Avoiding These 9 Gambling Mistakes Will Save You Money

Casinos are fraught with peril. Some of these hazards are relatively obvious, but most are cleverly disguised by the casino.

The casinos are notorious for using the math behind the games to profit off of players.

But in order to gain an advantage as a player, you have to stop playing into the casino’s master plan. Avoiding these nine gambling mistakes will save you money. Keep reading below!

1 – Believing in Luck

The casino floor is full of more lucky charms than the cereal aisle of your local grocery store. Everywhere you look, you’ll see players with their lucky trinkets.

You’ll also see players going through the same lucky routine every spin that they did back in 1983. This happens to be the last time the random series of spontaneous movements worked.

Well, the last time, a random result aligned with their superstitions.

The fact is that casino games are entirely random. Slot machines, dice, and playing cards aren’t aware or concerned with your luck.

If luck had anything to do with casino gambling, the casinos would have boarded up the doors and windows long ago.

Stop trying to seduce Lady Luck and focus on ways to reduce the house edge. I can guarantee you that merely playing the smart bets like the don’t pass line in craps will make you far more money than blowing on the dice ever will.

2 – Throwing Good Money in the Fire

Few things will sink your gambling bankroll as quickly as chasing losses. Players fall into this trap of trying to get all of their losses back quickly.

They fail to account for the fact that the games aren’t changing whenever you start doubling your wager. Essentially, all you’re doing is losing your money twice as fast as you would normally.

Even under excellent conditions, there are fundamental flaws with this logic. Imagine you’re playing real money blackjack and lose $200 playing $25 per hand.

You double your bet to $50 and lose that hand. You’ve increased your losses by 25% on a single hand. You continue to press and bet $100, another loss, and you’ve increased your losses by 75% in two hands.

Players will fall into this pattern thinking they can win it all back. If you had an unlimited bankroll, you might eventually get all squared up.

There’s no guarantee because you may hit the table limit before you ever get the chance to break even.

3 – Hunting for the Perfect System

Perfect gambling doesn’t exist. In fact, an adequate betting system doesn’t exist.

All of the betting systems on the market suffer from flawed gambling math and incomplete data. Still, these systems are sold as a surefire way to beat the casino at their own game.

The problem with betting systems is that gamblers are presented with an incomplete picture of what the system accomplishes. People get excited when they think they’ve found a way to crack the code in the casino and go all in.

It’s not until they’ve forked over $169.99 for the system and completely drained their bankroll that they confront the error of their ways.

The fact of the matter is that the casinos would never leave a game on the floor that can be beaten that easily. It wouldn’t be profitable, and casinos are experts at maximizing every square inch of the casino floor for profit.

Betting systems use the player’s own greed to exploit their wallets.

4 – Taking Insurance in Blackjack

Insurance is one of the sneakiest sucker bets in the casino. Unfortunately, there’s this prevailing logic by misinformed players that you must always take the insurance when it’s available.

Insurance allows a blackjack player to place an additional wager when the dealer has an ace face up. If they have any card valued at 10, it makes a natural blackjack.

Insurance pays 2 to 1, so you push the hand. However, only if the dealer has a blackjack.

On the overwhelming majority of hands where the dealer doesn’t have a blackjack, you instantly lose that bet.

Then there’s a chance that you lose the initial bet on the hand, too. So, instead of losing $25 to a blackjack, you’ve lost $50 to a soft 14.

It’s easy to see why you’re much better off skipping insurance at the blackjack table.

5 – Playing Games You Don’t Understand

One of the biggest mistakes I see casino newbies making is playing casino games they don’t understand. They see a game on television or read about the latest casino craze and think they have an inside track to a casino profit.

I watched this happen on my last trip to Macau. I was chatting with some Americans in the casino bar, and we began discussing baccarat. 

Baccarat is as straightforward of a casino game as you’ll ever find. However, there are important nuances to the game that will significantly contribute to your overall success or failure.

The gentlemen I spoke to acknowledged that they spend most of their casino time playing blackjack but want to get started in baccarat.

Baccarat is to the Macau casino scene what slot machines are to Las Vegas. The game is top-rated in the region.

However, these two men spent a grand total of about three minutes preparing for their gaming sessions at the baccarat table.

I bumped into them a few days later and asked how the experiment had gone. Suffice to say, they did not give a glowing review of baccarat.

This was surprising since the house edge on baccarat is about half of the average player on a blackjack table. They started playing a game they didn’t understand for real money, and it bit them. 

6 – Playing Roulette on a Double Zero Wheel

Many players never take the time to learn the difference between a European Roulette wheel and an American Roulette wheel. There’s only one slight variation, but it’s a significant one.

The European wheel has only a single zero and an American wheel has double zeros.

This subtle change has a surprising effect on the house edge of the game. It’s significant enough that you should never play roulette on a double-zero wheel.

The house edge on a double-zero roulette wheel is over 5%. That’s nearly double the casino’s advantage on a single zero wheel.

If you don’t find a single zero roulette wheel, find yourself another game.

7 – Listening to the Guys Losing Their Shirts

Misery loves company, and the casino floor is in no short supply of suffering. The casinos are full of players that consistently flush money down the casino commode.

Yet, these gamblers are more than excited to share with you all of their veteran insights and knowledge.

I have overheard conversations in the casino that are nothing short of cringe-worthy. I’ve seen players getting lessons on how to pick the right slot machine to play in order to get a jackpot, and I’ve watched from afar while excited gamblers went on the hunt for a primed slot.

Look, casinos are full of people that want to tell you how to gamble. Many of these players no doubt know less than most of you.

I’m convinced that these impromptu lessons are in no way malicious but dangerous nonetheless.

8 – Buying Picks From a Tout Service

If you’re buying picks from a tout service, you’re gambling like a chump. 

For starters, that pick you’re paying for is eating into your profits under the best of circumstances. When you lose, it’s adding to those losses.

Tout services are about as good as flipping a coin; it’s that simple. Did you know that the same tout service will give different picks on the same game?

Why would they ever do that?

Because they don’t care too much about the result of the contest. All they want is to return customers.

Spreading their picks on both sides of a game, the tout service hedges their bet. They don’t need to win on the game, they only need to retain customers.

If any tout service could pick as well as they claim, they’d make billions merely betting on the games themselves.

9 – Blaming Outside Factors for Your Losses

Stop blaming your losses on anything other than the math and your own skill. These are the sole contributors to your gambling losses.

Luck isn’t involved, you didn’t catch a bad break, and the sooner you understand that the better off you’ll be for the next time.

Casinos are beating you because the math dictates that they will eventually. You’re losing in the poker room because you’re not that good at poker. It’s pretty simple.

Luckily, you can fight back. But not until you accept that you’ll have to work at your craft.

Nearly every casino game has ways to reduce the house edge. Poker is as simple as being better than the player across from you.

Do your work at home before you ever hit the casino floor.

Conclusion

All casino games are designed to slowly siphon your money away. That’s how they keep their businesses operating! So, there’s no way to ensure that you won’t lose in the casino.

I can guarantee you that avoiding these nine gambling mistakes will save you some money.