Instead, it just improves how much money CJ can borrow from the casino, as well as his maximum wager. If he's classified as a Gambler (0.1%), he can wager up to $1,000.
You win some, you lose some. Unfortunately, for the majority of bettors, a casino trip ends in the latter.
The thrill of having a chance at hitting it big is worth the price of admission, but it would certainly be nice if consistent winning could be part of the plan – even if it’s just a small amount. You may not have stopped going back, but losing money at the casino isn’t a sustainable financial strategy.
In the following article, I’m going to lay out the most common reasons gamblers keep losing money at the casino, and then explain what you can do about it.
1 – You Don’t Have a Bankroll
It’s not the most fun part of gambling, but it’s undoubtedly the most important. Having a defined casino bankroll is the first step to avoiding big losses and managing your money effectively.
If you aren’t familiar with the term, your bankroll is the pool of money that you’ve set aside explicitly for gambling. You can create one just for a single day, or keep one going if you’re a frequent gambler.
The first thing to consider when setting up your bankroll is that it should only include an amount of money or cash that you’re willing to lose. Essentially, you should think of it like a purchase or an investment where you may or may not ever see that money again.
The reason it’s so important to have a bankroll when you enter the casino is because it’s a not-so-subtle reminder that you shouldn’t keep gambling once you’ve reached a certain loss amount. It prevents a bad day at the casino from seriously hurting you financially.
When you set aside your money, the very next step of creating a bankroll is determining a percentage or range between which you can place bets.
For example, if you have a $500 bankroll you might say that you’ll only bet between 2% and 5% of your total amount on any one bet. That means nothing less than $10, and nothing more than $25. This is important to note because it will help you realize which minimums you can afford. That $50 minimum blackjack table just wouldn’t be a prudent decision with this amount.
Keep track of your bankroll number as much as possible, and calculate where you’re at every time you take a break. Again, a bankroll isn’t the most exciting thing, but it is the most important.
2 – You Never Take Breaks
I’ll let you in on a secret – every single game in the casino (with the exception of poker) is slightly tilted in the house’s favor. That means, statistically speaking, the more you bet or play, the more likely it is that you’ll lose money.
Regardless of whether or not you’re winning, it’s crucial to step away every so often in order to recalibrate. If you’re on a hot streak this can be especially difficult, but walking away before your luck turns in the other direction might just be the best thing you can do.
It’s completely understandable that in the heat of a real money roulette or blackjack game that you’ll get sucked into the action. To combat this inevitability, try setting a 30-minute timer on your cell phone that will alert you to take a lap around the casino, use the restroom, or do any other activity besides gambling.
Even the best gamblers have a hard time thinking clearly when they’re in the middle of a streak. Don’t fall victim to this by utilizing the timer trick
3 – You’re Picking the Wrong Games
One thing that you simply can’t afford to overlook when trying to come out of the casino ahead is the games you’re playing. Yes, there are several different ones that all give you roughly the same odds, but others need to be avoided entirely.
Unfortunately, slot machines rank near the top of the list of games that should not be played by gamblers hoping to maximize their bankroll. Although they’re fun, easy, addicting, and can occasionally result in a big jackpot, the risk doesn’t match the potential reward.
Besides simply looking at the odds involved with slots, it’s important to take another factor into account – the number of turns you can run through in a short amount of time.
As I mentioned previously, all games are slightly tilted in the house’s favor. The more you bet or play, the more it’s likely that you are eventually going to have the numbers regress to the mean, which results in you losing.
With slots, you can do hundreds of spins in an hour, meaning that it’s more likely than not the statistical probabilities will come through, and that’s bad news for gamblers.
I won’t say that slot machines should never be played, but they should never be played for long periods of time. If you’re able to win money, quit before things start going the other way.
Another mistake players often make that costs them is choosing 6/5 blackjack. The majority of blackjack games pay 3/2 meaning you’ll get a higher payout if you hit blackjack.
The tricky thing about this one is that you often won’t notice the difference if you don’t actively look for it. Before playing any blackjack game, make sure it’s 3/2 and not 6/5. It’s a near guarantee that there’s one somewhere in the casino.
4 – You’re a Victim of the Gambler’s Fallacy
I see this one happening on roulette more than any other game, but it can be applied to just about everything in the casino.
For example, if in roulette the ball has landed on red 4 times in a row, it’s “due” to be black in the next couple of spins. This is an example of one of the worst casino gambling strategies.
The reality is that each spin is its own thing. The fact that it was red on the last spin, or the last 100 spins, has absolutely no impact on what the next spin will be.
It’s hard to wrap your mind around the concept, and many people would probably argue that it’s human nature to think in terms of this fallacy. However, now that you know about it, you can potentially avoid it.
5 – You Drink Too Much
You can go to the casino to have a good time, you can go to the casino to win money, but accomplishing both at the same time is difficult.
