means you'll lose less over time.
9. Take advantage of the little perks. Why settle for domestic beer if it's being comped because you're losing $20/hour playing slots? This might be the best tip in this section. I don't think it requires much explanation beyond that either.
10. Don't go nuts trying to cover your losses. You'll just lose more that way. The first step in becoming a winning player is to stop being a losing player. Chasing your losses in an attempt to "catch up" is a sure way to become a losing player.
