If, like me, you are a casino (and gambling) veteran there is probably not gong to be much in this post for you. As a matter of fact, there might not be much in this entire series for you. But, my hope is that through this entire series every reader at least finds something they find interesting and useful.
If not? Well, you get what you pay for.
Budgets. No gambler thinks that they are going to need a budget. They believe that this trip will be the one where they win early and often, where they hit so big on the first day that they'll pocket a fortune and be able to play off of a fraction of their winnings for the remainder of the trip.
That is the fantasy. That it's the one fantasy depicted on TV, movies and Vegas commercials goes without saying. As an aside, you'll rarely see people in a casino as happy, joyful and (to be frank) as young and pretty as you see on casino adverts, especially sitting at slots on what is an obvious losing pull.
Reality is somewhat different. The hard reality is that every game in a casino is a negative expectation game. What that means is that, when you sit down, the odds on the game favor (sometimes overwhelming and sometimes slightly) the casino taking more of your money than you take from them. This is not done by cheating (casinos don't need to cheat) in regulated jurisdictions it's done by maths.
One of my favorite sayings in all of gambling is from the book: 1000 Best Casino Tips and Tricks by Bill Burton.
"Casinos believe in math, gambler's believe in luck. Guess which ones are most successful?"
Because all gambling is an exercise in Math you really need to plan ahead to determine the following prior to any casino trip:
1. "How much can I afford to lose?" When you make your casino budget you should really understand this concept. When you go to a theater to watch a movie, it's pretty easy to determine the amount of money you're going to spend. The prices are on the menu, and once you pay that money is gone in exchange for whatever you purchased. In gambling, it's different. Yes, you know the price per spin but you don't know HOW MANY spins (or hands, or rolls etc.) that you're going to be making. At a movie, the price of one ticket is a known factor, and you're going to get to watch one movie and then that's it. (excepting double headers obviously, but the logic still stands) In gambling, you know the amount of the wager (ticket) but you do not know before hand what the result of that wager will be. You might win, lose it all, lose some of it, push etc. You might get a bonus and "free" spins. The fact is you don't know. The only way to know how much you're going to lose is to set a budget up front, and then stick to it. The risk of not doing this is getting caught up in the heat of the game and spending money that you need for rent, food, mortgage, your kids schools. Believe me it happens. (Not to me personally, but I've seen it happen to some that I know)
2. "OK, I'll (most) probably lose, but how to I make my money LAST?" This is where creating a daily budget comes in, and it's the gambling concept that takes the most discipline among all of the one's I'm discussing today. There are many ways to do this, bring cash and leave your ATM card behind, use the envelope method, If you have a bank nearby you can go by the ATM at the branch each morning etc. There's also casino credit and taking out a marker. The point is that all of these take discipline. Especially if you have a terrible day and the bankroll is gone by 6PM it could be hard to not hit up the ATM, go to your room and open up the next day's envelope, get an additional marker, take a cash advance etc. Of all these methods taking a cash advance is by far the worst. Your credit card company will charge you very high interest rates on this which you will have to overcome in addition to the house edge. 2nd is the ATM in the casino option, where fees can run as high as $9.99 on withdrawals (that I've heard about, I've personally seen them as high as $7.99). Getting an additional marker off of your line of credit is OK but, remember this: All markers are considered a legal debt and must be paid back (settled) either upon check out (especially if you've had a winning trip) or within a specified amount of time following your trip. Failure to repay these can result in serious consequences. Grabbing more money out of the room is your least-worst option but it still reduces your gambling budget for the following days which makes the worse options even more likely if you find yourself chasing losses.
3. "But the odds are I have to get it back some time right?" Wrong. Again, the odds are ALWAYS with the house. Always*. Chasing losses is one of the worst things you can do in a casino, and one of the hardest things to avoid doing. The reason for this is simple: Gambling is fun. The thrill of a win activates Dopamine in the body which gives you a rush. If you become addicted to this rush you can develop problem gambling and that, without question, is a bad thing. While many blame the casinos and put the onus on them for stopping problem gambling the fact of the matter is the only one who truly understands your current life situation and what you can really afford to lose is you, your loved ones and your friends. Certainly the casinos share some onus to keep more problem gamblers from playing, but saying that a casino is liable because you messed up and lost your mortgage for the month and are getting evicted (while saying nothing about this in the casino and generally having a grand time [until the point you lose that is]) is not going to help you get your money back. Shortened: If you lose your daily bankroll, stop. Better yet put a stop-loss on yourself so that you have some money left at the end of the day.
4. "Why can't I just gamble my winnings? After all it's the casino's money!" This is one of the biggest fallacies that problem gamblers tell themselves after a win. Right along with "I'm going to turn this big win into a bigger one!" Once you hit a winning pull, hand, deal, etc. and get paid out your winnings that money no longer belongs to the casino, it belongs solely to you. The casino has no claim on it to the extent that you refuse to give it back to them. Again, there are many ways to ensure you keep your winnings. I use the envelope method and split my budget into daily "allowances". If I hit a jackpot it goes into the 'take home' envelope never to be played this trip again. If I hit a big slot or VP win it's separated from my daily gambling budget and does not get churned (replayed). By doing this it's a very rare day that I end up with absolutely nothing at the end of the day.
Bonus tip: Budget a little bit more than you otherwise would for your "fist day/night". This is especially true if you really enjoy gambling but haven't been in a casino for a while. Your adrenaline is going to be pumping full chat and you are going to play more than you intended. Mrs. TPM and I call this "CASINO!!!!!!!!!" and it gets us every time. After that first night however the thrill is less and we settle firmly into our budgeted ways.
Remember: Just like food, drinks, shows, pools, spas and souvenirs, gambling is a part of your entertainment budget. You would not eat at a restaurant, buy several rounds of drinks, go to a show, rent a cabana or get a massage without knowing the price, why should your gambling be any different?
Or why, is it any less important?
*The obvious exceptions to this are card counting in blackjack (likely to get you backed off of the game and eighty-sixed from the casino), some full-pay pay tables in Video Poker or a VP progressive that swings the expected return to over 100% (almost impossible to find in the wild) or, to be blunt, cheating (illegal and will most likely get you arrested, banned for life from gambling and placed in prison)
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