Five Mantras Every Sensible Gambler Should Live By

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Every gambler is different, with their own unique attitude and approach to the games they play.  Pigeon-holing isn’t something they approve of, as they like to think they walk their own path and do their own thing.

But when you look at the most fundamental characteristics of the more seasoned and successful gamblers, you realise they’re all actually quite similar. At least, in the sense that they know what it means to gamble sensibly and strategically.

Successful gambling is not about using weird and wonderful ‘hacks’ to tip the balance in your favour. Nor is it about cheating your way to success, or getting one over on the house.

Instead, it’s about hedging your bets in an informed and educated way, tailoring your gameplay to suit your bankroll and risk appetite. It’s also about following a few simple yet essential rules – the mantras that make for an enjoyable experience.

Five of which are as follows:

1 – “A Penny Saved Is a Penny Earned”

First up, this is the cliché but completely correct suggestion that saving yourself from losses is as good as earning money. Pure and simple logic, but logic tends to be something that disappears quite quickly in a casino setting.

All good gamblers know that curbing losses and walking away from losing streaks at the right time holds the key to successful gambling. Every penny you save by walking away at the right time is a penny you can try your luck with again at a later date. Or perhaps, allocate to more important things and save yourself losing more money you shouldn’t have been gambling with in the first place.

Always remember that casinos use chips at the tables for two reasons. The first of which is for security purposes, the second is to make you forget you’re gambling away your hard earned cash. If you were placing real £10 notes on each hand at the blackjack table, you’d be far less inclined to overspend.

2 – “Patience Is a Virtue”

Something your parents will have probably told you a thousand times as a child, on each occasion all the more infuriating. Nevertheless, it’s something you learn is 100% true as you grow up. 

Patience is an essential quality for successful gambling. It’s something you need for a long list of reasons, including the time it takes to master any given casino game. You need patience to build the knowledge and skills needed to make the right moves, you need patience when things aren’t going your way and you need patience when taking a break from gambling altogether.

You also need patience when dealing with some of the more annoying casino personalities you’ll encounter along the way, whose sole purpose on this planet is to put you off your game. 

3 – “Luck Is When Skill and Opportunity Come Together”

Is this really true? Can you honestly say that luck is something you have any real control over? The short answer is yes, but not in the way most people think.

On one hand, you could say that everything that takes place in a casino is an event of pure chance. You cannot predict the outcome of any spin, any hand or any dice roll – all 100% random events. But at the same time, you also can’t realistically say that any gambler is inherently more or less lucky than any other. Hence, the fact that some people are far more successful than others with their gambling activities suggests there is indeed a degree of skill and intuition to the whole thing.

Or to look at it from another angle, it’s entirely up to you to make your own luck. The decisions you make will ultimately determine the outcome, irrespective of how random or unpredictable each event is.  You can’t control or predict what is going to happen, but you can tip the odds in your favour by making rational, sensible and informed decisions, based on knowledge, skill and experience.

4 – “A Bird in the Hand Is Worth Two in the Bush”

Put simply, this is a mantra that speaks of the importance of knowing when to walk away. It could be interpreted as a warning not to chase losses, stating that you may as well walk away with something than risk losing everything.  

Or perhaps, that it’s best to walk away after pocking a small prize than to risk ending up with a loss by putting more money on the line. 

This is where philosophy and good bankroll management go hand in hand. The key to successful gambling at all levels lies in minimising losses and doing whatever it takes to avoid going bust. Something that almost always means knowing when to walk away with at least something in your pocket.

5 – “The House Always Wins”

Last up, this fact (which it is) might be interpreted as a reason to avoid gambling altogether. If it’s true to say that the house always wins, why bother putting a penny of your money on the line?

Truth is, there should really be another word added to this particular motto – “eventually”. That’s because the house does indeed always win, eventually.

Irrespective of the game you play, there’s a house edge to take into account. A house edge there is nothing you can do about, which could be anything from 1% to more than 25%. The higher the house edge, the more likely you are to lose.

Statistically, playing any casino game indefinitely means facing guaranteed losses. Even with a house edge of 0.5%, this still means you will gradually lose 0.5% of your money long-term. Again, from a purely statistical perspective. 

Either way, it’s one of the most important lessons that must be learned about gambling from the earliest possible stage. The quicker you acknowledge the fact that the odds are stacked against you, the easier it becomes to hedge your bets accordingly.

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