Online gambling involves using real money to stake a wager and win if you’re lucky. And to be honest, winnings are more uncertain than losses because of the house edge. For this reason, intelligent players know the importance of having a bankroll. Players can lose all they have without practicing bankroll management and probably never gamble again.
So, this five-minute read will teach you how to create an online casino bankroll and use it prudently at the casino. Ready to learn?
If you’re still new to casino bankroll management, don’t worry because it’s a relatively straightforward concept. In a nutshell, bankroll management is the act of planning how to use your finances at the casino without overspending. The idea is to avoid dipping your hands into ‘important’ money for utility bills, health insurance, school fees, and other expenses.
But how can players know the exact amount they need to play online casino games? Experts recommend using a bankroll 1,000x the size of your standard casino bets. For example, if you wager $2 per spin on slot machines, you’ll need at least $2,000 to play. A bankroll is supposed to give you as many rounds as possible to increase your winning chances.
Without any further dilly-dallying, below are some tried and tested techniques to protect a gambling bankroll at the casino:
The most straightforward way to manage your casino bankroll is to create smaller daily or session-specific units. If you play at the best online casino sites two times a day, have two mini-bankrolls for each session. Put simply, divide the units by the number of times you play per day.
Here is a practical example; you set aside a weekly bankroll of $1,000. Then, you divide the bankroll into seven units, the number of days you play per week. You’ll be gracing the casino floor with approximately $142 daily. You can also set a higher amount for days like Fridays and weekends when you’re likely to gamble heavily.
The reason behind setting up smaller gambling money units is to control the amount you spend per session. So, if you spend the entire $142 budget, this automatically means it’s time to go home. In short, don’t gamble with money that’s painful to lose.
As said before, the bankroll will tell you when to stop playing. But you can even be more conservative by having a loss/win limit. The trick here is to stop playing after losing or winning a certain amount. Remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all for this limit. It should be any percentage you’re comfortable gambling away.
For example, you can have a loss/win limit of 30% per day. If your daily bankroll is $300, you’ll stop playing after losing or adding $90 to the budget. You can adjust the percentage depending on what you’re comfortable losing. So, if you’re ready to lose the total $300 funding, there’s no harm in having a 75% win/loss limit. Remember, quitting while still ahead is a strategy that works well.
The house edge is a “demon” that terrorizes players in all casino games they play. It’s a percentage rate indicating the amount you’ll lose from every wager you make. If a game has a 97% return to player (RTP), you’ll lose 3% of your bet to the casino if the bet wins. In such a game, a $100 bet will return $97, with the casino keeping the remainder. So, it’s a foregone conclusion that a lower house edge is better for players.
Here is how the house edge affects your bankroll; you can spin the reels of an online slot 500 times per hour, with each spin costing $2. If the game has a 3% house edge, your expected hourly loss will be 500 spins x $2 x 3% = $30. This calculation proves that a lower house edge will be more lenient to your gambling budget in the long run.
But note that the losses could be more significant or lower than the rate discussed above. Players can win a life-changing jackpot by playing a game with 90% RTP. The 88.12% house edge on Mega Moolah by NetEnt is an excellent example.
This is somewhat a continuation of the “house edge” discussion above. Learning how to reduce the house edge to the lowest possible value in online gambling is critical to success. But the bad news is that Lady Luck hugely influences almost all casino outcomes. Now answer this; what do players do after spinning the reels of an online slot or placing a roulette wager? Yes, nothing!
But thankfully, players don’t need to surrender their fate to luck while playing games like blackjack and poker. They allow players to use strategies to beat the house in their own game. In most cases, skilled players can reduce the house edge to less than 0.50% or even negative values in some poker variants, like Double Bonus Poker.
For example, blackjack players can split a hand with two Aces and play with two strong hands. Also, players should stand at anything more than 17 to avoid busting. In short, there are many strategies to use in poker and blackjack. And don’t forget to download a strategy chart online.
This is arguably the best method to prolong the lifespan of a gambling bankroll at the casino. Many operators offer players free game credits to use on any game except live casino games. If you’re a new player, the casino can give you a match deposit bonus where your first deposit is often doubled up to a specific amount.
Some casinos can also offer new players no deposit bonuses and free spin credits on a particular slot machine. And as you continue playing, be on the lookout for reload bonuses, cashback, VIP memberships, player referrals, and other loyalty promotions. With the large assortment of online casino bonuses and promotions, there’s no point playing using your precious bankroll.
But bonuses are not free money per se. Usually, the casino will include the wagering requirements, which is essentially the number of times gamers must play using the bonus promotion before withdrawing any winnings.
For example, if a $100 casino bonus has a 30x playthrough requirement, you must wager at least $3,000 ($100 x 30) before withdrawing any winnings. So, the wagering requirement must be reasonable before claiming the bonus. If possible, look for no-wagering requirement bonuses or no-deposit bonuses with low playthrough rates.
What exactly are betting systems? These are strategies designed to define how you place online casino wagers. The intention is to keep your losses as low as possible. In other words, they don’t reduce the house edge even by a single point. But instead, they guide you on the bet stakes and help recover losses with a single bet or two. So, don’t bank on anything with these systems.
That said, Martingale is arguably the most popular online gambling and sports betting system. This system requires players to double their initial stakes after a loss and recover all losses with a single win.
Below is how the system works in a European roulette bet of red/black:
As you can see, this system recovers losses with just a single win. But on the flip side, the stakes keep rising quickly, meaning a cold losing streak can quickly eat through your gambling budget. And another thing, use betting systems on wagers that have at least a 40% chance of winning. Such bets include red/black, odd/even, high/low, pass/don’t pass, come/don’t come, and more.
There’s definitely a lot more that players can do to protect their online gambling bankrolls. Other tricks include playing games with low bet limits, timing your gaming sessions, and more. But the crucial thing is to know that gambling is primarily about luck. So, protecting your gambling budget should give you more game time. If a win comes, that’s just a plus!
