The Most Important Gambling Decision – Entertainment or Profit

Gambling can be fun, and it can be agonizing. But gambling can also be profitable if you work hard and put in the time required to build certain skills. The gambling industry wants the activity of gambling to be entertaining. But players who focus on having fun aren’t doing what they need to do to make a profit, so they keep putting money in the pockets of casino owners.

The truth is that being a winning gambler isn’t fun. It’s always nice to win, but advantage gambling is serious business, and it doesn’t leave that much room for entertainment. The good news is that you have a choice. You can continue losing and just be entertained, or you can stop messing around and start winning real money gambling.

The Decision

Everything starts with a decision. You can decide to continue losing, exchanging money for entertainment, or you can decide to do what you need to do to start earning profits. The easy way is to keep doing what you’re doing now and hope that you get lucky sometimes. Maybe, once in a while, you’ll walk away with a little more money than you started with.

The decision to start gambling for profit is relatively easy to make. But the path to profitable gambling is hard. I urge you to decide to gamble for a profit and back it up with action and work to make your goal become a reality.

Make a decision right now. Accept the fact that you’re going to keep losing so you can be entertained, or change the way you gamble and start winning. Giving up some entertainment for profit is a small price to pay, but you’re the only one who can decide what you want.

Gambling for Entertainment

I’m not judging your decision to continue gambling for entertainment. If this is what you want to do, there’s nothing wrong with it. Gambling can be fun and entertaining, and millions of people enjoy it every year.

You can do several things to help you get more entertainment value without changing much from what you do now. You can still gamble for entertainment and forget about the extra work that advantage gambling requires.


Here are some easy ways to get more entertainment value from gambling.

Bankroll

When you gamble for entertainment, you exchange money for fun. This really isn’t much different than when you pay to see a movie or go to an amusement park. Of course, when you gamble for entertainment, sometimes, you win. This means that when you get lucky, you get entertained and win a little money.

And when you go to a movie or amusement park, you have to pay to be entertained. When you gamble for entertainment, you have to have money to gamble with, which is called a bankroll. The bigger your bankroll, the more you can gamble before running out of money.

The way to get more entertainment is to start with a bigger bankroll. But you can also get more entertainment on the same bankroll you have now if you make smaller bets and/or play games with a lower house edge.

Games to Play

Some gambling activities cost more to play than others. The minimum bet varies from game to game, but it’s not the only thing that’s involved in the cost of the entertainment. Some games have a lower house edge than others, and the best games take your money slower than other games.

You also need to be aware of how fast games play. Because even with a lower average bet, if a game plays more hands or spins per hour, it might still cost more to play in the long run.

When you take all of these things into consideration, you can come up with a list of games you can play that help your bankroll last longer. Always make the minimum possible bet on these games to make your bankroll last.

Here are the best games to extend your bankroll.

• Baccarat
• Blackjack
• Craps
• Video poker
• Poker
• Sports betting

You need to learn and use some basic strategy in these games to keep a low house edge, but most of them are simple.

If you learn which machines have good pay tables and learn the proper video poker strategy, you should play slower than most video poker players. You have control over how fast or slow you play, and if you play slower, you don’t drain your bankroll as fast.

Playing Online

One of the best ways to get more entertainment value is to gamble online. You can usually get a deposit bonus when you play online, which gives you more money to gamble with. You also can control how fast you play, so you can stretch your bankroll by playing slower. The minimum bet is also smaller in most online casinos than in land based casinos, so you don’t risk as much on every hand or spin.

Gambling for Profit

If you’re reading this section, you’re at least considering giving up gambling for entertainment and are thinking about playing for profit. It’s impossible to cover everything you need to know to start gambling for profit on one page, but I’m going to give you everything you need to know to get started.

Value and Mindset

Gamblers who play for profit instead of entertainment have a different mindset. They know that some gambling activities can return a profit, and they learn how to take advantage of this fact. Winning gamblers look for a way to make money, then master the knowledge and skills required to do it.

Winning gamblers also understand something called value. This starts with understanding the house edge and learning different ways to alter the house edge. In some forms of gambling, like poker, smart players learn what expected value is and how to use it to make money. Sports bettors look for lines that offer value, and place bets on the side offering the most value.

If you want to be a profitable gambler, start by learning everything you can about the house edge and value. Just remember, none of this really matters until you decide to become a winning gambler. It’s not enough to say you want to win. You have to make a decision and back it up with consistent action.

Games to Master

The fact is that you can’t play any game you want and have a realistic chance to make a profit. Only certain gambling activities are designed in a way where you can use strategy and knowledge and skills to turn a profit.

Slot machine players are always hoping they hit a big jackpot and always hoping to win more than they lose, but the fact is that you can’t make a profit playing slots. The same is true for roulette, craps, baccarat, almost every video poker game, and almost every table game in the casino.

You can work as hard as you can, learn as much as you can, and practice as much as you can, and still not be able to make a profit playing these games. This means that you have to find out which gambling activities can be beat then learn how to do it.

The main gambling activities you need to consider are blackjack, sports betting, and poker. You can also consider betting on horses and dogs if this is something you like.

In order to play blackjack for a profit, you need to become a master card counter. This isn’t as hard as most people believe, but it does take quite a bit of work. You start by learning how the rules change the house edge and then learn how to use blackjack strategy. Then pick a good card counting system and get to work.

Sports betting is hard to make profitable, but with enough practice and work, you can learn how to handicap games and find profitable betting lines.

Poker offers a good opportunity to make a profit, but you have to spend a great deal of time mastering expected value and strategy. It’s worth the effort because once you learn what you need to know you can profit for the rest of your life.

Horse and dog racing is also hard, but some gamblers are able to evaluate races and make profitable bets. You need to learn how pari-mutuel gambling works so you know what you need to do to make profitable wagers.

Conclusion

Decide right now if you want to continue gambling for entertainment or are willing to do what it takes to start gambling with an advantage. If you decide to stick with entertainment, use the tips on this page to help you stretch your bankroll to get as much entertainment as possible.

If you decide to start gambling for profit, start working on it immediately. Begin learning as much as possible about the games that give you a real chance to win, and keep practicing to improve your skills!