I have gambled a lot in my day, and the majority of that over the years whilst creating content for my YouTube channel. I am very good at teaching you tips and tricks, and it all stems from screwing it up first on my own, haha. So I’ll try to cover a few mistakes you should learn from me.
Get Off the Machine
Oh my goodness, the hardest lesson to learn is WHEN to get off a machine. Keeping to a strict budget on a per machine basis is the best method to ensure you don’t get burned like I have. After a night at the casino, I can ALWAYS remember which machines I stayed on too long for – and if I added up all the losses from those, they equate to the majority (if not all) of my losses for the night. I have literally sat at Lightning Link betting $5 a spin and lost $1,000 without a single bonus. I’ve done the same on Dragon Link at the $10 bet and I can remember many more instances that are ingrained in my head. My suggestion – just use a $20, $50 or $100 in every machine you play. If you lose it, walk away. You can always come back to it later. Just don’t keep feeding those bills as your eyes gloss over in a matrix of sorts waiting for a non-guarantee to occur.
The Best Offers Are Usually the Worst
I’ve been lured to drive 6 hours to a casino because they offered a free BBQ only to find out, I only get the basic model IF I hit 5,000 points on my players card, but with another 15,000 points I get the deluxe version. (fooled me twice!) OR, you actually do drive 6 hours and get the BBQ, but then you have to gamble enough while there in order to keep more offers coming only ending up losing MORE money than the BBQ was worth. Would you actually pay $2000 for a BBQ you didn’t really need in the first place? Or on the opposite end, did you really just drive 45 minutes to get a kitchen tool set worth $10 that you didn’t even need? Read the fine print, and only spend the money at the casino you want to spend at the casino.
Tier Levels
This ties into the last point. I’ve gone to a casino just in order to get 20,000 points in order to keep my high tier status. If you take into account all the money you could lose in order to reach that, it may not be worth it in the end. I actually thought I was so smart once. I needed 50,000 tier points and knew the casino gave a ton of points if you bought concert tickets. So I proceeded to spend $1,000 in concert tickets in order to resell them and get the points. Well, turns out I couldn’t sell all the tickets and I ended up with tickets I couldn’t use and spending money for them. Chances are the next tier level perks aren’t worth the extra money you may lose on the deal, so just be happy with what you have.
Double Dipping
An early mistake I made in Vegas, was giving my friends my free rooms to use so we could all hang out together. I didn’t realize (i was super new to Vegas) that by using a room, they expected you to play a bunch in order to ‘pay’ for it. So all of my awesome perks and giveaways disappeared over night, and all my cheap friends had a great experience that cost me instead of them. Only use your deals for yourself, unless you never plan to go there again.
Debit and Credit Cards
First off, bringing a credit card is the biggest mistake you can make (and I used to do it when I was new to gambling in my twenties). Aside from it being a bad idea because you’re using money you don’t have to gamble with, you are also immediately charged fees. So that $100 you just took out could end up costing you $130, so now you need to make 30% more on the slots just to break even. NEVER use a credit card and just leave the debit card at home while you’re at it. Bring only the cash you are able to lose while keeping within your entertainment budget.
The More, Not the Merrier
I used to play at every casino I could, splitting up my bank roll amongst them all. Although I was always smart enough to use my players card, I didn’t realize that I was hurting my offers in the long run. I was playing less money for shorter spurts of time at 5 casinos and getting $10 offers. When I finally figured it out, I decided to put all my eggs in one basket and my overall offers improved. Play more time at one casino and your offers (and tier level) will improve.
Here on Flip The Switch we discuss the worst mistake players make at the casino, including some of YOUR ideas!
Line it up,
