- Playing games with high house edges can quickly deplete your bankroll.
- Chasing losses is a very fast way to lose money at an online casino.
- Not taking advantage of bonuses is one of the biggest mistakes that players make.
We all want to win when we play online casinos, but some bad habits will guarantee that you blow through your bankroll in record time. To help you avoid this fate, I’ve gathered nine ways you might be sabotaging yourself at the virtual tables.
No matter if you’re new to the action or a seasoned pro, there are always things to learn.
Keep reading to find out what you’re doing wrong and how to turn things around.
9. Not Setting a Budget
One of the best ways to ensure you don’t blow through all your money is to set a budget. Unfortunately it’s also one of the most neglected online casino tips and advice out there.
Must-Play Hollywood Casino Mahoning Valley Golf Course AlternativesThe first step in setting a budget is deciding how much you can afford to lose. Even if you’re , not every trip is going to be a winner.
If you head into Billy’s Casino on Main with $1,000 you’re bound to run into some gamblers who will clean you out before lunchtime.
Same goes for playing online. If you’ve got $200 to spend each month on casino games, then make sure you set your online gaming budget to reflect that.
Once you know how much you can afford to lose, the next step is to divide that up into sessions and individual bets. Try and break your bankroll down into units, e.g. If you have a $200 bankroll, then 1 unit would be $2, 10 units would be $20, etc.
A good rule of thumb is to start by wagering 1 unit per game. If you loss a unit, wait until you’ve won one back before betting 2 units per game. This will help keep your bankroll afloat during the swings that are inevitable in the short term.
Apps You Can Use To Win Real Money While On VacationNever enter a casino (brick & mortar or online), without a clear idea of what you’re willing to spend and lose.
8. Betting More than One Line in Sports
Whenever I meet up with the Occasional Gambler, he always likes to place a bet on sports while we’re together. Being the good friend that I am, I always point him towards some good values I’ve found.
Unfortunately, he can’t resist the urge to bet on another team as well. When I ask him why he’s betting more than one, his answer is almost always, “I think the other one has a chance too.”
This is great thinking if you’re talking about stocks or bonds, but in sports betting it’s a recipe for losing your bankroll rapidly.
Take this NHL game between the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks as an example. If you’d placed a moneyline bet on either team to win, you’d have been giving away odds of +200 or -240.
When odds are this close, a general rule of thumb is to only bet on the money line if you think there’s one clear reason why the underdog will win, or one clear reason why the favorite will win.
In this case, there wasn’t a compelling reason to take the Sharks at +200, or the Kings -240. Especially since it was mid-November and we were only a handful of games into the season. There were 76 games left to play and both teams ended up missing the playoffs.
The better play in this situation would have been to bet on the Sharks (+200) and passed on the game altogether. This would have let us put all our eggs in one basket, instead of spreading the same amount of money over two baskets and diluting our concentration of wins.
Ways Casinos Are Using Facial Recognition Technology7. Only Playing Progressive Slots
There’s nothing wrong with playing slots, but you need to understand how the different variations pay out before you start pressing spin. Let me explain by showing you three different slot machines from Bovada Casino.
On the left we have Hot Drop Jackpots, which is a progressive jackpot slot. In the middle is Queen of Diamonds, and on the right is Atlantic Treasures.
As I write this, the progressive jackpot on Hot Drops Vegas has just paid out $135,000, and the jackpot has reset to $125,000. The next expected drop on this game is between $125,000 – $150,000.
of the Best Online Poker Sites Ranked (2023) - PokerlistingsMoving along, the king of clubs has awarded $112,000, the maximum win on the slot is $243,000, and the highest RTP any single bettor can expect to receive in a session is 20%. To make things even worse, the house edge for most of the day hovers around 13%, but jacks up to 33% after someone wins the progressive jackpot.
Comparing Queen of Diamonds to Hot Drop Jackpots, the max win is 5,000 x your bet per line and the RTP is 96%+. Atlantic Treasures offers up a max win of 12,500 x your bet per line and an RTP of 97%.
Even if you catch queen of Diamonds right at the end of a bonus, you’re still looking at a top end win of $3,125 for every $100 you bet. Contrast that with Hot Drop Jackpot, where you’d be lucky to get $31,250 for every $1,000 you bet.
Yes, you have a chance to win hundreds of thousands of dollars on a progressive slot, but the vast majority of your bets will contribute very little to that jackpot. Worse yet, once the jackpot is won, the house edge skyrockets and your bets will contribute even less to the new jackpot.
If you absolutely love the lottery like payouts of progressive slots, then by all means fire ’em up. For everyone else, focus on slots that offer a max win between 25 x your total wager to 50 times your total wager. Preferably with a high RTP and a low house edge.
Here’s a handy guide to online slot machines to help get you started.
6. Ignoring the Game’s House Edge
Every game at the casino has a built-in house edge. It’s the casino’s statistical advantage over the player and it determines which games will eat your lunch the fastest. Below are the house edges for a few different casino games.
