Success is an odd term. Some people know exactly what success means to them, while others don’t even think about success. In order to be successful, however you define the term, you have to know what you want to accomplish and work toward this as a goal.
Gambling success can be measured in many different ways. In this article you’re going to learn about 6 ways that you can define gambling success. Determine which of these 6 ways you want to use to determine success in gambling for you. Then develop a plan and make it happen.
1 – Theoretical Edge
Possibly the easiest way to define gambling success is to use something called a theoretical edge. This is basically the house edge for gambling options, and it’s the other side of the return to player percentage coin.
If you use the theoretical edge to define gambling success you focus on making bets that have the lowest house edge and highest return percentage. You can make some wagers that have a house edge over 100%, which creates a negative house edge.
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This is the only way to make profit as a gambler. But most gambling options have a house edge, which means they have a return percentage under 100%. This means there are 2 situations to consider.
The most common situation is gamblers who don’t know how to make a profit. This covers over 90% of the gamblers in the world. If you’re in this group, the first thing you need to do is learn which bets have the lowest house edge.
The other situation is what every gambler needs to do. Learn how to make bets that don’t have a house edge. This sounds simple, but if it was really simple there would be more gamblers who made money.
2 – Overall Profit
Overall profit is directly linked to what you learned in the first section. In order to make an overall profit you have to make more wagers that have a return over 100% than wagers that have a house edge.
For example, some gamblers learn how to count cards when they play blackjack. They don’t have a theoretical edge on every hand they play, but they know when they do have an edge and they bet more in these situations. This creates an overall profit.
Other common gambling activities that some players use to get an overall profit include betting on horse races, betting on sports, and playing poker. These all require unique skills, but you can learn the skills you need.
The first issue is that most gamblers don’t really track their overall profit. Some gamblers don’t track anything at all. This means that if you want to make an overall profit as a gambler you need to start tracking all of your costs and expenses and your profits.
When you know all of your numbers you can determine if you’re getting the theoretical edge that you’re supposed to be getting. And you can determine if you need to find better gambling opportunities.
3 – Profit per Hour
Making an overall profit when you gamble is great, but some people are more interested in how much profit they make per hour when they gamble. This makes sense because most people are used to thinking about how much they make per hour from a job.
This is closely related to why it’s so important to track your numbers when you gamble. If you track your profits and losses you know how much you make overall, and if you track how many hours you gambled you can quickly determine how much profit you’re making every hour.
The problem is that most gamblers have a negative number when they run the numbers for profit per hour. If you’re not making an overall profit you’re not making a profit per hour.
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Determining your profit per hour is a simple equation. Divide your total profit by the number of hours that you gamble. For example, if you made a profit of $120 and you gambled for 7 hours, your profit per hour is $17.14.
Don’t spend much time worrying about your profit per hour until you figure out how to make an overall profit. Even if you only make $10 in profit over a long gambling session it’s still better than most gamblers.
4 – Short Term Profit
Gamblers who are more interested in short term profits than anything else are completely focused on maximizing how much they can make right now. This sounds like a smart plan, but gamblers who do this are almost always giving up long term profits to chase short term profits.
In fact, the system for making a short term profit most of the time is simple. All you have to do is use a gambling system called the Martingale. When you sue this gambling system you make a short term profit most of the time. Some gamblers are able to make a short term profit 90% of the time they gamble.
The problem is that when you don’t make a short term profit you lose a lot of money. In fact, you end up losing so much the few times that you do lose that you lose more than you won all of the times that you made a short term profit.
I don’t recommend using short term profits as a way to judge your gambling success. It’s too costly in the long run.
5 – Entertainment Value and Cost
Not every gambler is focused on making a profit. I’m not saying that they don’t want to win. I’m just saying that they’re more focused on being entertained than on making a lot of money when they gamble.
Look at it this way. What do you do for entertainment? Do you go out to eat, see a show, watch a movie, or go to a theme park? All of these things are forms of entertainment, and they all cost time and money.
People don’t have a problem paying both time and money to be entertained. If you gamble as a form of entertainment it can also cost you time and money. And it can still be fun.
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If you’re willing to pay to be entertained, gambling is a good option. You can get entertainment value whether you win or lose, and sometimes you’re going to win. This is better than most forms of entertainment because when you go to the movies you never end up with more money that when you started.
When you’re more interested in getting the best entertainment value from gambling than overall profit, you can focus on finding the gambling options that you enjoy the most. But you also can get even more entertainment value when you learn how to get the best theoretical return from these activities.
6 – Maximum Gambling Time
The final way that you can determine gambling success is by learning how to gamble for the longest amount of time. You’re just like everyone else in that you have a limited amount of money you can use to gamble. The key is to figure out how you can gamble for at least as long as you want without running out of money.
The theoretical edge is important because it’s directly involved in how much you lose or win. But you also need to be concerned about how much you have to bet and how often you have to bet.
For example, if you play slots games, you might only bet $1.50 on each spin, but if you’re like most slots players you make 100’s of bets every hour. On the other hand, you might make a $10 bet on a football game, but you only make 1 bet every 3 hours.
The bet minimums are smaller in most online gambling establishments, so this is something to consider when you’re trying to maximize your gambling time. You also control how fast you play most online games, so this can help you gamble for a longer time.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter how you define success when you gamble. The only things that matter are what success in gambling looks like to you, and if you’re able to reach your gambling success goals.
I prefer to judge my gambling success on overall profit and/or profit per hour. But I know many gamblers who are much more interested in maximizing their entertainment value from gambling and/or maximizing their playing time.
Don’t let anyone else define what gambling success means to you. Determine what success in gambling is for you and then figure out how to make it happen. No rule says that you only have to focus on 1 thing. You can learn how to maximize your profits and playing time at the same time.
