One of the oldest subjects in gambling is bankroll management. We are just one of countless websites discussing it.
(Seriously – one of one zillion.)
The reason is simple: casino bankroll management is an important issue. It's like your household budget - without it, you have no idea where your money is going. The almost certain result is that you will spend it haphazardly and with a reckless abandon that would make any financial advisor blanch.
A bankroll management plan keeps you in check.
And while we may be one of a zillion websites talking about it, with our decades of combined experience gambling online and off - playing casino games, poker and sports betting - we feel qualified to give you advice.
Plus, maybe we have a unique perspective or idea you haven’t heard yet!
Anyway, we’re going to talk about casino bankroll management. The topics we’re going to cover include:
- What is bankroll management
- How big should your bankroll be
- How to manage your bankroll
- How to make your bankroll last;
We want to help you manage your finances so that you can gamble and not become insolvent... too quickly.
Let’s get started.
What is Casino Bankroll Management?
You may think this is a silly question. Your bankroll is the amount of money you have to play with, and it should be closer to your entertainment budget than your investment budget.
Not exactly.
The money you use to gamble is your bankroll. But when you're gambling in the real world and not online, your bankroll is also the money you need to go places, stay in hotels, eat, and enjoy other diversions like going to a show.
Of course, you could gamble all your money away. But in all likelihood, you would end up homeless, with only the flimsy cocktails and infrequent buffet comps of a casino to sustain you. This is a good thing to keep in mind.
We don’t recommend you go this route.
Playing games online means fewer costs associated with going places and doing things. But it can also mean a bunch of other costs that you may not have thought about before. Here are some additional expenses to think about when you're considering life as an online gamer.
Be sure to pay your Internet and phone bills - essential expenses for an online gambler. You may have gambling-related expenses that are essential yet unconventional, such as paying for a unique card counting resource.
Here is the most important thing to remember: Your bankroll should cover all of your gambling expenses. This money is separate from the money you use for other necessities of life. It is either separate from or in addition to the funds you use to pay for those other things.
Obviously, it’s vital to avoid gambling with funds necessary for bills or food. This needs careful acknowledgment.
It’s only once you understand this that you can even begin to learn casino bankroll management.
Let’s examine the method for doing this shortly. Before that, understand the appropriate size for your bankroll.
How Big Should Your Bankroll Be?
This question is problematic because it is subjective. It has no fixed answer; it varies from individual to individual.
To figure this out, you need to ask yourself a few questions:
- What games do I want to play
- What stakes do I want to play for
- How long do I want to play per session
- How many sessions do I want to play?
Let’s look at a few examples to show you how you might figure this out.
Example #1
You plan to play in some Texas Hold'em tournaments. Each one costs $45 and is expected to last about 3-4 hours. Your plan is to play in three tournaments, unless you happen to bust out early, in which case you will pay another $45 to play again. If you play three, that's a total of $135. If you have enough in the bank and are playing within your bankroll, you should be fine.
Here the math is pretty straightforward. You plan to play in at least three tournaments, each costing $45. So you need at least $135. But suppose you have really bad luck and bust out of the first three tournaments early (never associate with nuthins). You then decide to enter three more tournaments to try and get your bankroll over the hump in this semifinal edition. The total cost of entering these preliminary tournaments and the semifinals is at least $675.
With that in mind, we'd suggest you come prepared with about $180-$270, plus a few extra bucks for tips if you're performing live and want to buy a drink.
Example #2
Assuming you want to play a game of blackjack, the first consideration is to determine the number of hands you will play in an hour.
This is tricky to do, so we’ll refer to an expert.
You can expect to play between 50 and 85 hands per hour, says the WizardofOdds.com. Since online games are faster (there's no dealer to slow things down), you'll probably play a few more hands - we'd guess around 100.
The amount you can expect to bet varies considerably. You can find games with stakes as low as $1 online and $3-$5 offline, but you can also find many with much higher stakes. Just remember that you're playing poker for real money. Be smart. If you want to play for a while and have fun, make sure you have at least $100 to $500 for every hour you want to play.
Example #3
Let's discuss slots. Planning for these is more complicated because many variables must be taken into account. For instance:
- The hourly number of spins. One proposal we've seen is that you can achieve 300 spins in an hour.
- Each individual machine can have a different amount of paylines.
- The bonus rounds and mini games differ from one another and require varying lengths of time to complete.