Casino Game House Edges
Some of these numbers might surprise you. For example, many people consider roulette to be one of the better games to play because there are so many numbers. It definitely looks better than the 48.67% on American Roulette compared to the 47.85% on straight up 8/21 blackjack. However, when you factor in the 1x wager to 35x payout on the single zero roulette, the effective RTP rockets up to 98.65%. This is far better than blackjack, but keeps in mind that very few players get the strategy down so they may actually realize this number in the short term.
Awesome No Deposit Bonus Offers You Need to Try This MonthAmerican roulette, on the other hand, has a basic wager of 1 unit to 36 units paid out for a direct hit. This puts its effective RTP at 94.74%, which is worse than pretty much every single bet you can make in an online casino. And somewhere in the middle is the bane of every advantage player’s existence – the . With a house edge of 24.59%.
Knowing the house edge for each game will go a long way to making sure you don’t flush your whole bankroll down the toilet in record time.
Most Popular Online Casino Games to Play in 20235. Chasing Prior Winning Betting Systems
You’ll often hear that insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over again and expecting a different result. This is known as insanity, or chasing prior winning betting systems.
It starts off innocently enough. You bet $10 on red in roulette and it pays off in spades. Instead of switching to black for your next spin, you decide to stick with red. It works again, so now you’ve placed five bets in a row on red and you’ve won them all. What do you do?
Do you keep betting on red, or do you try for a new color?
Red was successful, so now would be a good time to chase a prior winning betting system to black. After all, it can’t be all red, right? Wrong. By chasing a prior winning betting system you’re guaranteed to lose your money. Here’s why…
In the world of probability there is something called the . It states that the probability of something occurring is not changed by past events, provided those past events are equally likely to occur.
In English, this means that no matter how many times a certain color comes up on the roulette wheel, the chances of that color coming up again versus any other color always remains at 50% (on European roulette).
Chasing a prior winning betting system in any game will make you believe that an outcome which had a X% chance of happening before, still has the same X% chance of happening in the future. But this isn’t true for other games like roulette, where each spin is a completely independent event.
So, the next time you’re riding high after successfully chasing a prior winning betting system, just remember that red will come up black exactly 50% of the time. It’s just that none of us know into whose hands Lady Luck will behanding the roulette ball today.
4. Not Taking Advantage of Bonuses
Almost every online casino will offer a bonus of some kind to new depositors. These welcome bonuses can range anywhere from 100% match on your first deposit up to 9 or 10 digits.
These bonuses all come with rollover requirements. A rollover simply means that you have to wager the bonus and the deposit a certain number of times before you’re eligible to withdraw any winnings above your original deposit.
For example, if you made a $100 deposit and the casino gave you a $100 bonus with a 30x rollover. That would mean you would have to wager $9,000 before you could submit a withdrawal request.
- $100 Deposit + $100 Bonus = $200 in your account
- 30 rolls over = $200 × 30 = $9,000
Now, I don’t want you to misinterpret what I’m saying here. I’m not suggesting you should specifically go out and chase prior winning betting systems to try and burn through these rollovers as fast as possible. Because recall that the house edge ensures that you’ll lose the majority of those wagers.
What I am recommending is that you adjust your play to find the optimal balance between clearing your bonus and minimizing your net loss on your bankroll.
There are a few key ways to do this. First, focus on maximizing your wagers when you have more money available to wager than you have already spent plus the amount of the bonus.
Let’s change the numbers around a bit to see how this impacts our rollover.
- $100 Deposit + $100 Bonus = $200 in your account
- You’ve spent $100 on wagers = $100
- $100 × 30 = $9,000
- $9,000 – $100 = $8,900 of wagers remaining to clear the bonus
At this point you’ll want to switch gears and start finding the most efficient way to wager $8,900 worth of bets. Since you’ve already lost $100, let’s say you’ve actually got $990 available to wager.
The goal is to find the game(s) that allows you to wager $990 while getting as much of that $990 to contribute toward clearing the bonus.
Slots are the easiest way to burn through cash and clear bonuses because you can max out the bet size while getting a large percentage of that bet size to count toward the rollover. Let me explain with an example using two games, single zero roulette and a penny slot machine.
On the slot machine we’re betting $5 per spin with a $1 wager on 50 pay lines. Every dollar we wager has a 3.70% wager, which means 96.30% is returned to the player as either a win, bonus extension, or some combination of both.
- $5 Wager
- $1 Wager per Payline
- 50 Paylines
- $5 = $5 × 100% goes toward net loss
- $1 × 50 paylines = $50 goes toward clearing the bonus
- Total = $55 wagered
- $55 × 3.70% wager = $2.08 average win per spin
- $2.08 in wins – $55 wagered = $52.92 in net loss
In roulette we’re betting $5 per spin with a 2.70% wager to winning neither black nor red. Every dollar we wager has a 97.30% returned to the player as either a win, bonus extension, or some combination of both.
