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Everyone knows by now (surely) that even though poker is a game of chance, it’s also a game of skill. This means that if you go to play poker at the casino for the first time without any knowledge or strategy, you’re probably going to lose a lot of money. You might get lucky and win, but chances are you won’t.
Gambling at casinos across the country can give you a taste of what the fuss is all about, but if you’re planning on gambling in Vegas, you’re jumping into the big leagues. Every hotel has endless rows of slot machines and tables, which can be quite overwhelming for first. A public gambling house was legalized for the first time in 1626 in a. The fastest growing sector of casino gaming in the world is a. Native American. Nevada legalized gambling in a. The first modern casino. Pick a Great Casino Resort to Visit for the First Time. Over 1,000 commercial and Native American. If you're new, a couple good places to start, as Steven mentioned, is Blackjack and Pai Gow. Blackjack you can lose money a LOT quicker, where as Pai Gow is a nice game to sit down for a while, take your.
Luckily, the basics of breaking even or winning at poker aren’t as hard as most people might think. In fact, you can probably play better than 50% of the players at the table after just reading a few blog posts and practicing a little bit online. Read a few books and do some serious thinking, and you might even be better than 75% of the players.
But to be a consistently winning player requires a lot of skill and self-discipline. Only 10% of poker players profit consistently, which means 90% of players lose money in the long run.
It’s okay to lose money in the long run playing poker, but it’s a lot more fun to win, even if it’s only occasionally.
The purpose of this post is to give you enough advice about playing poker for the first time in the casino that you have a chance of coming home with some money.
The First Thing You Should Do to Prepare Is Memorize the Standard Ranking of Poker Hands
In most casinos, the name of the game is Texas holdem. But no matter which casino poker game you play, understanding the rankings of the hands is integral to having some fun at the table. Many people know these already, but if you don’t, review them and memorize them.
Understanding how a deck of cards works comes first, too. The cards in a standard 52-card deck each have 2 characteristics:
- A suit
- A rank
There are 4 suits:
- Clubs
- Diamonds
- Hearts
- Spades
And there are 13 ranks:
- Ace
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- Jack
- Queen
- King
The ace, by the way, is the highest card in the deck, so it’s almost like having 2 cards instead of one. It can be counted as a 1 or as the top end of a straight. A pair of aces outranks a pair of kings, for example. But it can also complete an A2345 straight.
Poker hands are almost always made up of 5 cards. The suits and rankings of those cards determine the best possible hand it qualifies for. These hands, from best to worst, are:
- Straight Flush – These are 5 cards of consecutive rank that are all the same suit. Some writers list a “royal flush” as the top hand in the rankings, but that’s not entirely accurate. A royal flush is just the best possible straight flush you can have—one with an ace as its high card—10JQKA.
- 4 of a Kind – This is a hand where you have 4 cards of the same rank and a 5th card of another rank.
- Full House – This is a hand where you have 3 cards of one rank and 2 cards of another rank. A full house is the same thing as having a 3 of a kind and a pair in the same hand.
- Flush – This is a hand where you have 5 cards of the same suit. Their rankings don’t matter unless you’re tied with another flush, in which case the highest card determines the winning hand.
- Straight – This is a hand where you have 5 cards of consecutive ranks, like 45678. The suit doesn’t matter, unless all the cards are of the same suit—in which case you have a straight flush.
- 3 of a Kind – This is a hand where you have 3 cards of one rank and 2 other cards of 2 different ranks.
- 2 Pairs – This is a hand where you have 2 cards of one rank, 2 cards of another rank, and another card of yet another rank.
- Pair – This is a hand where you have 2 cards of the same rank and 3 other cards, all of different ranks.
- Nothing – In this case, the highest card in your hand determines its strength.
A couple of rules of thumb apply to ties. The highest card determines the winner in a tie. If you have a straight flush, and so does your opponent, the hand with the highest high card wins the pot.
If 2 players have a 4 of a kind, the person with the higher ranked 4 of a kind wins.
If 2 players have a full house, the person with the higher ranked 3 of a kind wins.
