The expanded availability of Internet gambling has been one of the most important shifts in the gaming landscape in the last 15 years. In fact, gambling on the Internet — including mobile gambling — is the fastest growing kind of gambling, and it is altering the way people bet. Because of their high degree of accessibility, immersive interface, and simplicity of use, it’s more important than ever players to know how to manage their money. With that in mind, here are some actionable gambling money management tips to help you save money while playing online.
#1: Create a Budget
Budgeting is the first rule of money management. In gambling, the general advice is to only spend money you can afford to lose. Owing to that backdrop, check your bank account and determine how much you can spend on gambling without affecting your lifestyle.
Your budget for online gambling is what remains after you pay your bills, invest and save for emergencies. Another way to budget is to keep your gambling bankroll at or below 5% of your monthly income after tax. Let’s say you earn $6000 after taxes. You can limit your bankroll to $300 (5%).
#2: Draft a Staking Plan
Every gamer who is interested in gambling money management tips should consider a staking plan. In essence, a staking plan is a guideline on the amount of money to spend per bet or per gaming session. It’s an excellent way of managing your bankroll so that it lasts until your next paycheck. Let’s use an example.
You’ve settled on spending $120 on online gambling for a month. You could decide to gamble once per week; four times in total. Divide $120 by four and you have $30 to spend per gaming session.
Next, you can opt to play six blackjack hands, $5 per hand. Or you could participate in three Texas Hold’em games worth $10 each. The alternative is to spin the reels of your favorite slot machine 300 times, assuming you spend $0.10 per spin. All the same, you have a staking plan that helps you know how to spend your money.
#3: Keep Your Emotions in Control
Fear, greed, hope, anger, happiness aren’t really your friends when it comes to online gambling. Picture this: When you’re afraid of losing, you can bet small amounts and hope to win something small. Or you could get afraid and fail to place a good bet or to participate in great games often.
When you’re greedy, you can overspend and make decisions hurriedly. Happiness isn’t bad until you use your jovial mood to make betting decisions without thinking everything through.
Against that backdrop, learn to keep your emotions in control. Before you play one more hand, think whether it’s the right decision.
#4: Create Profit Targets
Successful businesses have goals and objectives. They work every day to achieve these goals. Gambling shouldn’t be different; especially when you have a budget for it. Take your $100, or $200 budget and determine how much profit you want to make at the end of the month.
You could target a 20% monthly profit. But be flexible enough to understand you don’t have to make the money immediately. It might be your target. However, even a 2% profit should be acceptable as long as can improve on it.
#5: Keep Records
Keeping records helps improve efficiency; it’s also one of the most essential tools for increasing your gambling profits. To be clear, efficiency is all about reducing, time, money and efforts in getting results.
The best way to learn about your efficiency is to keep records. Keep track of your budget, your staking plan, your schedule, your goals, games played, everything. Then analyze the results to determine whether you can improve your records.
Let’s say your records show you make the most money while sober. Or, you make more money when you maximize your bets on high-paying games. In light of that information, you can avoid gambling while drunk and wasting time on low-paying games.
#6: Cash-out your Profits
Online gambling has one major disadvantage: there’s always the risk of losing money. As such, reinvesting your profits does not necessarily lead to more money; after all, it’s not a long-term investment. So it shouldn’t be surprising that one of the biggest gambling money management tips is to cash out your weekly profits. Not only will you be glad for profiting through gambling, but it can motivate you to chase higher goals.
Besides, withdrawing your profits helps you learn more about a casino’s payment policies.
If it pays out quickly, you can continue being a loyal customer. If it has problems processing withdrawals, look for an alternative site.
#7: Never Borrow Money to Gamble
Borrowing money to gamble is a worrisome sign that gambling may be taking a toll on you — but it’s also a sign you should lower your budget and reduce your gambling hours. If possible, take a break from gambling.
That said, it’s easy to get tempted to borrow money when you believe you know how to win your next bet. Maybe you got a hunch you’ll win if you bet on the number 22 in roulette. Or perhaps you partook a poker class and think you know how to win.
Borrowing money to gamble is dangerous for one reason: you risk losing more money. And how will you pay for your initial debt? You’ll probably borrow more money or sell your assets, both of which can lead to financial ruin.
#8: Follow Betting Strategies
The reason you want to manage your money is to minimize it in your bid to maximize your profits. As a result, it’s not just important to learn how to handle your gambling money. It’s also essential to discover ways to win occasionally.
Perhaps the best way to increase your odds of winning at casinos is to use strategies. In slots, the strategy is to choose high-paying video slots. In roulette, many players trust Fibonacci system. You should test different systems and choose the one that works for you.
Basically, learn what successful gamblers do to win specific games; then follow their tips. Increasing your profitability makes it easier to control your money. After all, if you’re profitable nearly every month, you probably won’t need to spend your paycheck money on gambling.
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