It's impossible to be exact. For example, we've had meetings where we've managed to stretch $20 out over 45 minutes to an hour, while other times we've run through $20 within 5 minutes of sitting down.
So, we’re not going to. Here’s what we recommend you do instead.
Simply decide how much money you have to play slots. Determine the number of times you want to play. Next, calculate the amount of money you will win per session by dividing the total amount of money you will win by the total number of sessions you will play.
For example, suppose you have $500 to play with and you plan to play 5 sessions. Simply take $100 each time.
Well, one thing we didn't take into account was winning. But that's intentional. We want to assume the worst-case scenario (that you'll most likely lose) when figuring out how much to bring. That way you know you have something to play with.
We also didn’t talk about how much to play for.
Whenever possible, we recommend not playing at all, especially in games where the house edge is so large. This means playing slots at one cent per spin and video poker at a quarter per spin.
It should be noted that the entire purpose of betting is to have fun. If having fun is important to you at the level of $5 per spin or $25 per hand, and you have sufficient disposable income, then by all means, spin and deal as you please.
How to Manage Your Bankroll
Now let’s talk about how to manage your casino bankroll.
After determining how much money you have, how much you're going to spend, and what games you're going to spend it on, this is MUCH easier to do.
The challenge here is simply sticking to your plan. Here are a couple tips to help you do that:
- Bring only what you intend to spend at each session
- Ask a loved one to handle your finances for you
- Many online casinos offer self-exclusion options. Use them. They allow you to limit not only how much you spend, but also how long you play. This is important because a lot of research suggests that problem gambling is more about the amount of time you spend playing and chasing losses than it is about the amount of money you actually spend;
This last point is important. In fact, we suggest that you also set a time limit on the duration of your game.
At best, it gives you a chance to take a breather so you can stretch, clear your head, and maybe even walk away from the whole endeavor (with a profit).
At worst, it will act as a stop loss. It will give you a breather from losses. And if you haven't followed your casino bankroll management plan, it will cut down on the excessive spending you shouldn't be doing.
One last thing before we move on.
You should also consider setting a limit for how much you’ll win before you quit.
This may sound strange - why not keep playing when you are winning? But the thing is, you're almost guaranteed to lose at most casino games. If you're up at all, you're doing better than most.
So, why not walk away with a little extra than what you came in with?
10 Tips for How to Make Your Bankroll Last
All right, at this point you understand what a bankroll is, how to calculate the amount to take into the casino, and how to manage it.
Finally, we would like to give you some advice on how to maintain your bankroll over the long term. Here are some tips and suggestions on how to do just that.
1. Join a VIP program.
Many casinos have some sort of loyalty program. The benefits often vary greatly from casino to casino, but often include free buffets, shows and hotel rooms, as well as cash back offers, bonuses and free spins.
Either way, when you look at the costs, these items will likely offset expenses you were going to incur anyway, or they will provide you with revenue you may not have had before.
Either way, you get extra and/or free money to spend. With cash back and bonuses, you can often use these funds to play with before dipping into your own.
2. Claim deposit bonuses.
Same idea as above. Claim a deposit bonus and you’ll play on the casino’s dime.
You'll need to meet their bonus requirements in order to receive your winnings in cash. This usually means wagering many thousands of dollars before cashing out. The risk is that you could lose all your winnings back to the casino.
It stinks, but you should plan on being without your money. If you can accept that prospect, you can focus on the positive side of playing with money that didn't come out of your wallet.
That’s how we like to look at it. Anything we may win is simply a bonus.
3. Play slowly.
When you win money playing a slot or virtual game, you can usually hit Spin or Deal, and all the money you've just won will instantly appear in your balance.
You can make your bankroll last even longer by not doing this. Just let the machine pay out as fast as you like. This gives you a break of 30 to 90 seconds between spins. And that's your strategy for playing longer without going broke. It reduces the number of rounds you play, and it reduces the total amount of money you spend.
We’ve used this trick to stretch tiny $20 bankrolls into 30+ minute sessions.
4. Play for smaller limits.
Another tip is to play for smaller limits. Play $0.40 per spin instead of $0.80 or $1.60. Play $1 blackjack instead of $3 or $5.
It may not be quite as exciting, and you may not win one of those huge jackpots, but it is unlikely that you would have won a jackpot in the first place.
Tip! These days, many slot machines have multiple jackpots for different budget sizes. Players at the penny slots can just as easily hit a $30 or $100 "mini" jackpot as they can hit a $1,000,000 top jackpot.