With a flush and a straight, the highest card in the hand determines the winner of a tie.
With a 3 of a kind, the winner is determined by the rank of the cards in the 3 of a kind.
With 2 pairs, the higher ranked pair is compared. If there’s still a tie, the lower ranked pair is compared. If there’s STILL a tie, the kicker (the 5th card) is compared.
With a pair, the ranks of the pair are compared first. If it’s still a tie, it goes by kicker, of which there are 3.
When playing poker in a casino, the usual rule is “cards speak.” In other words, the cards speak for themselves, even if you’re mistaken about the strength of your hand. You don’t have to claim the right best hand to win.
Generalities About How Poker Games Play Out
All poker games follow certain standards for how the game plays out. These have to do with how the cards are dealt and the betting. Who does what when is an important aspect of poker, regardless of which variation you’re playing.
Here’s an example of a poker gameplay procedure you need to be aware of:
When you make a raise, you need to announce it immediately. You don’t say, “I call AND raise.” You don’t put the amount of the bet out there and add to it. You announce, “Raise.” Then you put the chips out there.
Doing otherwise is a big violation of protocol called “string-raising.” The reason it’s a problem is because players will watch their opponents’ reaction and change what they’re doing because of it. That’s a strict no-no.
I bring that up first because it’s one of the first (of many) embarrassing mistakes I’ve made at the poker table.
The dealing of the cards and the betting order are important, and they’re determined by the specific rules of the game. Usually the first person to bet or to get cards is the deciding factor, but after that, the cards are dealt in order clockwise around the table. The betting action also takes place clockwise around the table.
You always act before the player on your left and after the player on your right—unless you’re the first person to act.
In 7 card stud, the player with the highest visible hand bets first. In Texas holdem, the first player to the left of the dealer button acts first.
You should also never just toss your chips at the pot. You move the chips in front of you past the line on the table that puts the money in the pot.
As a matter of etiquette, decide what you’re going to do quickly. Don’t hold up the game and make the other players wait a long time while you make your decision. You don’t have to feel rushed, but it’s not fair to anyone to delay the game just because you’re indecisive.
You should also leave your cards on the table. You can pick them up to look at them, but don’t move them far. The casino wants to avoid even the appearance of possible cheating.
It’s considered extremely rude to talk about what cards you had after you’ve folded. It gives the players who are still in the hand information they shouldn’t have when deciding what to do next.
Finally, consider giving the dealer a tip after winning a big hand. The dealers pool their tips at the end of the shift at most casinos, so don’t stiff the dealer just because she’s been rude. In fact, if a dealer is rude enough that you would consider stiffing him on the tip, consider discussing his behavior with a manager instead.
I once played in a cardroom in Vegas, I forget which one, where I had a surly old Russian dealer. At one point I raised and said, “Carpe diem.”
The surly old Russian told me, “English only at the table, sir.”
I smiled and said, “Sorry. ‘Carpe diem’ means ‘seize the day.”
He replies, still scowling, “I KNOW what it means, sir. You could be signaling another player by talking in a foreign language, though.”
I replied, “Couldn’t saying ‘seize the day’ also be a signal?”
He was angry.
When I related this story to a professional poker playing acquaintance of mine, he said I should have called over the cardroom manager and complained loudly. I think he might have been right, because if a foreign phrase is so commonly used in English that everyone knows what it means, I think it might as well be considered English.
Start by Learning How to Play Texas Holdem
If you’re new to playing poker in the casino, the best game to start with is Texas holdem because that’s where most of the action is. Your goal is to win the pot, either by getting all the other players to fold, or by making the best 5 card hand at the showdown. In Texas holdem, you only get 2 cards for yourself. The other 5 cards in the game are community cards in the center of the table; the other players use those 5 cards to form their hands, too.
One player is the dealer, but this is only for purposes of determining who does what when. He doesn’t actually deal the cards—the casino has a dealer for that. His position is signified by a plastic white disk with the word “dealer” printed on it.
The 2 players to the left of the dealer must place bets called “blinds” before the cards are dealt. These are similar to an ante bet in other kinds of poker, but the difference is that not everyone has to place these bets every hand. The dealer disk rotates around the table clockwise after every hand. So the people who must pay the blinds rotates with that disk.
