Safe gambling is often in the headlines these days. And rightly so. It is true that online gambling can cause serious harms. That is not “scaremongering” or “project fear” it is the truth. It is also the truth that it’s possible to play online gambling game safely and for fun.
But – until new regulations of some sort are introduced – a lot of the responsibility for playing safely falls on to the player. And, you need to be in a good place to do this.
You Can’t Beat Random
The first thing you need to internalise is that the games you’re playing are genuinely random. There is no secret technique or a single piece of information that will help you win – it’s luck.
You should also internalise that you will probably lose. These games are set up to deliver random results, but within a framework that is designed to deliver a profit to the casino. That profit is player losses.
The best way to stay safe is to play only with money you can afford to lose, and to play for fun, not even to win cash at all – put it out of your mind.
While there’s no playing technique that will help you win, you can learn to manage your money for a better, safer, and maybe longer lasting hobby.
Manage Your Bankroll
Risk and probability are complex and fascinating areas of study. If you really want to go deeply into them you will probably have a better understanding of gambling and how it works.
However, you don’t need to do that study and can improve your play with a very simple understanding of risk.
So bankroll management is risk management.
The first rule you should use is that you can’t lose what you don’t gamble. So, only ever gamble within your spending limits.
Set a Limit and Stick to It
Before you even start work out how much you want to spend on your gambling in a single session, in a day, a week, or a month. Make sure it is money that you can afford to spend – that is, that you may never see again, you should always account as if you’re going to lose every penny you spend on gambling.
Don’t deposit more than you can afford to spend in your casino account. E-wallets can be useful to help you do this. If you only use your PayPal account, for example, to gamble with, you can segregate your PayPal account from your other accounts and keep it empty or cashed up to your limit and no further.
On a Single Spin
Once you’ve decided how much you want to spend you should decide how you want to spend it. It is foolhardy in the extreme to start betting all or even a large proportion of your allowed balance in one wager.
Better still set a single-wager limit as a proportion of your total funds. Say 10% or even 1% – remember if you basically forget about the cash, you’re playing for fun.
You can either stick with 10% of your original funds or take in wins or losses, so you’re reassessing on each spin.
This might mean moving tables if you’re playing on live casino tables.
Know Your Games
A little technical knowledge will help you pick the games that will give your bankroll more of a lifespan.
Games are rated by variance or volatility, by hit rate, and by the theoretical return to player.
These ratings are included in good reviews – like ours! – and although they’re not very precise measurements they work as a decent general guide to game performance. In fact, they’re the only one you’re likely to get.
The variance of volatility tells you whether a game will pay out bigger prizes less often (high variance) or smaller prizes more often (low variance).
Hit rate tells you what percentage of spins should produce wins. It’s usually a single figure, so a Hit Rate of 20 tells you that 1/5th of spins ought to be wins.
RTP is a theoretical return to player, and it records the percentage of the money that is deposited in a game that should be returned to players.
These are very general guides, but looking for games with higher RTPs and hit rates is likely to make your money last longer.
You can modify your stakes to take account of this. Play with slightly larger stakes at games with lower volatility, and lower stakes with higher volatility games, for example, and you should see your stake of chips living longer.
Realism is your friend
A realistic understanding of gambling, how it works, and what you can expect will help you have a better and healthier relationship with it.
Think of gambling as entertainment. Something that you have to pay for. You wouldn’t expect to watch a football match or play a video game for free – think of online gambling in the same way.
If you go into your gambling expecting to win (or even worse needing to win) then you are potentially putting yourself in a position to get into trouble. Expecting to win, is going to make you upset when you don’t, and playing while upset, or to try to regulate your feelings is a shortcut to getting into trouble.
So, manage your money sensibly and manage your feelings too.
The Tools at Your Disposal
You can do a lot to keep yourself safe with money management, and increasingly sites are helping you to do this. You can set deposit and withdrawal limits, for example, and you should certainly do this. Also – at some UK casino sites – you can set limits on the time you play and limit losses. You can also give yourself time-outs, and you can do this pre-emptively if you like so you’re guaranteed a gambling free day a week, for example.
Money management is a simple and effective way you can have a real impact on your gambling experience with almost no effort and you’d be foolish not to use this tool.
