Managing your time at the tables

11 March 2017

By John Marchel

In addition to managing your bankroll while gambling, you should also learn to manage your time.

It’s important to remember that most casino games have a built-in edge; the longer you play, the more the house edge kicks in, resulting in more of a chance of losing your bankroll. This is particularly true with games of chance like craps, roulette and slots. You can win in the short run, but over the long run the house will take it all back.

By managing your time, you can reduce the house advantage by quitting the game and moving on. I don’t mean if you are ahead $10 after 10 minutes of play you should quit. What I’m talking about is a reasonable amount of time -- maybe 45 minutes to one hour of craps or slots is long enough.

We know casinos want at least four hours of play a day from you to be awarded some comps, but those four hours do not have to be at one sitting. You can spend it over three or four different sessions in one day. You can play a little in the morning, a little in the afternoon and still play a little more in the evening.

Don’t hesitate to take frequent breaks, all of which will help rest both your body and mind, which will also help you remain alert during those active playing sessions.

You can go eat or take time to visit the gift store. If you are staying in the hotel you can go to the pool, gym or spa. Maybe you could take a short nap in your room, especially after a long flight or drive to get to the resort-hotel. The idea of managing you time, and managing your bankroll is to also help insure when you do play, you are physically and mentally at your best.

Managing your time should be an important technique along with learning and practicing the games, managing your funds and learning when to quit. Playing in the casino can be fun and profitable if, and it’s a big if, you know what you are doing.


BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW

•King Henry VIII lost the largest set of bells in England, the Jesus bells that hung in the tower of St. Paul’s Cathedral, to one of his noblemen, Sir Miles Partridge, over a game of dice. The king hanged Partridge a few years later for a “criminal” offense and got the bells back.
• In metropolitan Las Vegas, in 2016, there were approximately 9,800 registered cabdrivers operating 3,250 vehicles in their taxi fleet.
• In 1985, the last known faro casino bank game was played at the Ramada Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada.
• Claude Monet won 100,000 French francs (about $13,450) in the 1891 French lottery. That gamble provided him with the means to quit his job as a messenger and do what he loved most - paint.
• Between 1790 to the Civil War, 50 colleges, 300 schools and 200 churches were erected with lottery proceeds. Most notably, universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia were funded by lotteries.