I’m not against having a few drinks while still maintaining your original gambling strategy, but if you’re drinking to the point where you start making poor decisions, your finances are not going to be in good shape.
Simply put, alcohol exacerbates the personality traits that lead to losing money at a casino. Unnecessary risk taking, thoughtless decisions, and irrational wishful thinking are exactly what the casino wants – and it’s exactly what alcohol accomplishes.
Like I said, have fun and let loose if you want – but factor that in and consider the effect it will likely have on both your bankroll and bank account.
How Much Money Have You Lost At The Casino
If you are going out with friends, regardless of it’s in Las Vegas or your hometown, consider lowering your bankroll for that trip. If it’s more about the good times than the money, prioritize accordingly.
Conclusion
Few people can consistently win money at casinos. Perhaps the reason is that most people violate one of, if not all of, the five things described in this article.
The good news? It’s never too late to change. Watch your alcohol intake, have a bankroll, choose the right games, and you’ll be on your way to being successful.
Problem gambling is a major issue for the betting industry and one that all companies are trying to find ways to solve. Those that need help should be able to get it from a number of different sources, but do they have the ability to ask for their money back if they’ve lost it as a problem gambler? The short answer is no, but it is a bit more complex than that.
There are steps that problem gamblers can take to stop themselves from being able to access their accounts and therefore gamble. The likes of self-exclusion schemes are the best way forward, but these don’t always work. In instances where that is the case, problem gamblers have been able to get the money back that they’ve lost.
How Much Money Have You Lost At The Casinos
The Definition Of A Problem Gambler
The first place to start in any discussing of problem gambling is with a definition of what the term actually refers to. After all, there’s a definite difference between someone who likes to have a flutter every now and then and someone who is addicted to gambling. Obviously problem gamblers are those that fall into the latter category rather than the former.
Problem gambling is when someone feels the continuous urge to gamble in spite of the fact that they want to stop and that the consequences of gambling are negative. The Royal College Of Psychiatrists define problem gambling as gambling that ‘disrupts or damages personal, family or recreational pursuits’. 9 people in every 1,000 are thought to be problem gamblers.
The National Health Service, meanwhile, has a list of questions for people to answer in order to help understand whether or not they’re problem gamblers. The questions include ones such as:
- Do you bet more than you can afford to lose?
- Have you tried to win back money you have lost?
- Has your gambling caused you any health problems, including feelings of stress or anxiety?
- Have you ever felt guilty about the way you gamble or what happens when you gamble?
If the majority of answers given by a person are ‘almost always’ or ‘most of the time’ then there’s a genuine chance that they’re a problem gambler.
What Options Are There For Problem Gamblers?
Just because someone is a problem gambler doesn’t mean that they’re a lost cause. There are all sorts of helpful things out there to assist people in dealing with their gambling problem, including the ability to self-exclude from being able to access gambling sites. You can self-exclude from each site individually, or you can use a service such as GamStop to cover many at the same time.
The idea behind self-exclusion is that stops you from being able to access sites that have a licence from the United Kingdom Gambling Commission for a given period. You can choose whether you want to be excluded from gambling for 6 months, a year or 5 years, whilst the Multi Operator Self Exclusion Scheme allows you to do the same thing with high street bookmakers.
If you self-exclude then you should no longer be able to place bets with the companies that you have excluded yourself from. Equally you should no longer receive marketing information from betting companies, or any inducements to gamble in any way, shape or form. The idea is to protect the most vulnerable people from gambling related harm.
Why Problem Gamblers Won’t Automatically Receive A Refund
If someone identifies as a problem gambler but continues to gamble and doesn’t look for any assistance from the likes of the MOSES or the self-exclusion scheme, they will not automatically be entitled to get money back that they’ve lost through gambling. There are many reasons for this, with the main one being that there’s nothing to prove that anyone is, indeed, a problem gambler.
Sadly people that don’t identify as problem gamblers would be just as able to request their money back as those that genuinely have an issue. People who simply don’t like the idea of losing their money could claim that they’re a problem gambler and demand their money back, so there needs to be a system to stop that from happening.
Whether we like it or not, gambling companies are businesses. Is it really fair that they should refund someone’s money after they’ve lost it? If a problem gambler doesn’t seek help and continues to gamble, is it the responsibility of the gambling company to give them back the money that they’ve lost? These are tricky questions to answer.
When A Problem Gambler’s Money Will Be Refunded
In reality, most problem gamblers do their best to seek help and gambling companies do everything that they can to help them. Those that have self-excluded should be denied access to their online gambling accounts and they shouldn’t be able to create new ones. Even people who attempt to create new accounts by changing their names or addresses should be stopped.
Of course, sometimes even the best laid plans don’t work out quite as everyone would like them to and there have been instances of people who have applied for self-exclusion still being able to login to their accounts and place wagers. Having access to accounts when they’ve specifically requested not to be able to isn’t the same as just losing money and being annoyed.