Everyone gets 2 cards (“the hole cards”) to start. This is followed by a round of betting. The first person to bet is the player to the left of the blinds. He can bet, check, fold, or raise.
After the betting action, the dealer deals 3 cards to the middle of the table (“the flop”). This is followed by another round of betting, but this time, the first player to the left of the dealer bets. This is the order in which the betting takes place for the rest of the game.
After this round of betting, another card is dealt (“the turn”). The betting after this round goes in the same order, but the minimum bet doubles on this round.
The final card is the “river.” It’s followed by one more round of betting, with the same minimum that you had on the turn.
The sizing of the bets is another factor to consider when getting into a Texas holdem game. There are 3 ways in which this works:
- Limit
- Pot limit
- No limit
In a limit Texas holdem game, the sizes of the bets must be made in specific increments. For example, in a $4/$8 game, the bets and raises must be in units of $4 before and on the flop, and in units of $8 on the turn and on the river.
In a pot limit game, you still have a minimum size bet, but you can also bet or raise any amount up to the amount of money in the pot.
In a no limit game, you also still have a minimum bet size, but you can bet or raise any amount up to the entire stack of chips you have in front of you at the table.
The Basics of Breaking Even at Texas Holdem
The basic strategy for winning at poker is to be selective about which hands you choose to play. Then, when you do play a hand, you play it aggressively. This means betting and raising when you’re involved in a hand.
In Texas holdem, if you master preflop strategy, you can break even. Winning at Texas holdem requires good play in the later rounds, too, but breaking even can happen just by mastering your strategy preflop.
This requires an understanding of the kinds of 2-card hands you can start with:
- Pairs – Preflop, most pairs are playable, but the higher the ranking of the pair, the stronger your hand is by far. In fact, low pairs, like 2s or 3s, are barely playable. The best possible starting hand in Texas holdem is a pair of aces, followed closely by a pair of kings. You should raise with high-ranked pairs preflop (or bet). As your pairs go down in ranking, so do their values, so you might get more cautious and pay attention to how the other players are playing their hands when deciding what to do. With lower-ranked pairs, you’re hoping to hit 3 of a king on the flop.
- Suited Connectors – These are cards that are close in rank and of the same suit. They provide multiple opportunities to win after the flop. For example, if you have an AK of the same suit, you could wind up with a pair of kings and an ace kicker after the flop, or you could wind up with a pair of aces and a king kicker. You also have the potential to land a straight, a flush, or 3 or 4 cards to a draw to a straight or flush.
The rule of thumb with suited connectors is that the higher the ranking is, the stronger the hand is. That’s because the pair potential increases.
Also, suited connectors don’t have to be immediately adjacent to qualify as suited connectors. They can have gaps. The bigger the gaps are, the weaker the hand is. For example, if you have a queen and an 8 of the same suit, you have 3 gaps, but you still have the possibility of making a hand.
- Big Little Suited – If you have an ace or a king along with a much lower-ranked card of the same suit, you have a playable hand, but it’s pretty speculative. The higher the ranking of the lower card, the stronger the hand is preflop. If you catch a couple of suited cards on the flop, you have a flush draw, which means you have the possibility of a semi-bluff.
- Ace King and Ace Queen Offsuit – These hands get their strength from being really high cards that are also connected—you have straight possibilities here.
But just knowing the relative values of the starting hands isn’t enough. You also need to understand what to do with them, and a lot of this is based on your position and the behavior of the other players in the game.
The rule of thumb is that the earlier you act, the stronger your hand must be to be playable. A pair of aces is playable from any position, but a pair of 2s or 3s is an easy fold if you’re first to act. On the other hand, if you’re the last person to act, and if everyone has checked before you, betting and raising with a low pair can be a smart move.
Beginners to Texas holdem often try to bluff too often, especially preflop. My experience with lower stakes holdem in live casinos is that players are all too willing to call anything with any hand. I’ve rarely won a hand without a showdown playing Texas holdem at the Winstar, for example. They call it “no foldem holdem.”
