When I first started gambling in casinos over 20 years ago, one of the older casino regulars that I met once told me that a gambler’s favorite thing to do is win and that their second favorite thing to do is to lose!
He used to love to say that I would rather draw dead (with no chance of winning) than not draw at all. At the time I thought he was just a crazy old man, but now that I can look back and reflect on my two decades of gambling, I realize that he was actually right!
While we all walk into the casino looking to win money, inevitably, we are going to lose more than we are going to win. And in reality, we all know that, yet we still choose to play!
We Want The Action!
We all tell ourselves that we are here to win, but what we are really walking into the casino to do, is get in on the action!
There are lots of scientific reasons as to why people choose to gamble, and I could drop lots of scientific words like dopamine, adrenalin, and endorphins, but at the end of the day we gamble because it excites us.And win or lose, the action is the excitement, not the result.
When faced with the inevitability that you are going to probably lose when you gamble, there are going to be times when you are looking to get in on the action, but are low on funds.
Gambling when you are broke is not always easy.
But as we already mentioned above, as long as you can get in on the action somehow, you are going to find that gambling when you are broke can be just as entertaining as gambling when you are flush with cash.
Remember:
Our brains don’t react to the wins and losses nearly as much as the act of actually gambling, so even if you are gambling on a budget, you are still going to have a great time. And who knows, maybe you will win a bunch of cash and you walk out of the casino not broke!
In this article, we are going to give you TheSportsGeek’s top 5 tips for gambling when you are broke! Let’s get started by checking in on one of the most basic tips, taking advantage of casino promotions!
Take Advantage Of Casino Promotions
Casinos do everything that they can to attract gamblers to come in and play.
Many times, they are going to offer you comp points, free play, free spins, match play vouchers, and all sorts of various other promotions, to get you to walk in the door. Lots of gamblers will use these comps as they come in, but I prefer to take a slightly different approach to casino freebies.
I bank all of my points and save them for when I actually need to use them.
Pro Tip:
Always make sure if you ever spend a penny in a casino that you are using your player’s card to get credit for your spend. Most players know by now to insert their player’s card into the machine before they play a slot or to hand the pit boss their card before playing a table game.
But these days, casinos are giving you credit for spending money at restaurants, gift shops, entertainment, and even retail! If you want to have a boatload of casino freebies to use, you need to make sure you are getting credit for everything that you do while on property!
Yeah, it’s nice to have a couple of free spins or to use your free play anytime that you are gambling, but there is a special feeling when you can walk into a casino without a dollar in your pocket and still find a way to play ! Banking up your comps and using them to gamble when you are broke is a fantastic way to stay in the action on a limited budget.
Play Penny Slots
If you are a player that normally plays higher limit slots, you may find that playing penny slots can actually be just as fun, despite the lower limits.
Some of the new age penny slots can cost in upwards of $ 8 dollars or more a pull, which certainly isn’t a bargain, but you can still find plenty of games where you can play all lines for as little as a couple of pennies. These games tend to focus on entertainment and usually have lots of video and music playing and fun bonus rounds.
Yeah, you’re rarely going to win a bunch of money playing them, but it’s going to be a much better experience than you might think.
Don’t believe me? Swing by the app store on your smartphone and check the rankings for your favorite phone apps, and you will find that completely free slot machine games dominate the top 10.
Slot machines have fun! Even when they are free slot machines, where you can’t win anything at all, they are still a lot of fun! If millions of people around the world have fun spinning the reels for free from their phones, you will love playing penny machines.
And I think we can all agree that playing for pennies is a great way to gamble while you are broke!
Ask The Pit Boss To Lower The Limits
When you are playing a casino table game, the casino will set the limits for both the minimum that you can wager, as well as the maximum. Many times, these minimums are at least $ 10 or $ 15 bucks, and depending on where you are playing and how busy the casino is, you could see minimums of $ 25 or more.
But most people don’t know that if you nicely ask the pit boss that is supervising your table to lower the limits, they will almost always do it for you!
If you are gambling while you are broke, and a $ 10 table minimum is just too high, ask them to drop it down to $ 5, and more often than not, you will be able to play at lower limits.
Now, if it is Saturday night and the casino is packed, they likely aren’t going to lower these limits for you.
But if it is midweek, or during the day, and the tables aren’t full, normally the pit boss will allow you to play under the posted limits.
Pro Tip:
Make sure when you are requesting the lower limits that you kill them with kindness, as they don’t have to do it for you. You are going to get a lot more yeses than no’s if you are friendly and polite. If they aren’t able to lower it for you still say thank you, as you can always try it again later, and you want the pit boss to like you.
Sometimes they will only allow the lower limits for a set period of time like an hour, so this trick won’t last forever. But when you are gambling when you are broke, any opportunity to stay in action with your limited bankroll needs to be taken advantage of!
Wrap Up
Gambling when you are broke isn’t for everybody.
But, if you do it right, you can still have a good time and you can stretch your budget out enough to make sure that you don’t run out of cash too quickly.
Whether you are asking the pit boss for lower limits, trying your hand at penny slots, or using your comps for free play, you are going to find that you can stay in action despite being broken!
Bonus Type:
We will close this tips article out with one final bonus tip for gambling when you are broke. And that is to try out online gambling! Without all of the expensive overhead of a brick-and-mortar casino, online casinos are able to offer lower limits, higher payouts, and the comps are much higher!
If you haven’t dipped your toe into the online gaming waters yet, make sure you swing by TheSportsGeek’s gambling online page before you log on, as we bring our readers exclusive offers at all of the top online casinos! Want a great way to gamble while you are broke? Take advantage of these exclusive deals and get in on the action today!
PLACE YOUR BETS NOW!
