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Money Management

The only thing worse than losing is being completely broke. It’s bad enough you lost your bankroll but when you don’t have a enough money for a ticket home you know you’ve reached rock bottom. Here are a few tips to help make your gambling experience more enjoyable. Marching into a casino and playing craps till all your money is gone is not the right strategy.

The reason that casinos and gambling is so popular is that they create the illusion that you’ll win big and payoff your mortgage. But, experts agree - if you manage to leave the casino up 10 or 20 percent, than you’ve had a good day. One of the best strategies if you are winning is to put aside the amount you started with and only play with your winnings. This way you are guaranteed to break even. Of course, if you stop while you are up you’ll take home some profit.

Another important thing to do is put limits on your losses. This takes great determination and willpower, but can literally save your life. Make sure that you don’t gamble with money that you can’t afford to lose. One good thing to try is to set aside a bankroll. This is money that you can afford to lose - so you are free to gamble with it. Then set aside a small portion of this amount that you never touch. This way if you lose, you not only avoid losing money you can’t afford, but you’re ahead with a small bankroll. A good losing limit to set is half of what you bring in.

Another way to manage your money is to base betting amounts on the amount that you bring to the game. If you take your total bankroll and divide it by 50 then you’ll have a rough figure to bet with. If your bankroll is $250, your betting amount will be $5. This will allow you to play longer and give you more chances to win. If you know you’ll be playing over a number of days, don’t forget to divide this amount by the number of days to get your daily betting amounts.

Everything about a casino is designed to separate you from your money. See our article on casino craps. But you’ve come there for your own purpose - to separate the casino from its money. So the war begins! The casino’s aim is take as much of your bankroll as possible in a fair game. Although you want some of the casino’s money, you’re also there to have a good time and minimize your losses. Going broke is never fun. If you go broke you can’t win it back. Every casino patron should have a strategy for managing their money.

Some experts say that quitting while you’re ahead is no solution for managing your money. If you quite while your ahead today and lose it all tomorrow, are you bettor off than if you had stayed and kept playing? Since most casino games can’t be beaten, quitting ahead really only delays the inevitable. What players really need is to manage their bankroll on a regular basis with lots of small highly disciplined decisions.

Managing your money is all about knowing your limits, knowing when to take risks, knowing your comfort level and knowing when the stakes are too high.

The best advice on managing your money I’ve heard is to quit when you are no longer having fun. When you stop having fun, you start to take more risks and make more bad bets. If you continue to play in this condition, you won’t care about how much you’ve lost and this can lead to financial ruin.

Remember, the games will always be there. The best strategy to managing your money is to only gamble when you’re in the best condition to do so.