How to Get Over a Big Loss or Losing Streak

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If you want to enjoy casino games on a regular basis, you need to accept the fact that sooner or later you are going to lose. And for that matter, lose pretty big. It’s almost impossible to hold onto an even moderately lucky streak forever. Sooner or later, you are guaranteed to walk away from some kind of casino experience with a huge hole in both your heart and your wallet.

Which can of course be both distressing and depressing in equal measures. Not to mention, rather humiliating. All the more so if you lost the kind of cash you shouldn’t have been gambling with in the first place. Still, given that there is absolutely nothing you can do about it now, you might as well focus on making yourself feel better. Unless you can pull money out of thin air, this really is the best you can hope for.

Given the fact that it’s hardly a rare appearance, the first thing to remind yourself is that you aren’t the first and you won’t be the last. Cold comfort to say the least, but a useful way of reminding yourself of the reality of what’s going on. You aren’t the only person the world suffering the fallout of a heavy loss, so don’t get too precious about the whole thing. It’s painful now, but you knew (or at least should have known) what you are getting into from the start!

So now you’ve accepted that this is the kind of thing that happens all the time, you should be in a better position to start pulling yourself together. Which when approached in accordance with the following five simple self-help tips can make even the heaviest casino losses at least a little more bearable:

  1. Take Responsibility
    First and foremost, you absolutely must stop pointing fingers and playing the blame game. Even if in a mathematical sense the odds of you losing were a million-to-one, you chose to go ahead with the bet and therefore it’s your fault you lost. Not the dealer, not your fellow players and not the casino – you and you alone take full responsibility. Which might be a difficult pill to swallow in instances where you really should have won. Nevertheless, you didn’t…and there’s no point thinking about what could or should have been. Accept that you made the wrong move at the wrong time – even if it seemed like a no-brainer. Take responsibility and then move on – don’t waste time beating yourself up.
  1. Can the Pity Party
    Speaking of which, once you’ve accepted full responsibility for your heavy loss, chances are you will be feeling extremely sorry for yourself. Which is completely natural and understandable, but also counterproductive. In theory, you really only have the right to feel sorry for yourself if something bad has happened that was entirely out of your control. As we’ve already covered, this has happened because of one or more wrong decisions you made at the wrong time. Which means that given how it is entirely your fault and responsibility, there’s no room for pity or self-sympathy. Once again, you need to be realistic, accept what has happened and move on.
  2. Acknowledge What Went Wrong
    Of course, there’s a lot to be said for learning from your mistakes and ensuring that the same doesn’t happen again. In this instance, the only way you can do this is to fully accept that you did indeed make a mistake, which resulted in this unfortunate outcome. Whatever game you were playing, think about exactly what went wrong, when it went wrong and how it went wrong. The fact that it may have statistically been the right move at the right time is inconsequential. Truth is, what happened represents a valuable lesson that no matter how certain you think you are in the world of gambling, you can never accurately predict the outcome 100% of the time. Which is something more gamblers could do with being reminded off from time to time, in order to ensure that common sense caution is used more strategically.
  3. Don’t Gamble Until You Can Afford to
    Gamblers nursing the pain of heavy losses typically approach the prospect of gambling afterwards in one of two ways. They either sulk indefinitely and stay away, or dive back in and refuse to give up. Whichever way you go, it’s important to ensure that you don’t get back into gambling until you can afford to do so. If you’ve blown your entire quarterly gambling budget on the first day of the month, tough luck. You got yourself into this mess and you now need to stay away from gambling, until you can genuinely afford to get back into it.
  4. Don’t Chase Your Losses
    Last but not least, those who do choose to get straight back ‘on the horse’ may find themselves more tempted than usual to chase their losses. At least to a certain extent, it can be borderline irresistible to make one or two inadvisable decisions here and there, for the chance of winning back at least a little of the cash you lost. The problem being that this is the single most inadvisable thing anyone can do in the wake of heavy losses. Chasing minor losses at the best of time leads to bad decision-making and the guarantee of even bigger losses. And when you’re reeling from a pretty disastrous experience, the damage you can do by chasing losses is intensified further. No matter how angry you may be at the dealer, the casino or yourself, accept that what’s done is done and cannot be undone.

Always remember that knowing when to walk away and being able to deal with losses when they occur represent hallmarks of professionalism in gambling circles. It’s not a case of taking a nonchalant attitude to a potentially severe financial loss – simply a case of acknowledging it for what it is and never making the same mistake twice!

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