If you´re gambling online, you may notice your money slipping away faster than you expected it to. If so, you´re probably pretty upset. You probably expected to win big right away, and then have lots of money for the rest of your session, but that doesn´t always happen. In fact, it´s pretty rare to win big at an online casino. You can expect small wins, but you can´t count on them to keep your budget up.
Just to get an idea of how your budget will work out, it’s always good to try playing for play money first. All reputable online casinos allow you to play their games free even before you make your first deposit. You’ll usually have to register and give some details first, but the privacy policy prevents the casinos from using the information for any purpose other than their mailing lists, and you can always opt out later.
If you’ve played for free, but you still don’t know how to manage your budget, we’re happy to offer some tips. First, decide on a realistic budget. Ten dollars just won’t make it for an hour of play. Even if you’re playing on penny slots, you should expect to spend at least twenty-five dollars per hour. If you want to play higher stakes, you’ll need more money. Figure that you should budget at least twenty times the stake just to get started on table games, and about fifty times as much as the full bet on slots or video poker. Remember that progressive slots give you better odds when you place the maximum bet, so you don’t want to play for less than the max bet.
Some players play using a doubling system. For example, they’d play blackjack for fifty cents, and if they lose, they’d bet a dollar, doubling the bet until they win. If you want to use a system like that, you’ll need a rather large budget, since in this scenario, the bet will reach over one hundred dollars within eight bets. If your budget isn’t big enough to cover that kind of loss, don’t use a system like that, or start with an even smaller bet, such as ten cents, if you can find a casino that will allow it.
Sometimes, you’ve followed all the rules, but your account is just draining. There’s an old expression – If at first, you don’t succeed, try and try again. This simply doesn’t apply in the case of gambling. When it comes to gambling, if you see that you’re losing, it’s time to change games, take a break, or call it quits for the day. If your luck is bad or you’re not playing your best, don’t press on and chase your losses. Players who chase their losses will generally end up losing more than they planned to use to begin with, and the results can be very bad.
In general, of course, your gambling money should never be money earmarked for anything else. It should be viewed as entertainment funds. You may earn money gambling, but in most cases, the money you use for gambling should be considered money that you spent. Be sure to enjoy spending it!
