As stated earlier my gambling for 2019 is planned to fall under the "Responsible Gaming" theme. But what does this really mean?
I think that's pretty easy, I'm only going to gamble the money that I've budgeted for the year and I'm going to make smart decisions whether I'm winning or losing. For many reasons, I am declining to share my actual gambling budget here. For one, I'm not willing to put that type of personal data out on the Internets and for another, How much (or how little) I'm playing with is not central to the conversation.
What IS important is the understanding that the wife and I maintain a "fun" account. Extra money, outside of our annual budget, this is money for traveling, gaming. etc. It's "Mad Money" that we've saved up over the years. AFTER our savings, retirement and monthly spend is accounted for we add a portion of what's left over to this account, so that we can do the things we want to do. You should try this. If you put just $100 into a savings account every month by the end of the year you'll find yourself with a fairly formidable gambling fund for the next year. Especially if you're only planning on making one gambling trip. Obviously, depending on your level of risk and financial position you can increase or decrease that as needed.
Here's the key: Once you establish this account you are ONLY allowed to gamble using the funds within. When it's dry, you're gambling is dry. Failure to follow this principle is a deal-killer, can lead to gambling addiction and is how some people find themselves at the end of the month with more bills than dollars. Don't gamble your rent money folks.
But what if the gambling trip isn't working? What if the slots are unkind, the blackjack shoes are unfriendly and the four-of-a-kinds in video poker have ran and hid in a corner? What then? This is when you're going to find yourself tested, when keeping with the envelope system, and your financial constraints becomes difficult, it's also when you're program becomes most important.
For all of their bluster about "When the fun stops" the truth is that the casino companies could care less whether or not you gamble away your last dollar, lose your home, and force your children to dumpster dive for their dinner. They will let you sit at a machine or table and gamble yourself down to the felt, or to zero, Every. Single. Time. They will claim, rightly, that they do not know the financial position of anyone who chooses to gamble at their establishments and they cannot be responsible for a player's poor choices.
This is true. In fact, the ONLY person responsible for your gambling habits is you. Does this mean that, on a good run, that you're not going to go full degenerate and play back all of your winnings? Of course not. It happens to everyone. On my last Las Vegas trip I started slightly ahead and ended up down. Eventually the house edge catches up to us all. Prior to that Las Vegas trip however I had two profitable trips, which I've recorded on my gambling spreadsheet for tax purposes, so what I lost was actually a portion of the wins from those. At the end of the day I've still got my gambling budget intact for the year, despite being 3 trips in.
But you are going to have more losing sessions than winning ones. This is gambling. All of the games are designed to ultimately leave you with less money then you started with, it's math. Casinos believe strongly in it and, especially on the Las Vegas Strip, they're increasing their mathematical advantage to even greater percentages. (To the point that they're starting to see diminishing returns, but that's a post for another day)
So far this year I've had two fairly horrid video poker runs.
First, on my first gambling trip at L'Auberge in Lake Charles. I got some four-of-a-kinds, but none of them were premium and kickers went the way of the Dodo. My salvation there, amazingly, was slots, where I had several winning sessions.
So, that's tip one: Quit trying to get blood from a stone. Sometimes the games on which you win are not the games that are winning right now. Don't be afraid to change it up. To take a break even. Go get a shave, haircut or a massage. Take a break and find a bar that doesn't have video poker machines and enjoy a cocktail or three. You're here to have fun. Go have some.
My second dry spell was, believe it or not, on the Las Vegas Strip. Specifically, at Luxor, where video poker ran cold and I feel victim to what might currently be the tightest slots in the country, well, those and the slots at Caesar's properties.
My latest Strip misadventure was a blood-bath. Bill after bill went into the machines, and nothing came back out. I'm not even sure that I was able to churn enough dollars through the machines to get good comps on the back-side. It was THAT bad.
But, and this is important, only one day of the 4 that I was there did I make the walk-of-shame back to the room with no money in my wallet. On most days I put in a stop-loss at 50% of my bank-roll. After the first night, the night I came back with nothing, I recognized that things were going South and decided that I was only going to be willing to risk 50% of what I planned to gamble.
MGM has their Profit Growth Plan, I have mine.
And you should have yours as well. There's nothing that says you have to gamble everything in your budget. Sometimes stopping is a better play than hitting a win. If the casinos are going to try and goose the odds to more quickly drain my funds I'm going to take steps to not reward them for it.
The truth is I played about 50% less at MGM owned casinos this trip than I have historically. I'm not sure if I'll ever return to the levels of play that I once provided them, I prefer to patronize casinos who respect the customer and the underlying math of the games.
Just because your casino trip is going South, doesn't mean that you have to leave with a total loss. Sometimes hedging losses can be just as satisfying as a win. Granted, not in the moment (You're typically not in the best of moods when things are going poorly) but in hindsight.
Good luck however you play.
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