Introduction to Slots Money Management Tips

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Unfortunately, slots players typically spend any of their winnings before ever leaving the casino. A simple change of habit would let them instead leave as winners. I’ll briefly review each of my eleven practical slots money management tips.

There is a lot of slots money management advice on the internet, but it appears to be all jumbled up with myths and misunderstandings of the slot machine gaming industry. To provide you with some helpful clarity, I’ve broken up my eleven sensible slots bankroll management tips into four equally essential areas including:

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Preparation beforehand
To-do immediately upon arrival
While playing slots
After-action debriefing

Throughout, I’ve provided links to other articles with details about specific slots topics, which, if discussed here, would distract us from our primary focus of how to keep our slots winnings.

This slots money management article has the following sections:

Introduction to Slots Money Management Tips
What is Negative EV, and Does It Apply to Slot Machines?
Repeating the Golden Rule of Gambling
Practical Tip #1: Preparation – Budget Your Gambling Bankrolls
Practical Tip #2: Preparation – Don’t Borrow Money to Win
Practical Tip #3: Preparation – Leave Your ATM Cards at Home
Practical Tip #4: Preparation – Review Your State’s Gaming Returns
Practical Tip #5: Upon Arrival – Visit the Players Card Desk/Kiosk
Practical Tip #6: Upon Arrival – Pick a Money Management Strategy
Practical Tip #7: When Playing – Limit Losses with Loss Limits
Practical Tip #8: When Playing – Preserve Gains Systematically
Practical Tip #9: When Playing – Pros and Cons of Emotional Control
Practical Tip #10: Debriefing – Get Accountability with a Team
Practical Tip #11: Debriefing – Practice Improves Discipline
Summary of Slots Money Management Tips

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What is Negative EV, and Does It Apply to Slot Machines?

Unlike craps and blackjack, which are so-called “negative EV” games, you can consistently win at slots over the long-term. EV stands for earned value, which is a statistical term for the more general word “average.” It means that on average, over time, everyone loses at craps and blackjack.

Why? Because the rules of the game say so. The math behind those games say so. Because of those odds, that’s why casinos like to offer craps and blackjack. With them, casinos have a house edge.

There was a short time when blackjack wasn’t a negative EV game for everyone. Players learned to do simple math in their heads to take advantage of casinos using only a few card decks. Since first developed, this card counting was itself countered by casinos with a higher number of decks, casino surveillance, and automatic card shufflers.

If left alone by casinos, slot machine gambling is also a negative EV game. But that “if” is essential. Casinos never leave them alone. They’re always tinkering with the odds of winning on their slots machines, even before the arrival of casino operating computer systems in 2012.

Casinos have business practices that change the odds of winning on slot machines. For instance, their state or tribal compact may have gaming regulations that legally require them to meet a minimum theoretical payout limit. They can only achieve this limit with the ability to adjust the odds of winning on a slot machine.

For this reason, manufacturers must provide casinos with slot machines with adjustable odds of winning. But having this feature has allowed casinos to incorporate unusual business practices which also change the odds after the casino meets their obligations to the gaming authority.

Yes, slot machines are casinos’ biggest money-maker, by far. The profit made from gaming revenue, even when giving back 93% of that revenue as winnings, is enormous for the casino. That profit pays the employees, gaming revenue income tax to the state, and generally keeps the lights on at the casino.

On average, over all slot machines, casinos make a substantial profit. But they don’t make a profit on every individual slot machine. They don’t intend to!

A typical casino business practice is having promotions including, but not limited to:

Free slot play
Adjusting a slot machine to be a winner near busy areas
Reducing odds during busy nights
Increasing odds during the first year the casino is open

Craps and blackjack are negative EV games because the rules of the game make them so. But slots are electronic devices, which makes them highly adjustable. And, yes, the casino’s ability to adjust the odds of winning electronically, even remotely, includes video poker machines.

Repeating the Golden Rule of Gambling

The golden rule of gambling is this: Never gamble more than you are willing to lose. For slot machines, never have a bankroll larger than you can safely afford to lose.

You can’t assume you’ll always win because, sometimes, you’ll lose. And when you lose, you can never afford to enter a state of financial risk. Never forget, even when you are winning, that playing slot machines is gambling.

Practical Tip #1: Preparation – Budget Your Gambling Bankrolls

If you’ve never learned personal budgeting, now is the time to learn. Determining your bankroll size for regular casino visits isn’t much different from managing your household expenses. Use your existing skills to budget your casino trips.

If you’ve never learned how to manage a budget, I recommending searching YouTube for a channel that suits your needs. There are many other fantastic budgeting channels on YouTube to choose from, including:

If you’re a young or expectant mother, Marissa’s The Budgeting Wife
For those wishing to pay off debt, Kelly’s Freedom in a Budget
A hugely popular budgeting channel is The Dave Ramsey Show

Most people go to a casino to play slot machines for its entertainment value. They take a certain amount of money to gamble with, which is known as a bankroll. How much is your bankroll?

For some, it’s $20. For others, it’s $100 or more. How much bankroll you take to a casino should be entirely based on your planned budget.

If your budget can’t afford a gambling bankroll, you can still experience the thrilling casino environment. For instance, casinos have great buffets.

Sometimes, I go to a casino due to my love of buffets. Other times, it’s to have a nice dinner with a friend.

If you can afford some amount of gambling bankroll, you’ll need to keep a financial record. Why? Because you might win money, and gambling winnings are taxable income.

Keeping a gambling record before winning at a casino is essential for getting taxes back from gambling income when filing your annual tax returns. Consult your income tax preparer for the tax rules which apply to you. For more details, see my article Keeping Gambling Records for Tax Preparation and More.

Practical Tip #2: Preparation – Don’t Borrow Money to Win

How much bankroll you take doesn’t matter. Being on a budget means you adjust your play to match your bankroll, not the other way around. Going to a casino is lots of fun for many people – it’s shouldn’t and doesn’t need to be about financial risk.

Never borrow money with which to gamble. It is possible to win money at a casino, yes, but there are no guarantees, even with my best strategies. Don’t assume you’ll come home a winner before you’ve yet arrived.

This advice not to borrow goes double for credit cards. The cashiers’ cage at a casino will be happy to give you a cash advance on any of your credit cards right up to the limit available. Avoid doing so.

Some people are unable to budget their gambling expenses. This inability is sometimes related to gambling addiction. There are various terms used for people who spend all they own on gambling, including problem gamblers and degenerate gamblers.

I’m not an addiction counselor or medical practitioner, so there is little help that I can provide. However, I’ve collected gambling helplines and other website resources at Responsible Gambling. A link to these resources is at the bottom of every one

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