When playing slots or when participating in any other gambling
activity it is important to remember you risk losing any money
you play with. You are literally gambling with your money.
Gambling can be great fun and it is possible to win large amounts
(especially if you win a big slots jackpot) but it is also possible
to lose all of your money if you don't know when to quit. So we
recommend you play with a bank roll and literally budget your
money.
As long as you do not have a gambling
addiction and you are playing for the right reasons and with
money you can afford to lose then gambling can be a great and
even beneficial pass time. But when you are playing with the rent
money and hoping you will win enough to pay for petrol in the
car then you have a serious problem and need help.
Setting up a budget (or bankroll) is really quite easy you might
decide you can afford to play with $50 a month or you might be
a high roller and decide you can afford to play with $5000 a month.
The exact amount is going to be largely determined by a number
of factors including:
1. Your stage in life.
2. Your amount of disposable income.
For example if you are young and have just got engaged then you
might well be saving for a house, so even though you might have
a fairly large disposable income it would be wise NOT to gamble
with much of it. Of course every one should have fun and so you
should still have a leisure budget, but your savings are going
to guarantee you a home and you can not guarantee you will win
the big jackpot when you gamble.
On the other hand you might be retired with no dependants and
have your home paid off with a good disposable income and in this
instance you really can afford to gamble with a higher percentage
of your income.
A good rule of thumb is to never gamble with more than 20% of
your income and a sensible amount for most people would be 10%.
So if your take home pay is $2000 a month you really should be
aiming to deposit no more than $200 a month into an online casino
(or whatever form of betting account you have).
With this figure in mind here is an example of how a bank roll
works.
January: You deposit $200 to play slots and at the end of the
month your casino account has $50 left.
February: You Deposit another $200 (so you have $250 to play
with) and you play on higher value machine and lose all your
bank roll.
March: You Deposit another $200, after playing and losing a
little you hit a decent jackpot and win $500 and at the end
of the month the money in your casino account (your bank roll)
is $575.
April: You decide not to deposit any money as you are happy
with your bank roll and instead you withdraw $200 and with your
$400 ($200 you would have put in and your $200 with drawn) you
decide to have a weekend away with your family. You lose $75
this month so at the end of the month your bank balance is $300.
May: Again you decide not to deposit as you have ample funds
in your account and you use the $200 to go out for a meal in a
nice restaurant.
And so on, you might win every month for the first 5 months
or you might lose every month for the first 5 years. You could
win a $10,000 jackpot on your first spin or you could go for
years without ever winning a penny. But that is why it is so
important to have a bank roll and to have a set budget amount
that you are happy to play with (and lose if need be).
There are many many tales about people who became addicted to
gambling and lost everything, and there are many tales about people
who played for years and won huge jackpots. There are not so many
tales about people who have just played and won a bit and lost
a bit and not really done anything impressive either way, but
it is these people who have a good chance to become the next big
jackpot winners. If you can stick to a budget and bank roll your
money you can minimize your loses and give yourself a chance to
win big.
