When I see gamblers making mistakes that cost them money, it seems like a sin to me. This probably isn’t quite as bad as sinning in a religious context, but it can’t be good because mistakes lead to higher losses.
Winning gamblers know what they need to do to have a chance to win when they battle the casinos or other gambling establishments. But just as important as knowing what to do, they also know all about the mistakes that other gamblers make. And they know they must avoid making these same mistakes if they want to win.
Here are 7 deadly mistakes that most gamblers make. As you learn about these 7 mistakes you can learn how to avoid them and what you need to do instead.
1 – House Edge Ignorance
Do you know which gambling games give you the best chance to win? Most gamblers walk into a casino and play what looks like fun or what they’ve played in the past. But they have no idea if 1 game is better than another.
It’s easy to find out which games give you a better chance to win. All you have to do is find out the house edge for each game. The games with a lower casino edge give you a better chance to win than the games with a higher casino edge.
Of course, there’s more to it than just the edge, and you’re going to learn more about some of these other important things on the rest of this page.
The best house edge for gamblers in most casinos is either at the blackjack table or on a video poker machine. You have to find tables with good rules or machines with good paytables to get a low edge though.
2 – Not Using Strategy
Once you learn which games have a good edge and which games to avoid, the next step is to learn how to use the best strategy on the best games. Games that offer a low casino edge almost always have a strategy or group of strategies that you need to use.
This goes beyond casino games to include betting on sporting events and playing poker or betting on esports.
If you’re not familiar with the house edge of a game, see if there are any strategies you can use. When you can’t use strategy it’s a good indication that the game has a high casino edge. An example of this is slot machines. You can’t use strategy to alter the outcome of slot machines, and they have a high house edge.
Games that have a strategy or strategies to help you win include video poker, blackjack, and baccarat. These are in addition to poker and sports gambling as I mentioned earlier.
3 – Betting Too Much
If you’re being honest, do you win more than you lose when gambling, or do you lose more than you win? If you’re being honest, you probably answered that you’re losing more than you’re winning.
The reason why you’re losing more than you win is because of the casino edge, which you learned about in the first section. And as long as you’re playing against a casino edge you’re going to continue losing.
You’re going to learn about how to play without a casino edge in the last section of this article, but until you learn how to do that you need to understand how to lose less.
The casino edge is how much the casino takes when you make wagers.
The higher the amount you risk the more the casinos keeps. This means that if you risk a lower amount of money, you lose a lower amount as well.
This is why you shouldn’t risk too much. In fact, the best strategy is to risk the lowest amount possible every time you gamble. This means you should always bet the table minimum or machine minimum. You can find lower table and machine minimums at online casinos than you find in land-based gambling establishments.
4 – Not Tracking
How do you know how much you win and lose when you gamble? The only way you can know for certain is to track your results. This starts with creating a bankroll and keeping a record of what happens every time you gamble.
This sounds simple, yet almost no gamblers actually do it. And some gamblers that track their performance don’t track it accurately, or they mix their bankroll with the money they use for everything else in their life.
If you’re serious about improving your gambling results, you need to get serious about tracking.
Set a bankroll right now, and come up with a system to track everything.
I keep a spreadsheet on my computer to track my gambling results, and I keep a small notebook and pen in my pocket to write things down while I’m gambling. This way I don’t forget what happens before I get home to my computer.
You can also use your phone to keep track of things if you prefer it over a computer. Or you can keep all of your records the old-fashioned way using paper and pen. It doesn’t matter how you track your results, as long as you’re tracking them.
5 – No Bonuses
I mentioned earlier that you can find lower minimum bets when you gamble online. Another advantage of gambling online is the availability of bonuses. Many online gambling establishments give you a bonus when you sign up and make a deposit.
Online gambling bonuses rarely help you overcome the casino edge, but they let you play longer because you have a bigger bankroll.
Take a look at this bonus offered by Vegas Casino Online. They are offering new members to their site up to $10,000 in bonus cash, who doesn’t love free money?
Bonuses can be a problem if you don’t understand how they work. You usually have to gamble quite a bit with a bonus before you can get your money out of the casino. This can be a problem if you have a winning streak and want to cash out.
You can learn about the restrictions by reading the terms closely when you get an online gambling bonus.
6 – No Comps
You’re not going to get a bonus when you gamble in a land-based establishment, but you can get other perks. The main perk is in the form of comps you earn from the slots club or players club at the casino.
When you visit a casino before you start gambling ask about their club. It usually only takes a couple of minutes to sign up, and you earn comps every time you gamble.
Comps don’t help you win, but they do give some of the money back that you otherwise might lose. You usually get things instead of money, like a free meal. But if you get a free meal worth $10 it’s almost the same as losing $10 less.
7 – Not Using Advantage Methods
Every gambler should learn about advantage methods. Advantage methods are techniques you can use that help you overcome the casino edge. Some of them are easier than others, but a small group of gamblers has been using them for decades to make money gambling.
The casinos don’t like it when gamblers use advantage techniques, so if the casinos catch the gamblers they throw them out. So the first step is to learn how to use advantage methods. The second step is you also need to learn how not to get caught when you use them.
You can start by learning more about it. But look for other advantages as well. Smart gamblers have learned how to get an edge at almost every casino game if the situation is right.
The other option is to learn how to win as a poker player or as a sports gambler. These things just take a lot of work and study, and the casinos don’t throw out poker players for winning. It’s a little more tricky if you’re a winning sports gambler, but you can spread your bets around to keep active once you start winning.
Conclusion
You have to know what the house edge is, understand how it works, and use it to make every decision you can when you’re gambling. If you don’t use the house edge, you’re going to lose too much money. And if you don’t use the house edge and don’t use strategy when you gamble, you have no hope of any type of decent return.
Other sins you need to avoid include risking too much when you gamble, not tracking your results, not using bonuses, and not getting comps. And the only way to truly have a chance to win is to start using advantage play techniques.
Michael Stevens
Michael Stevens has been researching and writing topics involving the gambling industry for well over a decade now and is considered an expert on all things casino and sports betting. Michael has been writing for GamblingSites.org since early 2016. …