Proper Bankroll for Craps

If you want to play the stock market, you don't re-mortgage your house, borrow money from friends and relatives, raid the kids' college savings, grab grandma's heart-operation fund and then look for the most outlandish long shot stock deal that you can become involved in. Most investors use money that is separate and apart from the necessities of real life. To make money, you have to have money - or at least to make money, you have to have some money.

But most casino gamblers are just the opposite. They often play as if they are completely and thoroughly insane. They decide to go to the casino, grab some money out of the bank, or take an advance on their credit card, and throw themselves into games they have little chance of beating in the long run. That is not good because many losing casino gamblers will then think about what they could have done with the money they lost at the games. "Gee, I should have had my teeth fixed!"

If you find that you ponder your losses and regret your decision to play in the casinos, you have a choice: Quit playing or find a way to make your play less stressful.

To make casino gambling an enjoyable recreational activity, casino players should look to establish a separate bank account for their gambling money. I call this account a 401G ("G" stands for gambling). Go to your local bank and open up a money-market checking account. This account will only house your gambling dollars. When this account has enough in it, get credit at your favorite casinos - using this account as your credit account.

Let us say that you are a worker who gets paid every other week. If so, then on payday, you should take about 5 percent of your take-home pay and put it in the 401G (if you can't afford 5 percent, make it less). For the rest of your gambling life, you will put aside that 5 percent into your gambling account.

Let us say that you make $2,000 every two weeks. Put in $100 with each and every paycheck.

Now, you will need a certain minimum amount in your 401G to be able to go to the casino and play. What is the minimum? Hold your breath! It's 100 times your average bet spread at craps and 300 times your average bet at other games.

Let us say that you are a wise craps player and only make a Pass Line bet with double odds and two Come bets with double odds. Your spread is 9 units. If you are a $5 player, you will be risking $45. You should have $4,500 in your 401G to back up your play.

How much should you bring to the casinos with you? If you are going to spread at $45, then you should bring $450. That's 10 times your spread. Having that kind of money backing you will do several things.

1. It will prevent you from sweating the money. If you get nailed two or three times in a row and suffer a $45 loss each and every time, you will still have enough of your $450 left to continue the session.
2. You will never have to say, "Gee, I should have used that money for something else." Your 401G money is strictly for gambling, it isn't for anything else.
3. By having at least 100 times your spread in your 401G, even several disastrous trips to the casinos will not hang you out to dry.
4. With each and every paycheck, money is going into the account. You will always have enough gambling funds.

Now, as the money in your 401G increases, you might be able to increase your bets. Here I would use a 20 to one rule. When I got to $13,500, I'd go to a $90 spread. Now, as I doubled my bankroll from here, I would double my spread as well. If you play other table games, just use your average bet and multiply by three hundred. As a $10 blackjack player then, you'd need $3,000 to hit the tables.

My suggestions are just that, suggestions. Some gaming experts think you should have 200 times your spread at craps as a 401G and 600 times your average bet at other games. If you are a conservative with funds, then certainly go to the more conservative spread and load up the money in your 401G.

You must also keep in mind that I am recommending a bankroll based on the very best bets at craps. That $45 spread is only facing a house edge of 0.6 percent - that's 6/10 of one percent! There are many craps bets that come in with much higher house edges - all the way up to 16.67 percent on the gross Any Seven or Big Red. Make these poor types of bets and your 401G will be diminished rather quickly.

A 401G is a smart move for all gamblers who want to frequent the casinos on a regular basis. If you think to yourself, "Gee, there's no way I can save up $4,500," then set your gambling sights lower. Instead of being on three numbers ($45), go up on two numbers ($30). If your bankroll is really tight, just place the 6 and 8 for $6 each. You'd only need $1,200 as a 401G to get started using that as your betting norm.

Of course, some of you reading this have large enough bankrolls to bet $1,200 as your spread and that is just fine. But make sure your have that nice hefty 401G with a minimum of $120,000! I don't care how rich or how moderate your finances are, gambling can take a terrible emotional toll on those players who do not exercise proper regard for their hard-earned money.

A 401G prevents a lot of problems. You want your gambling experience to be a fun pastime, not a cause of anxiety attacks.