One of the most popular articles we’ve published on Flip The Switch is regarding going to the physical casino on a budget. We recently were asked if our tips applied to online casinos as well. They do, but we think there’s some helpful twists specifically to playing online that we think are worth calling out.
So let’s revisit some of our advice, and add in the online twists.
Setting Gambling Budgets
One thing that we always advise players is to set a budget. The same holds true for playing online. But where with a casino you have a discrete and separate visit each time you want to play, online can feel more porous. So instead of setting a per session budget, you might want to think about it as a daily, weekly or monthly budget, given you can sign in and out at will.
The online wrinkle is there are tools to set these deposit or loss limits on your account. Each provider handles this slightly differently, but they all tend to have them in some form or another. This can help ensure you don’t spend more than you prefer to do so.
Even better, if you try to change them, many of them have a cooling off period of sorts first before the new settings take effect, ensuring you can’t go on tilt and suddenly try to spend more than you had planned.
Setting Time Limits
Our same advice about setting time limits also applies here, and perhaps even more important given what we noted earlier about the easier accessibility. Many of the sites will pop up alerts periodically to remind you how long you’ve been playing, which is helpful. Some will let you establish time limits, but this is less common.
We recommend setting limits, and like any other casino visit you’d do in person, take breaks! It can be easy to casually spin while doing other things going on, but the more spins you take with a game that has an edge towards the casino, the more you’re expected to lose over time, so set limits that make sense for you.
Calibrate Your Bets
In our physical casino article we cautioned against overbetting vs. your bankroll. If you have $100 and start doing $5 spins, you could run out of money quite quickly. The same is of course true online – we recommend smaller bet sizes on lower budgets, because it can help you ride out droughts between bonuses or big wins.
But with online slots one great benefit is that there’s many that allow bets that are smaller than the in-person equivalents. The broader array of bets, including bets as low as a few cents a spin, can give players a lot more choice, but more importantly give us the chance to play at levels we can afford and get a good amount of play.
Limit How Much Goes Into Each Game
This is another tip we recommend in general. While you can’t “feed” a small amount into each machine like you can at the casino, setting a natural stop point should you run out of money on a particular game, you can still set a stop point for each game and move on if it doesn’t work out.
Keeping an eye on your balance, and setting stop points, can be a great way to avoid chasing losses, and also allow you to pace yourself a bit by exiting out and moving on to something else.
Set Aside Some Winnings
When in a casino you can put cash in a different pocket, a Winners Bank, or some other method of locking in a win. With an online casino it’s not quite as easy, but you can withdraw at any time.
Some casinos limit how many pending withdrawals you have at a time, but it’s still a good habit to lock in a win periodically so you can walk away a winner, and have budget for another session down the line.
Takeaway
Although online casinos can work differently in some ways, the general basic tips still hold up. Only play with your entertainment budget, have fun, and take steps to protect yourself from splurging too fast!