Things First-Timers Should Know Before Playing Baccarat at a Casino- $5 Wager
- Zero wager to neither black or red
- Total = $5 wagered
- $5 wagered × 2.70% wager = $0.14 average loss per spin
Granted, on a hot streak at the slots you might end up walking away ahead of the game. But in the long term, the house edge guarantees you’ll lose more money on the penny slot machine than you would on European roulette. Yet they both cleared $1 of the bonus.
To summarize, the key is to find games that have a low net loss while still contributing a high percentage of your wager toward clearing the bonus.
You can read our detailed guide to casino bonuses and promotions to learn more.
3. Believing Roulette Numbers Are “Due”
Have you ever watched someone play rouette and as soon as the ball misses the number they’ve bet on, they move it directly to that same number to give it another shot at love?
Good Reasons to Start Playing Unibet Poker Now!These players are convinced that the law of averages dictates that the number, red/black, or odd/even/third of the wheel/column will eventually show up as frequently as its historical probability.
Except that’s not how probability works. The number red seven happened ten times out of fifty spins. Player X looks at the data and figures that the probability of red seven appearing 20% of the time.
So they put $5 on red seven for the next spin of the wheel. Surely the law of averages will even things out and their bet will hit. Right?
Wrong.
The probability of red seven occurring 20% of the time means nothing to the roulette wheel. Each spin is entirely independent of the last. There are 38 possible outcomes for each spin and the probability of red seven occurring in any given spin is a mere 2.60%.
Thinking that a number is “due” is a classic example of , and will bleed your bankroll dry every time.
Instead of trying to change your luck by revisiting numbers that haven’t shown up in a while, sit down with the and figure out the best way to take advantage of whichever betting options are available.
2. Chasing Losses
Chasing losses is a close cousin to chasing a prior winning betting system, except this time you’re convincing yourself that you’ll get that money back as soon as you find the right bet.
Amazing Slots Tips & Tricks - How to Win at SlotsMaybe you sat down at the table and got unlucky from the beginning. Or possibly you tried out a new game without practicing for free first. Either way, you’ve lost your first deposit and are now determined to bring your bankroll back into the black.
The problem with chasing losses is it flies in the face of everything we know about . Setting a budget and sticking to it is the best way to ensure you don’t lose more money than you can afford. But when you start chasing losses, all bets are off.
The quickest way to avoid this mistake is to pretend that each deposit is independent and create a budget for each one. Yes, it hurts a little more to make that fourth deposit of the week, when the third one evaporated into thin air. But unless you want to commit to funding an open line of credit with your casino of choice, you’re going to have to get used to the pain.
Even better, step away from the computer and do something else for a few days. Your emotions will be less frazzled and you’ll be able to approach the games with a fresh mindset. Just remember, practice makes perfect, so consider using the to hone your skills before making that next deposit.
1. Not Practicing Before Playing
Speaking of the practice games, this is by far the biggest mistake I see people make when playing online casinos. They fund up their account and jump straight into the action with real money wagers.
Sure, it can be tempting to skip the practice rounds and get right into the thick of things. Especially since the graphics on some of these games are amazing.
But taking the time to practice can save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. This is especially true for table games, video poker, and card games with complex decision trees. It won’t help you at the roulette wheel, but for games like 21 + 3 , it can be the difference between a winning player and a loser.
Most online casinos will allow you to play for free or for very low stakes once you fund your account. Take full advantage of this feature. Find the games you want to play for real money, and then practice until you’re confident you understand the basics. From there, fire up the free games one more time to fine tune your strategy. Only after you’ve exhausted the free games should you gradually work your way up to the minimum real money wager.
If you absolutely refuse to take the time to practice, then accept that you’re playing to entertain yourself and not to win money. Because if winning money was as easy as it looked, we’d all be doing it.
Conclusion
Get in, get your thrills, and get out with as little of your bankroll as possible heading south.
Successful gamblers treat the experience like a night on the town. There’s money set aside for gas, food, cover charges, drinks, and entertainment. Very rarely does the entertainment portion of the night eat up the entire budget. And if it does, well, they had fun while it lasted and they learned not to order another round of tequila shots next time they’re in the midst of non-gamblers.
Identify your bankroll for entertainment at the online casinos and follow these simple tips to stretch it out as far as possible. Then sit down, have a blast, and enjoy the fact that legal online gambling is available 24/7/365 from within the state of . On both desktop and mobile devices!
Footnotes:
- Monty Hall example is from
J.W. Paine is one of the most diverse writers at GamblingSites.com. He's an assembly line engineer by day and a freelance writer by night.
When he's not at his computer welding robot, he's at his computer writing about poker, casino games, horse racing, sci-fi, and most anything else to get published.
J.W. has been playing poker regularly since 2003 and has been playing