At least now you can double or triple the entertainment you get from the same amount of money.
5. Play at a two-seat machine.
This recommendation is for players who are present. We have noticed that some of the newer slot machines in Las Vegas offer a bench-style seat for 2-3 players.
With our spouses, we put in $20 or $50 - whatever we'd spend to play alone - and took turns hitting the spin button. Whoever hits the bonus round gets to play it.
Making your bankroll last longer is a great thing, and there's one way to do it, provided you don't bet more than you would if you were playing alone.
It's also a great way to be together, because often the machines you both want to play aren't right next to each other.
6. Only increase your bets with your winnings.
Everyone enjoys competing for great rewards. It's even more exciting when there's a chance of winning a huge cash prize. But the more money you gamble, the more likely you are to lose it, and the less likely you are to hit that fabulous jackpot.
So, here’s what we like to do:
We will set our budget to $20 (e.g. for slots). If our balance is $20 or less, we will play with penny lines.
If we have a balance of more than $20, we allow ourselves to raise our bets and place bets that are double the amount we would normally wager. If we get our balance to where it's tripled, then we can bet an amount that's also tripled.
Here’s what this looks like:
- A balance of $20 allows you to bet $0.01 (x number of lines). A balance of $40 allows you to bet $0.02 (x number of lines). A balance of $60 allows you to bet $0.03 (x number of lines);
And so on.
It allows you to move up and down the playing levels as needed without taking on excessive risk. And in our experience, this not only preserves our bankroll for a longer period of time, but also gives us the opportunity to regularly play stakes higher than what we consider lower limits.
7. Play games where the odds/house edge can be reduced with strategy.
This includes games like blackjack, baccarat, poker, video poker, sports betting, and so on.
This does not mean that you will win. No casino game can be beaten unless you learn to count cards or something, which is both difficult and risky. Most casinos will kick you out for that.
It is possible to cheat the house and win, but the likely outcome is far worse than just losing at cards: You will almost certainly end up with a criminal record, and if you do it right, your story will get you featured on the 11 o'clock news. Sometimes winning just isn't worth it.
If you use basic strategy to learn how to play, which is fine with casinos, you can avoid making really stupid mistakes that are very expensive. I've seen people play blackjack and lose an incredible amount of money because they played, well, stupidly. They weren't playing stupid for stupid's sake; they weren't using basic strategy because they clearly didn't understand what it meant.
Player performance is directly related to the frequency of variance events. Greater player skill correlates with more frequent positive variance events and thus with increased instances of "winning" in the game (albeit in the short term).
8. Take frequent breaks.
When you walk away from the table, you're not in the casino handing over your money. You're also not at the front of the table, where every five seconds there's a new bet to consider and a new chance to lose your cool. And if you're behind the table, you're not in the room where the dealer is going to deal another card every five seconds or so, which, if you've lost your cool, could send you into a cooling spiral. Every break you take means you can go somewhere else, even around the corner to the bathroom, and come back in a frame of mind that's right for the risky business of playing blackjack.
If you are someone who has a tendency to ignore your own rules, it is imperative that you take a break. Otherwise, a financial misstep could be in your future, and we want to make sure that future is far, far away.
9. Don’t chase losses.
This can be hard to follow because when you lose enough money to the house, sometimes you feel like you want to get it back.
At other times, you mistakenly believed that the machine was about to pay out when in fact no machine was about to pay out. Every machine was due and 100% random.
The bottom line is that chasing losses is a bad plan. If you know you have a tendency to chase your losses, then the best corollary is to only bring what you can afford to lose. That way, you don't touch the savings you've set aside for future sessions.
10. Bet sports.
Place a few bets on a game and then just relax and enjoy it. This is great because a game can go on for an hour or more, and you don't have to risk much to get the thrill of betting.
There you have it, 10 tips to help you make your bankroll last as long as possible.
Almost all of these tips have been tried by us, and we've had varying degrees of success with them. We have no doubt that they'll work for you, too.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, casino bankroll management is an important skill to possess. In fact, it is the very first skill you should cultivate if you want your casino visits to be enjoyable.
If not, you could find yourself in Las Vegas for several days with no cash because you blew it all in the first few minutes. After that, you'll be begging for fast food and dozing on the slots benches until your return flight brings you home. This leads us to some important questions:
We’re speaking from experience here.
But it doesn't have to be you. And if you follow our advice above, along with a little common sense, it won't be.