In instances where problem gamblers have still been able to place bets, the UKGC has taken a different view on the matter and has ordered online bookmakers and betting sites to return the money that has been lost. Obviously these are specific instances and fit into a different bracket to just problem gamblers wanting their money back after losing it.
Examples Of Refunded Money
There are numerous different examples of betting companies refunding money to customers when it has become clear that not enough was done to stop them from being able to bet and lose a large amount of money. In 2019, for example, a person known as ‘George’ was given a refund from a selection of companies after it was revealed that he had brain damage.
The money he gambled was compensation that had been awarded to him after he had been attacked outside a nightclub. The issue was that ‘George’ didn’t apply to GamStop or ask for his money back until after he’d lost it, so not all companies were willing to give him his money back. This was in spite of evidence that he did, indeed, have a brain injury.
Another example comes in the form of Karen Coughlan, who was one of a number of ‘vulnerable customers’ that 888 UK Limited failed to protect. She had remained able to bet with 888 despite having self-excluded, losing more than £130,000 in three weeks. That money was eventually refunded to her, with more than 7,000 people still able to bet in similar circumstances.
Over a period of eight years, an unnamed man lost more than £134,000 playing blackjack and roulette online. Though he didn’t actively try to self-exclude, lawyers argued that he showed ‘very obvious’ signs of being a problem gambler and that bookmakers should have done more to protect him. They were able to reclaim about 89% of his losses.
It’s not just in the United Kingdom where such things happen, either. In Australia the betting exchange company Betfair was forced to give back more than $150,000 after failing to ‘reasonably recognise’ that one of its customers had ‘red flag behaviours’. That included begging the company to reverse a $150,000 withdrawal request, which he then lost.
What The Law Says
The law on gambling is slightly unclear, with the Gambling Commission being responsible for coming up with the rules and regulations that betting companies must follow. If a company wishes to offer its services to a UK-based client then they’ll need to have a licence issued by the UKGC and abide by the conditions of that licence.
It’s clear from the manner in which the Labour Party has spent years trying to overhaul the legislation around online gambling that many feel that the rules and laws don’t go far enough, specifically with regards to protecting the most vulnerable. Whether bookmakers would agree with that is, of course, an entirely different matter.
Part of Labour’s objection is that the Gambling Act was made into Law in 2005 and is therefore ‘unfit for a digital age’. Incidents such as Ladbrokes agreeing to pay £1 million to the victims of problem gambling as long and they promised not to tell the Gambling Commission about it certainly raise red flags as to the usefulness of the Act in its current form.
The Gambling Commission believes that operators have what the regulator refers to as a ‘social responsibility’ towards people who use their services. This is designed to protect the most vulnerable from gambling related harm. There are three objectives within the licence issued by the UKGC that target this very thing.
The UKGC says that companies should be ‘Proactively interacting early enough and in the right way’ in order to stop customers from losing control of their gambling and may even stop them from heading down the route of self-exclusion. The thought of the Gambling Commission is that this approach will be ‘more sustainable’ for businesses in the long run.
Does The Industry Need Revising To Help Vulnerable People?
If problem gamblers are unable to get their money back without a gambling operator having broken the rules of the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, is there are argument for a complete overhaul of the Gambling Act, as Labour have been calling for? It’s certainly an argument that some have been making repeatedly in recent years.
The general thought of those behind calls for an overhaul is that the betting industry has been guilty of encouraging excessive spending from those vulnerable people that it is supposed to be protecting. On top of that, the industry has failed to to do enough to stop money laundering and is failing in its social responsibility duties.
The research is there to suggest that as many as half a million people who would class as problem gamblers, so can enough be done to protect them? Given some betting companies even profit from treating gambling addicts, does it suggest that the industry is broken? Should someone addicted to gambling be allowed to lose money at a rate of knots without any recompense?
There needs to be a balance between ‘economic freedom and social protection’, but that’s the same balance that Alan Budd was using as the basis for his review of the gambling industry in 2001 and most would argue that it hasn’t worked. Obviously it was impossible for Budd to foresee the manner in which technology would change the industry, but we know about it now.
The big question is one of time. Budd’s report was published in 2001 after a year’s worth of compiling it. It took another four years for the Gambling Act to be brought in and three more before it was implemented in its entirety. If the next Act takes as long to be made into law it wouldn’t come into effect until 2027.
In the meantime, countless problem gamblers are losing money that they can ill afford to. There is nothing in the laws from the Gambling Commission to say that those losses have to be paid back unless the victims have actively requested to be stopped from gambling and the company in question hasn’t done enough to make that happen.
Many will feel that a change to the way problem gamblers are handled and their losses dealt with should be high on the list of priorities for the government and the Gambling Commission. Giving punters the chance to self-exclude may not be enough to help the most vulnerable moving forward and the UKGC might have to ask companies to be more pro-active in their protection.