In this article we're going to cover the art of money management as it applies to gambling.
Money management is important in all walks of life, where any type of investing or spending is involved. Because of the risks involved in gambling, especially in casino gambling, money management is more important than even knowledge of the game itself. Unfortunately, most novice gamblers don't understand how important this is or even that they should do it. Hopefully, this article will help the novice gambler understand how to better manage their funds when hitting the casinos.
So what exactly is money management? Well, it's what it sounds like. It's managing your money in such a way while at the gaming tables so that you minimize the possibility of loss. This is in direct opposition to those who go to the gaming tables for the sole purpose of winning as much money as they can, money management be damned.
Okay, so how is this money management accomplished? It starts with understanding the odds of the game you are playing.
Let's take the game of roulette. A roulette wheel consists of 38 numbers; 18 black, 18 red and 2 green. Trying to gain the best chance of winning at this game you want the odds to be as close to your favor as possible. In this case betting either red or black or for that matter odd or even will give you the best odds. What exactly are those odds? By dividing 18 black, red, odd, or even numbers (they're all the same) by the total numbers on the wheel, which are 38, you get a percentage of 47.36%. Those are your chances of winning on any one spin of the wheel.
So what does this have to do with money management? Everything.
For every 100 spins of the wheel, on average, you are only going to win 47 of those spins. So if you were to bet, say, $10 on each spin of the wheel eventually you would be on the minus side. Why? Because you would win 47 times for a profit of $470 and lost 53 times for a loss of $530. Adding those numbers together you come up with a net loss of $60. So in this case you did not manage your money properly given the odds of the game.
So then the question becomes, how DO you manage your money even though in the long run you are going to lose more than you are going to win?
By realizing that after a win you are most likely going to have a loss. Therefore, after the win, betting $10, you want to bet less than $10 on your next wheel spin. That can be anywhere from $9 down to the table minimum, which in most cases will be about $5.
Let's take a look at what happens now. Let's say after each $10 win we drop down to $5 and then we lose the next spin. If this pattern continues for 100 spins taking into consideration that will are going to have 3 wins less than the 50 we would like since it's not exactly 50-50, we come away with a profit of about $225. Quite a big difference from the $60 loss we experienced betting $10 on each spin. By managing our money we took the same odds with the same number of wins and losses and turned a negative into a positive.
That is money management as it applies to gambling. Take the same principal, figure out the odds for the game and that will determine how much to bet for each spin, roll, or deal at the table.
