Tips to Help You Gamble Mines Games Bonus Responsibly While Still Having Fun
Some people use gambling as an escape from the real world. They spend hours in the casino and forget about everything else that’s going on in their lives. This can feel good in the moment but, eventually, you do still have to face the rest of your life.
Under some circumstances, gambling can actually make things worse instead of better. I’m in no way saying that gambling is the same thing as using drugs or overindulging in alcohol, but it can end up the same.
If you lose more money than you can afford, it can affect your life negatively. Gambling can be fun if you do it the right way, and you can definitely gamble as an escape, but not to the point where it becomes your only reality.
Keep in mind, this article isn’t supposed to help you solve your problems. If you’re struggling in any area of your life, you should seek the right kind of professional help.
Here are some recommendations if you want to gamble to escape from reality for a short period of time. If you find that you can’t follow this advice, you may need to learn how to gamble responsibly and seek professional assistance.
Set a Concrete Time Limit
It’s easy to forget about time and keep gambling. You’re forgetting about everything and you’re probably trying to avoid real life as long as possible. But this can quickly become unhealthy.
The best way to handle this is to decide how long you’re going to gamble before you start. Set a timer on your phone, and stop playing as soon as it goes off. I usually set a timer for one or two hours, but the time is up to you.
If I’m able to get away for an hour or two, that’s usually all I need for a mental reset. If I’m still struggling after that amount of time, I find something else to do. I tend to make poorer decisions when I’m upset about something. And poor decisions while gambling can be costly.
Though this isn’t exactly the same, another tactic I use is making a small bet on my favorite team and watching the game. This gives me two to three hours of entertainment with a single small bet.
Set a Concrete Budget
If you don’t want to set a time limit, a budget works just as well. Decide how much you’re willing to lose, and stop playing as soon as your budget runs out. This helps keep your losses under control and has the added benefit of keeping your mind working on making the best bets.
You’re likely to be tempted to get some more money out and keep playing when your bankroll is gone, but you can’t do this. If you have trouble with this, simply don’t take more money than your budget to the casino. You have to stop as soon as your budget is gone.
You can plan ahead and play games that make your budget stretch as far as possible. You have many options, including the sports betting tactic I mentioned in the last section.
You can find a casino that offers keno on a 10 or 15-minute schedule and make minimum keno bets. A $100 bankroll can last for hours doing this. Or you can find a quarter slot machine and take more time than normal between spins. Even money bets at the roulette table or playing baccarat can also make a small bankroll last for a long time.
If you’re a decent poker player, you can buy into a lower limit game for $100 or $200 and often play for hours. You might even walk away with a profit.
Pick the Right Game
I talked a little about picking the right game in the last section. The good news and the bad news is that there isn’t one right game for everyone. The best game for you isn’t always the best one for me.
When I’m trying to escape for a few hours, I play poker. I can buy into a lower limit game than I normally play so mistakes don’t cost me as much. And I enjoy the challenge of using my mind to beat my opponents. While playing good poker requires using my brain, it’s exactly what I’m looking for as a distraction.
Some gamblers want to get away from thinking, so the best game for them could be keno, slot machines, or baccarat. Craps is another game that can be played without much thought, as is roulette.
You should also choose a game that you’re fairly good at and understand. I’ve seen video poker players sit for hours at the same machine. Once you memorize the best strategy, playing a game like Jacks or Better can be played without thinking.
My wife enjoys playing bingo when she’s stressed out. Bingo tends to stress me out, so I never play. She enjoys the anticipation of winning and the social interaction between games.
As long as you set a time limit or a strict budget, the game you choose doesn’t really matter. Pick a game that you like and make small bets. It really is that simple.
Make Smaller Wagers Than Normal
I’ve touched on this a couple times above, but it’s important to remember that you’re more likely to make mistakes when you’re upset or trying not to think of something else. When you make mistakes while you’re gambling, it usually costs you money.
This is a good reason to make smaller bets than you normally make. Smaller bets help minimize your losses from mistakes. Making smaller bets also has the added benefit of letting you play longer on a smaller bankroll.
I’ve covered how to stretch a small bankroll in other articles. But I also wanted to give you a couple of quick examples here so you don’t have to search for the other pages.
I’m using a bankroll of $100 for your playing session in each of these examples, but you can easily adjust the numbers up or down based on how much you’re willing to lose.
Examples Below:
If you’re betting on sporting events, you can make nine bets of $11 to win $10 with a $100 bankroll. The odds are good that you’re going to win four or five of the nine wagers. So, you can make additional wagers after your wins. If you make a bet then watch the game, you can use $100 for 20 or more hours.
Playing blackjack or baccarat at $10 per hand at 60 hands per hour, your expected loss per hour is somewhere between $4 and $10 per hour. This is going to vary from hour to hour, but you should be able to stretch $100 over at least five or six hours.
You can play quarter Jacks or Better video poker, making a five-coin wager of $1.25, at 300 hands per hour. The expected hourly loss rate would be less than $2. Video poker is more volatile than many other casino games. This means that it’s possible to lose $100 in an hour, but it’s not likely to happen. You could also get lucky and hit a royal flush and walk away with a nice win.
Conclusion
Should you use gambling as an escape? Only you can decide if it’s the right or wrong thing to do in your situation. If you decide to gamble to forget about things for a few hours, use the tips on this page to limit your losses and stretch your bankroll.
Just make sure that you find other ways to deal with rough patches if you have a hard time following the advice above. An escape is supposed to help, not make things worse.