If you are going to try to win a pot with a bluff preflop, be sure you’re only facing one or 2 opponents. Also, pay attention to your opponents’ playing tendencies. If you’re playing with someone you know won’t fold, don’t even try to bluff your way into a pot.
Understanding how to play after the flop is also an important skill, and it’s not as hard as you think, either. Just remember this when deciding how to play your hand on the flop:
Fit or fold.
In other words, the flop should improve your hand or fit well with your hand. Otherwise, you might have to fold. I’ve seen estimates that you should only stay in the hand about 50% of the time.
In a lot of weaker games, having the highest possible pair with a good kicker is all you need to stay in the hand. If you have a smaller pair, you’re really hoping to hit at least 3 of a kind on the flop before staying in. With connected or suited cards, you’re hoping at the least for 4 cards to a flush or straight. In that situation, you’re even better off if you have other possibilities, too—like a small pair along with a 4-card draw to a straight or a flush.
Conclusion
Playing poker in a casino for the first time can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Do a little homework before the big day. Know the standard rankings of poker hands backwards and forward. Pay attention to the order of what happens.
If you get stuck, don’t be afraid to look like a novice and ask the dealer for help with what you’re supposed to do. You can’t ask for strategy advice, but basic procedural questions are fair game.
It helps to read a book or 2 about the game you’re going to be playing. It also helps to have a reasonably big bankroll. Scared money always loses. If you can try some online games to get an idea of how the action goes, that’s probably the best preparation of all.
Once you’ve tried live poker, you’ll probably love it, though. Good luck at the casino.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.I visited my first casino, The Sands in Las Vegas, in 1996. The VP of marketing at the company where I worked told me that the first thing I should do when I got there was place a bet on “7 black” at the roulette table. He thought this was big fun, because, of course, the 7 on the roulette wheel is red.
I wish someone had given me some real, practical advice before I visited a casino for the first time. Since no one did that for me, I’ll do that for you. The things you should know listed below are obvious to regulars at the casino.
But they can save you a lot of money and heartache if it’s your first.
Here are the top 10 things you need to know if you’re visiting a casino for the first time:
1. The Wide Area Progressive (WAP) Slot Machines Are Some of the Worst Bets in the Casino
A progressive slot machine is one with an electronic ticker at the top which displays an ever-increasing jackpot amount. You’ll find 3 kinds of progressives:
- Single machines
- Local area progressives
- Wide area progressives
What all these games have in common is that they “fuel” the progressive jackpot by taking a percentage of each bet and applying it to the jackpot. In the case of single machines, the jackpot only grows when you’re playing that specific machine.
Local area progressives are machines within a specific casino which tie into the same jackpot. Any bets placed at any of these machines grow the jackpot amount.
Wide area progressives are machines within a certain geographic radius. In Las Vegas, the most famous wide area progressive slots are the Megabucks machines. Literally, thousands of slot machines power these jackpots, and they’re correspondingly huge – at least $10 million.
The problem with slot machines with jackpots this large is that their payback percentage is inferior to the payback percentage on a flat top machine. (A flat top machine has a fixed jackpot amount.)
A typical Vegas slot machine has a payback percentage of at least 90%. A wide area progressive has a payback percentage of 80% or less when you discount the effect of the progressive jackpot. Since you only have a 1 in 15 million chance of winning the top jackpot, it’s sensible to deduce that amount from the overall payback percentage for the machine.
2. Payback Percentage Is How You Measure the Odds for Gambling Machines
You might have heard of the house edge. That’s a term used to describe how good or bad the odds are for table games. It’s a mathematical prediction of how much you’ll lose per bet on average over a tremendous number of trials.
The house edge is expressed as a percentage. If a game has a house edge of 1%, the casino expects to win $1 every time you bet $100, over the long run. In the short-term, anything can happen. What most gamblers don’t realize is that they long run is longer than they think.
The payback percentage is the flip side of the house edge. It’s the amount of money the casino expects the player to win back for every bet. It’s also expressed as a percentage. For example, if I tell you a game has a 99% payback percentage, the casino expects you to win 99 cents every time you wager a dollar – again, on average, over time.
