Poker Articles

Managing Your Money and Bankroll, Part 5
By Lou Krieger and Arthur Reber

This is the final in our series on bankroll management. In this last installment we want to provide some advice to the average gambler -- who sooner or later is going to hit that ugly point called "gambler's ruin" -- a flatlined bankroll. If you're a gambler and your gaming bankroll is empty, you're done, you're toast, you've got nothing to gamble with.

You've got several possibilities; the most sensible is probably to just go home. But most folks don't. They look around for another source of cash. If you decide to keep playing, we recommend casino credit. In fact, using casino credit has a number of safeguards built into it that make it an ideal way for recreational gamblers to cobble together a gambling bankroll.

If this seems a bit odd, because gambling debts may not legally collectable, casinos are very careful about setting up credit lines. They typically will not allow you to extend yourself in financially dangerous ways. They can act as governor on your bankroll -- even when you lack the resolve.

How Using Casino Credit Can Help You
Bring one credit card with you, and one only -- the card you plan to use to charge your room, rental car, and incidental purchases. Lose the rest of your credit cards and your ATM card too. They are another temptation you don't need and probably can't resist; so leave it where it can't do you any harm, at home, right on top of your dresser. Bring just enough money to cover the cost of your trip.

All your gambling can now be done well within your means by using casino credit wisely. And once it's gone, that's it. No more gambling for you, big guy. Establishing casino credit is easy, and the best time to do it is before you ever get to the hotel. Many hotels allow you to apply for casino credit on line. You can also apply by phoning the hotel you plan to play at and speaking with the casino cage or cashier. Ask for a credit application so you can cash checks 24/7 during your next visit. Just fill it out -- it's no more difficult than any other credit application -- and return it prior to your next trip. Follow up with a phone call about two weeks after you've mailed the application to the casino, and there you have it: credit and access to money.

You can also apply for casino credit on site -- it's nothing more sophisticated than check cashing privileges really -- by going to the casino cage or the VIP desk. Even if it's a weekend or holiday, the casino may extend a limited amount of credit until they can check your bank references. Because they want you to gamble, and because you may be a very credit worthy individual, the casino may extend more credit than you want. To nip temptation right now, before you've been gambling and losing and looking for an infusion of money to try and recoup your losses, you might ask the casino to limit your credit to a specific amount. That way you've put a governor on your accelerator, and you can't play on money you don't have.

Once your casino credit is established, personal checks up to your limit can be cashed at the casino cage, or you can take a marker right at the table. A marker is nothing more than a casino check that you endorse. It allows you to borrow money against your credit line. You can pay it off before you leave, or it will be charged against your account like a regular check.

If you lack the discipline and willpower to restrict your gaming, the very best way to keep yourself from a few financial indiscretions is to limit your gambling to a predetermined credit limit. Harsh medicine to be sure, but it will force you to live within your means. Trust us, you'll be glad later.

Asking For Freebies
When you're playing don't forget to ask the pit boss to rate your play, and when you're done, ask for a comp. You may get one; you may not. Even if you don't rate a freebie in one of the restaurants, some casinos will give you a line pass. It costs the casino nothing to issue one, and if they think you'll be back at the tables sooner because you were able to vault to the head of the line, they're happy to oblige. While a line pass won't save you any money, it does take you right to the front of that line full of people waiting to be seated in the buffet or coffee shop.

Most players are in agreement on this one: if the choice was paying for food but bypassing the line versus a free trip to the buffet that required waiting 90 minutes to be seated, it's the line pass every time, no contest. When we're hungry, we're like most people: We want to eat N-O-W. Yes, we're as irascible as two-year olds when hungry, but let's face it; this is vacation, and who wants to spend it waiting in line?

Unless you are a very big player and the casino feels the need to offer you a few goodies just to ensure that you don't take your action down the boards you won't get a comp without asking. With your relatively small bankroll, you are more a low-roller than a high one, and not apt to be comped unless you ask. So go ahead; don't be shy. You've nothing to lose, and you deserve it. Really. After all, losing a few hundred dollars always feels a little bit better once a free trip to the buffet or coffee shop is thrown in. And it feels a lot better for your food and wait in a long line too.

Casinos Close to Home: Paradise or Perdition?
With gaming opportunities mushrooming as casinos open closer to home, you might find yourself living a lot closer to a casino than the old five-hour plane ride. If you live near a casino, setting a gaming budget and sticking with it is even more important than it is when you have to travel a relatively long way before you can belly up to the tables.

It's easy to nickel and dime yourself into real privation, and care has to be taken to stick to a budget and to be absolutely certain that the money you're wagering is truly discretionary. Gambling should be the last priority when deciding how to spend your hard-earned wages, not the first. Only you know whether you're gambling too often and not wisely enough. If you can afford it, by all means, indulge yourself. But if gambling begins to cut into the money you need for other purposes, such as food, shelter, and keeping your kids healthy and fed, it's a problem, and one that can only be solved either by gambling less or becoming a winning gambler.

The Bottom Line
In gambling the only real bottom line is the one that moves along with you throughout your gambling life. Are you ahead for your life, or are you down? That's all that really matters. But players who go to a casino for a few days or a week a couple of times a year tend to think of their bottom line in terms of how much they won or lost that particular visit. The IRS, which takes a close look at those who gamble, looks at your bottom line on an annual basis. Whether or not you owe Uncle Sam taxes is based on whether or not you turned a profit within a given calendar year. But a year is just as arbitrary a unit of time as any other measure.

Restricting your focus to the results you achieve in any one visit to the casinos, or even to any one year, can be a slippery slope because you will be focusing primarily on what has happened in a short period of time and using a relatively short sample too. It takes a long time and a large number of events before things can be expected to start evening out. By focusing on a single-day or single-session bottom line, one is easily seduced into making bad plays to "get out." And now you know why racetracks offer a trifecta or superfecta on the last race of the day: While it's a chance for the player to get out, it's more likely that an even greater loss will be sustained.

The solution, of course, is not to think of how well you do this session, or today, or for your entire vacation. Take the long view instead, pay attention to your bankroll, and have fun.