How to Go from Casino Newbie to Gambling Expert in No Time

Most of the pages on the internet about how to become a gambling expert are garbage.

If you’re a newbie to casino gambling, I’ll tell you why many of these articles are harmful to your development.

First, you can’t play a game with a negative mathematical expectation professionally — unless you’re in the business of losing money. No gambling system or strategy will allow you to negate the house advantage in games like roulette or slots.

Blackjack, though, is a horse of a different color.

An important aspect of going from newbie to a gambling expert is understanding which casino games can be profitable and which ones are for suckers. With that in mind, here’s how to go from casino newbie to gambling expert in no time:

Table Games vs Gambling Machines

You can generally categorize any casino games into 2 distinct classes:

• Gaming machines
• Table games

And table games are better than gambling machines in almost every metric.

To become a casino gambling expert, you need to learn 3 main games:

• Blackjack
• Craps
• Roulette

Note that I’m assuming you want to be an expert recreational gambler – if you want to become a professional gambler, the only realistic option on that list is blackjack.

Gambling machines are simple – mostly, you’re looking at slot machine games and video poker games.

Casino games — by design — give the house an inherent mathematical edge over the gambler.

This is how the casinos generate profits. In fact, without the house edge, it wouldn’t be called gambling. It would be called winning.

The bottom line:

With any casino game – unless you’re using some kind of advantage gambling strategy – you’ll lose money if you play long enough.

But you’ll lose money at a slower clip if you’ll stick to the table games.


Here’s why:

You’ll make fewer bets per hour – putting less money into action per hour – on the table games. An average slot machine or video poker player makes 500 bets per hour. Even the fastest table games only result in 200 bets per hour, and most of them are dramatically slower than that.

How Odds Work with Casino Games

You already know that the casinos get all that cash from the games, but you may not know precisely how that’s achieved.

You’ll always be a newbie until you recognize how the casinos pull this off. The first thing to grasp is how odds work.

• Odds are the likelihood of winning at something contrasted with the odds of losing.
• Odds also describe the ratio between your possible win and your possible loss.
• Odds are always ratios.

So, a single number bet in roulette offers 37 to 1 odds of winning.


The bet pays off at 35 to 1 odds.

The first number – the odds of winning — says that 37 times out of 38, on average, you’ll lose. One time out of 38, you’ll win.

The second number – the payout odds – says that if you win, you’ll get 35 betting units back for every single unit you bet. For example, if you bet $10, you’ll win $350 if you win.

Notice the difference? That discrepancy between the payout odds and the odds of winning is how the casinos make money. This principle applies to every game in the casino.

How Slot Machine and Video Poker Game Odds Work

When you’re discussing table game payouts, the odds are expressed on an X to Y basis. But with gambling machines, the odds are expressed on an X for Y basis.

The difference is the word “to” versus the word “for.” That distinction between “to” and “for” is significant.

If you win at a table game, you keep your initial wager plus your win. On a slot machine, you get your winnings, but lose your initial wager. (You’re trading your stake “for” the winnings.)

Imagine you wager $1 on a specific number in roulette and win. You’ll be putting $36 in your pocket, your initial $1 plus the $35 win. On a slot machine, your same $1 will net you $35.

You traded that single dollar for the $35.

You won’t ever know the payback percentage for a specific slot machine. Slots typically have the highest house edge in the building, but without knowing the odds of getting each symbol, you can’t know what the house edge is.

Contrast this with table games, where the odds of winning are obvious based on the game conditions.

You have 38 numbers on a roulette wheel, so the probability of getting a specific number is 1/38. You don’t know how the symbols are weighted on a slot machine reel, though.

Watch Your Casino Gambling Bankroll

You shouldn’t expect to double your bankroll in one session.

You can, though.

For example, you could bet your entire bankroll on a single hand of blackjack. If you win and take the money and run, you’re a winner. And you’ve double up.


In roulette, for example, you could even lose 33 straight spins and still come out ahead if you hit your number on spin 34.

But when you start talking about the average over thousands or even hundreds of rounds, the odds begin showing their true colors.

That’s why the casino remains unfazed when you get a lucky win or two. They know that’s par for the course.

They’re trading 95 cents for a dollar, repeatedly, with hundreds and thousands of casino gamblers per day. 24/7, 365.

Slot Machines Eat Bankrolls for Breakfast

For the average gambler, nothing weighs more heavily on your expected losses than how many bets you’re making an hour.

Roulette — at 35-40 spins an hour — is a snail’s pace when compared to slots.

Slot players can make upwards of 500 to 600 bets every hour.

Now factor that into the house edge on a slot machine. It’s at least 5%, but more often, it’s closer to 10%. And, in some areas, slot machines have a house advantage of up to 25%.

Pretend you’re playing at a machine with a relatively low house edge of only 5%. You decide to keep it small at $1 each spin – which is 1/10 of the size of your average bet at roulette.

You’re still putting $600 in action every hour.

Your expected loss is $30. And that’s assuming you get lucky and land on a good machine.

In roulette, you know the house edge is 5.26%.

You won’t have any idea about a slot machine’s house edge.

States usually have laws stipulating what is acceptable when it comes to payback percentages.

But it’s always a big enough number for the casino to make a tremendous profit.


No matter what game you tackle on the casino floor, you need to learn how to properly manage your casino bankroll. Otherwise, you will likely end up leaving dejected after blowing your whole bankroll in a short time.

Calculating the average hourly projected loss is the first step in managing your bankroll.

Learn How to Play Casino Games

You may be under the impression that the biggest key to becoming a gambling expert is knowing how the games are played.

And that IS imperative.

But it’s also the easiest thing about becoming a casino gambling expert.

Casino games are designed to be user-friendly.

In fact, if a game can’t be taught easily to a gambler in a couple of minutes, it won’t get played.

And since games that aren’t being played won’t make the casino any money, they don’t get exposure on the casino floor.

Casinos go to great lengths to make it elementary to learn the basics of their games.

Even craps, an intimidating casino game for newbies, isn’t hard once you comprehend the basics.

You can learn how to play all the major casino games online. You can find free versions of almost any casino game you could dream of online.

And casinos usually hold classes on how to play the table games. You can find these offered for free during slow periods on the casino floor. Just ask one of the casino employees, and they’ll gladly get you a schedule.

The classes are a good way to learn the basics, but ignore the dealer’s well-intention but often mistaken strategy advice.

Play Smarter, Not Harder

A real casino gambling expert play smart but not hard. She grasps the pros and cons of any casino game and plays accordingly.

For example, a gambling expert knows that when using basic strategy in blackjack the house edge is below 1%.

Your average gambling expert also knows that the pass or don’t pass bets are your best choice when playing craps. Their house edge of 1.41% and 1.36% make those some of the best bets in the casino.

But most of them stroll by the massive bank of slots without breaking stride.

They understand that the odds are so minuscule that they’ll never hit big on a single pull or even a thousand.

It isn’t that the experts hate money.

It’s quite the opposite.

The expert gambler decides what end result they are aiming for and plays accordingly.

Conclusion

How do you go from casino newbie to gambling expert in no time?

For starters, learn the house edge for different playing styles for a variety of games. Then try out the free versions or play at home to understand and become comfortable with the gameplay.

After you’ve done this, try out your new skills in the casino.

Playing for money helps you gain much-needed confidence. Take notice of the amount of fun you’re having relative to how much you’re spending each hour.

If you’re trying to go from casino newbie to gambling expert in no time, you’ve got your work cut out for you.

This guide represents the first steps on the path to success.