What casino gambling can teach you about finance
Many people consider gambling to be a vice. This is often true even among people who enjoy gambling. They know that they are likely to lose money and that they would have more money if they didn’t gamble. It is a vice, one they think it is worth succumbing to due to the joy it brings them.
Gambling can, however, be a great way to learn and understand more about finance and life in general. Learning how to become a skilled gambler will teach you a lot that can benefit you as an investor.
I am not suggesting that you should run out and gamble away your money. That is never wise. But taking some time to understand how gambling works and why people gamble can be very beneficial. There are a large number of online Casinos that allow you to wager for free using virtual money. This is a great way to learn more about gambling. Playing for free allow you to combine theoretical learning by reading guides online with more practical experience in the online casinos.
Below we are going to look at some of the most important things you can learn by gambling online.
Nothing is free
When you compare different online casinos you will quickly find that most casinos offer a welcome bonus that you get when you first deposit money to your account. This is often marketed as free money. This is not the case. When you read the fine print you will find out that you need to fulfill different wager requirements before you are allowed to withdraw the bonus from the account (or the money you deposited). The wager requirements are designed to give the casino a good chance of winning back the money. Many players discover the wager requirements when they try to withdraw money and find out that they are not allowed to do so.
The lesson is that there is no such thing as free money. Always make sure to read the fine print to find out the true cost.
Many country are regulating or outright banning casino bonuses because they feel that they might trick people into spending more money then they want in online casinos. A good example of a country that is regulating bonuses is Sweden. Sweden recently launched a new regulation that restricts bonuses to a one time event. Swedish casinos are allowed to offer a welcome bonus but no other bonus or incentives can be offered to players after that. You can read more about the new Swedish law on this Swedish website.
Not all games are the same
Novice casino players chose to play the games that they think is fun. They do not realize that different casino games offer you very different odds to win. Some of the easiest games to play like big wheel are often designed to be big money makers for the casino and to give the player a tiny chance of winning.
A more experienced gambler will have learned which games that are fools bets and which games that offer you a fair chance of winning. By studying different casino games, you can learn a lot about how seemingly tiny changes in the rules can drastically affect your chances of winning money. It teaches you about the importance of small details and how they massively affect the likely outcome of a particular type of transaction over time.
Risk and reward
Casino gambling can teach you a lot about risk and reward. It shows you a lot about how low-risk bets often give a better return in the long run. A high-risk high-reward scenario can give you a large payday but the odds that you will win is low. The house edge is usually larger on long-shot bets then it is on bets with low odds. The lower house edge on smaller bets make them more profitable in the long run just like blue-chip stocks are likely to give a higher return over time than penny stocks.
The risk in most high-risk high-reward situations is too high to justify making a bet.
Location matters
If you gamble in an offline casino you will learn that location matters. Slot machines and casino tables in specific locations are likely to offer worse odds than other tables in other parts of the casino. It is worth locating the tables that give you better odds to win even if they are less conveniently located. Tables by the entrance is a classic example of a location that often provides you lower odds of winning money.
Playing in an offline casino teaches you that it is worth going to where you can find the best opportunities to make money.
Risk management
The most important thing that you can learn gambling in casinos is risk management. If you are going to have any chance of earning money playing poker or any other casino game you need to know how to manage your bankroll and how to manage risk. Proper risk management allows you to eliminate the element of luck out of the gambling. Risk management is what allows casinos to make money. They set rules that guarantee that they are able to offer gambling on a large enough scale to benefit from their edge.
