Money Management

Gambling Theory and Other Topics by M. Malmuth

"The Extremely Silly Subject of Money Management"

I see it in print all the time. "What's that?" you ask. It's those silly words "money management." I'm sure you have read it too. If you don't have good money management then you can't win and should expect to go broke. Also, money management will allow you to beat all sorts of games like Roulette, Craps and slot machines, and many pseudo authorities will tell you that this is the most important aspect of gambling. The reader shall see that I don't exactly agree with this. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I'm not the first to say this, but, "I hate money management." I hate it because it is bunch of junk.

The theme of money management seems to be constantly on the mind of the losers. Now here is an absolute truth. If you are a loser, and you keep gambling, you will lose it all no matter how you handle your money. Anyone who tells you otherwise is just plain wrong. If this was not absolutely correct, there would not be so many large casinos in Nevada, New Jersey and throughout the world.

One well-known gambling book, that I read, recommends in its large money management section to only play those games where the house has no more than a small advantage. The author "smartly" rules out games like Roulette and Keno. But if you only play games like Craps and Baccarat, and play them long enough, you are assured of losing. So why play them at all?

One possible reason to play the low house percentage game is that these bets really don't cost very much and you can maximize your time at the "very exciting gaming tables." Is this really true? Well, suppose you compare Baccarat to Keno, where do you lose your money faster? At Baccarat, the house has an edge of just over 1 percent, while at Keno it is approximately 30 percent. The problem is that you can get more bets down at the Baccarat table in a specified period of time, than you can sitting in a Keno lounge. It seems to me that you might actually be better off playing Keno, even though the house edge in this game is "astronomical."

"Throughout this whole chapter we have continually rephrased, reiterated and reemphasized a salient point: When the odds are against you in each single play in a game, there is no system whatsoever by which this game can consistently be beaten."

The Casino Gamblers Guide by Allan N. Wilson