When it comes to getting rich quick, it's hard to top the prospect of gambling your way to baller status. This path to paradise is often instead a road to disaster, however, as most bettors with dreams of scoring a fortune from the house are undisciplined, ill-informed and driven by emotion. Rather than improving their financial position, they basically donate their cash to line the pockets of gaming hall owners.
There are ways to tilt the odds in your favor whether you prefer poker, casino games, sports betting, or some other form of wagering. In order to do so, you need to take advantage of every edge available. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to enhance your chances of booking sizable wins by claiming every benefit from the gaming operators to which you're entitled. Of course, you'll need to be familiar with all the strategies and techniques of proper play too, but the addition of lucrative extras on top of what you collect through straight gambling is indispensible if your aim is to become a true professional gambler.
Keep your eyes open for the following special deals depending on what types of wagering you intend to conduct:
1. Online Poker
Rake races, free tournament entries and mission challenges all have their place in building the bankrolls of aspiring card sharks. However, there's one type of perk that stands head-and-shoulders above all others if you plan on putting in some serious volume at the poker tables: rakeback. Unlike the other promos mentioned above, rakeback is always active, delivering back to you a steady portion of the rake and tournament fees you pay to the poker room.
Rake is how the operators make money, extracting a portion of each pot for themselves. Just like other businesses do, they refund some value back to their frequent and valuable clients. Unlike credit card reward programs or bulk merchandise discounts, though, the percentage of cashback on offer with a good RB deal often exceeds 20%, 30%, 40% or even 50% of the money you pay!
There are any number of internet poker sites that offer rakeback. If rakeback is present at the room you play at but you neglect to take advantage of it, then you're needlessly leaving money on the table.
2. Online Sports Betting
Betting on sports is a time-honored way of securing an income. Just look at Las Vegas-based sports betting king Bill Walters and his reported $100 million net worth to see how profitable this activity can be. It's now even easier to get started in this field due to the proliferation of online sportsbooks.
Of course, you still need to make your picks carefully. You'll want to read up on the latest information and statistics on the matches and players you're going to put money on. Yet, even after conducting all your research on the athletes and teams involved, there's still more to take into account.
You see, each bookie charges a vigorish (“vig” or “juice”), meaning that the odds are shaded a bit from what the bookmaker thinks the true odds are so that the establishment can make money. However, there are frequent reduced juice specials running from time to time, and it behooves you to capitalize on them whenever possible. The less the house takes for itself, the more there is to distribute to winning bettors: a category to which you will hopefully belong. A few internet bookmakers have even earned themselves a reputation for everyday low juice, and it may be in your best interest to make one of these your sports betting home.
3. Online Casinos
It's true that the house always has an advantage in casino games (barring the rare progressive slots jackpot or full-pay video poker machine). Yet, this edge is sometimes miniscule, as it is in blackjack, and you can frequently more than offset the house advantage by claiming promotional offers and using a little bit of common sense.
You may sometimes encounter free casino bets, matched bets and loss-back promos. Each of these forms of complimentary cash adjusts the mathematics of the games in question so that, in many cases, you can gain a positive expectation. Now, there's a lot of variance to these betting opportunities, so you can do everything right and still lose. But by shifting the numbers in your favor, you stand an excellent chance of setting yourself up for enviable results in the long run.
4. Brick-and-Mortar Casinos
We've focused on virtual gaming facilities so far because they're the most convenient for our readers, but plenty of pro gamblers have made their bones in live casino settings. Apart from spotting and exploiting errors in dealing and other subtle casino mistakes, perhaps the most important thing you can do is make sure all your play is tracked.
Casino reward cards exist so that these establishments can treat their VIPs right, but they only work if the customer actually participates. When you sit down at a casino table game, like baccarat, always make sure you present your club card to the dealer. When plowing through the rounds on a slot machine or video poker terminal, don't forget to insert your card into the channel provided for this purpose. In games with a low house edge, the value of the comps you collect can often exceed the casino's expected take from your play.
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| You can't earn comps without a rewards card, fool! |
“Queen of Comps” Jean Scott is well aware of this element of casino play. Over the years, this retired schoolteacher has parlayed her knowledge of correct video poker strategy and the intricacies of casino reward systems to pick up free vacations, top-shelf liquor and food, tickets to popular events and more. You too can achieve similar levels of rewards – but only if you remember to have your bets tracked through your player card!
It is possible to make a living – and a pretty decent one too – by gambling. But you have to ask yourself what kind of bettor you are. Are you one of the millions of chumps who trust in luck and/or prayer to swim against the current and become one of the handful of substantial winners? Or are you someone who engages your intelligence, patience and emotional fortitude to steadily accumulate earnings while always attempting to use every legal means at your disposal to turn the tables on the house? If you're a member of this latter group, then the tactics we've outlined above will undoubtedly help you in attaining your goals.
