When to quit

13 August 2019

By Frank Scoblete

Many gambling writers will say that players should quit a session when they are ahead. On its face, the advice sounds profound, but when looked at logically it makes no sense. If you win your first decision, do you quit right then and there, hop on a plane or get in your car and head home? I doubt many players would do this.

So how do players decide when to quit? What is their plan of play? Here are some examples of slot players and when they decide to quit playing:

JANET: I give myself a set amount of money to play with. If I lose it all then I quit or I play for about five hours if I can, and whatever is left over is what I take back with me. I live about an hour away from a casino and I play there all the time and on some occasions I have won a lot and I take home a win. Most other times I do have some money left over and I go home with that. I do keep my play in check.

MARTHA: I play until I get tired and then I quit. I play a lot, probably too much to be honest. My husband and our friends want to go to shows but I prefer to play. That’s my entertainment. How fast does it take me to get tired? A long, long time! I do not have a set amount of money that I give myself. I just play and let what will be will be. Que sera sera is my motto of playing. That could be a wrong motto, maybe, but it fits me.

LORETTA: I am very strict with my money. I have a separate account where I keep my gambling money and I put in some money each month so I never have to worry that I am playing with household money. I got that idea from reading some of your articles to be truthful. I do enjoy my slot playing but I want to know that I control the game and the game doesn’t control me.

TEDDY: Come on what is the fun of strictly watching what you do in the casino? The idea is to go there and try to win a million or at least something or other. I like the casino gambling commercials that show winners. I really don’t care about all the other stuff. I mean I eat meals when I go to the casinos but that’s not why I go. To me the slot machines might change my life. That’s how I look at it. I play all the progressive games and I go for the big win. Do I limit the amount of money I play with? Nope! But my wife does. She’s in charge of how much I am allowed to play with. She’s a little cheap to be honest with you but what can I do, that’s marriage. And she doesn’t play at all. She takes walks and observes people. People are more boring than the machines.

DIAMOND: I go to the casinos about four times a year and I stay for three days on each trip. I am not a high roller but I do enjoy myself but I keep tabs on my money. I give myself only so much to play with. Sometimes I am able to go home a winner; other times not. I never play with more money than I intended to play with because that is a sure way to get hurt. I do not play the progressive machines and I have taken your advice to only play one coin. I actually can play longer by doing this but I am saving money by playing this way. I like it. I am not playing to make a fortune; I am playing for fun, strictly for fun.

CATHERINE: I am well off and that is why I can play five-dollar machines and sometimes even higher. I have no set amount of money that I play with or a set amount of time I play in. I just go as the spirit moves me. Sometimes I will play almost eight hours in a day. Maybe even more. If I lose I lose; if I win I win. There’s no pressure on me either way. To me playing the machines is similar to playing tennis at my club, except I don’t sweat as much. I am not a professional tennis player and I don’t think there is such a thing as a professional slot player. Is there? I don’t think so.

MIKE: I play for two hours and win or lose I am done. I have a certain amount of money too. If I lose that I am done as well. My girlfriend doesn’t have my discipline but she also has a limit of how much she will allow herself to lose but she hits that limit more than I have ever hit my self-imposed limit.

OK, folks, there are some voices of slot players. In our sister publication Casino Player I’ll have the table game players give their formula for when they quit.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Visit Frank’s website at www.frankscoblete.com. Frank’s latest books are Confessions of a Wayward Catholic!; I Am a Dice Controller and I Am a Card Counter. All of Frank’s books are available from Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, e-books and at bookstores.