7 Lessons I Learned From Losing at Online Casinos

You can read about beating online casinos, but when it comes down to facts, most gamblers can’t do it. Still, this doesn’t mean that you’re always going to lose. There are some things that you can do to help your bankroll.

I’ve spent years gambling online, and I’ve definitely made a lot of mistakes. But I’ve also learned from many of these mistakes. While I still don’t win as often as I’d like when I gamble at online casinos, my results are far better than they used to be.

Here are seven lessons I’ve learned from losing in online casinos. You can use these lessons to help you avoid many of the mistakes that I’ve made in the past.

1 – Online Casinos Aren’t Video Games

I don’t play as many video games as I used to, but I’ve played a lot of them over the years. I’ve spent far more time gambling in my life than playing video games. One thing that I learned a long time ago is that online casinos aren’t much like video games at all.

Both video games and gambling in real money online casinos are forms of entertainment. And they both cost money. But these are the only things that they really have in common. And the money you spend for the entertainment is different.

When you play a video game, you either buy the game or sign up for a monthly subscription. Either way, this is a set cost. But when you gamble at online casinos, you can lose more than it costs to play a video game.

Of course, when you get lucky, you can win money playing in an online casino and this isn’t how video games are designed.

If you want a safe and controlled form of entertainment, video games offer a good option in terms of cost. But if you enjoy the thrill of gambling and the opportunity to earn profit, then online casinos are the way to go.

2 – Bonuses, Bankroll, and Winning

One of the big draws of online casino gambling is the availability of bonuses. Most online casinos have a bonus displayed on their main page that promises free play, free spins, or a 100% or more match on your deposit.

Online casino bonuses can be great, but they’re not always the best choice. Of course, they look like free money to gamble with, so most gamblers just take as much as they can get.

Here are a couple sad facts about online casino bonuses. They almost never help you win, and the only thing they’re usually good for is building your bankroll. And they always come with a downside.

The downside is that you agree to a set of conditions when you accept an online casino bonus. These conditions dictate how much you have to gamble and when you can access the money that you deposit.

I often still play with bonuses when I gamble in online casinos, but I always read the conditions to make sure I’m not agreeing to requirements I can’t meet.

3 – Games With High Return Rates

Online casinos offer many different games, and they each have a different return rate. The return rate is directly related to how much money you’re going to lose.

The best strategy is to find and play online casino games that offer the best rate of return. This is a short list, but these games are widely available.

Here’s the list:

• Blackjack
• Video Poker
• Baccarat

And to get the best return, you need to play these games only when they have good rules and only using the best strategy.

4 – Slot Machine Mentality

Not every gambler is interested in finding the best strategy or way to win. Instead, they have what I call a “slot machine mentality.” And there’s nothing wrong with this if it’s what you enjoy about gambling.

But the slot machine mentality is much like the lottery. You’re willing to risk a certain amount of money for the chance to win a big prize.

This is fine, as long as you know that you’re not going to win most of the time. In fact, you’re going to lose all of the money you risk most of the time.

If this is the way you like to gamble, you should just buy a lottery ticket. It’s cheaper to buy a lottery ticket, and you can win a much larger top prize. And if you want to play slot machines this way, at least play on the progressive slot machines that offer high prize amounts.

5 – Playing Too Fast

When I play blackjack in a live casino, I play 50 to 70 hands every hour. But when I play blackjack online, I can play hundreds of hands every hour. But just because I can play more hands, it doesn’t mean that it’s the best thing to do.

This is true for almost all games when you play in an online casino. When you play slots or video poker, you can play about the same number of hands or spins in land-based casinos as you can play in online casinos. But other games play much faster online.

The problem is that this is just what action junkies want. They want to play more hands and play faster. But when you play faster, you make more wagers, and this means that you risk more money.

I used to play too fast when I played online casino games. But now, I take my time and try not to play faster than I play in a live casino.

6 – Small Wager Power

Possibly the best thing about gambling in online casinos is that you can make smaller wagers than when you play in live casinos. The table minimum in most land-based casinos is at least $10. And the table minimum in most online casinos is $1.

This alone gives you at least 10 times the betting power related to your bankroll as land-based casino games. This is simple to see if you compare betting $10 to $1. You can play 10 times as many hands betting $1.

The bet size isn’t going to do anything to change the return to player percentage, so you’re still going to lose in the long run. But you’re going to be able to enjoy gambling entertainment for much longer online.

In the last section, you learned a lesson about how fast you play. If you can play slower online while making smaller wagers, then you can play much longer. In some cases, you can play 30 to 100 times longer when you play online casino games. And bonuses help with the amount of time you can play also.

7 – The Worst Online Casino Games

The worst online casino games are the ones with the lowest return rates. Because you can control how fast you play online casino games and because the wager amounts are small in comparison to land-based casinos, the main thing that controls how much you lose is the return to player numbers.

The list of online casino games with good return numbers is short, as you learned earlier. And the list of online casino games with bad return to player numbers is long.

In fact, any game that isn’t included on the list of online casino games with good return numbers should be avoided.

Slot machines are just as popular in online casinos as they are in land-based casinos. And the return numbers are just as bad. You should avoid playing slot machines in online casinos unless you want to straight out gamble on hitting a big jackpot.

Keno, most roulette games, and most table games are all terrible online casino game options. Stick with blackjack, baccarat, video poker, and traditional poker games if you’re gambling in online casinos. All of the other options are going to cost you too much money.

Conclusion

I’ve spent a lot of time gambling in online casinos, and like every other online gambler I’ve lost money doing it. But through years of experience, I’ve learned how to limit my losses and have the best chance to win more often.

You can use some advantage techniques in land-based casinos, but they’re either hard or impossible to use when you gamble online. But you can still use strategy and smart play to improve your return.

You can also use online and mobile casino bonuses to build your bankroll and improve your chance to win. But you need to learn how to use them the right way.