You can use house edge and payback percentage to compare the odds for different games.
3. Video Poker Machines Have Transparent Payback Percentages that Are Superior to Slot Machines
The higher the payback percentage, the better. The problem with slot machines is that they’re the only game in the casino where you can’t know what the payback percentage is. In fact, the payback percentage for slots is usually the lowest in the casino.
That’s one of the major differences between slots and video poker, in fact. On a video poker game, the probability of getting a result is something you can calculate. The random number generator on a video poker game emulates the same odds as a standard deck of 52 cards.
You need 2 pieces of data to calculate the payback percentage for a gambling machine:
- The prize amounts
- The probability of winning those prizes
Unless you’re Rain Man, you can’t just look at a video poker pay table and know the payback percentage.
But computer programmers and gambling writers have analyzed almost every video poker pay table you can imagine and published the results online.
A quick search of Google can help you compare video poker machines to find the ones with the best odds.
Also, even the video poker games with the worst odds are usually better than slot machines.
4. Drinks Are Free in the Casino
This isn’t true in every jurisdiction, but in most major casino destinations, drinks are free – but only if you’re gambling. (Last time I was at the Winstar, they were charging for alcohol, even if you were playing.)
You still need to tip your cocktail waitress, though. A buck or two is sufficient.
But just because the drinks are free doesn’t mean you should over-indulge.
Casinos offer free drinks because alcohol impairs your judgment. You’ll gamble over your bankroll and lose more money than you intend to if you drink too much.
Don’t be that guy who thinks he’s more macho than the other drinkers in the casino, either. He’s the guy who loses the most money, regardless of what he claims.
No one likes that guy.
Also, a word to the wise:
If you can’t control your drinking, you probably can’t control your gambling, either. You might be better off avoiding casinos altogether.
5. Table Games Offer Better Games than Gambling Machines – With One Exception
The rule of thumb for gambling at a casino is that the easier the game is to understand, the worse the odds are.
It’s easy to understand a slot machine. You put your money in, spin the reels, and hope that winning symbols line up.
Blackjack, on the other hand, is harder to understand. You have to learn the values of the cards. You have to know what your options are when playing each – hit, stand, double down, split, etc. And it helps to know what the right move is in each situation.
But look at the difference in house edge.
The house edge for most slot machine games is at least 7%. Even if you’re terrible at blackjack, the house edge isn’t more than 4% or so. If you spend a little time learning basic strategy, you can but the house edge to blackjack down to 1% or less.
Even the table games with no skill required, like baccarat, craps, and roulette, offer a lower payback percentage than most slot machine games.
There’s one exception, though – video poker machines.
Good video poker machines combine the thrill of playing a gambling machine with the low house edge of a table game.
Much of this is because video poker games are based on card games. The random number generator duplicates the odds you’d see if you were dealing hands from a 52-card deck.
Slot machine payback percentages usually range between 75% and 93%. The outliers might top out at 97% or 98%.
Video poker payback percentages range from 92% up to 100.1%. Those numbers assume that you play with a reasonably correct strategy most of the time.
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6. Betting Systems Don’t Work
It won’t take long at the casino before you meet someone who’s a proponent of the Martingale or some other betting system. It’s tempting to think that a betting strategy like this might work, but it doesn’t – at least not in the long run.
Here’s how the Martingale System works:
You start by defining a single betting unit and choosing an even-money bet. The most common game people try the Martingale on is roulette, which has several even-money bets that seem to have a close-to-50% chance of winning.
You then start by betting a single unit. If you lose, you double your bet, hoping to recoup the previously lost bet along with a single unit profit. You repeat this doubling of your bets every time you lose.
Here’s an example:
You bet $10 (one unit) on red. The ball lands on black, so you lose your $10. The system says you double your bet, so now you bet $20 on red. The ball lands on black again, so you lose $20. The system says you double your bet again, so now you bet $40. This time, the ball lands on red, so you win back the $30 you lost on the previous bets. And you’re ahead by $10.
This can work well in the short run, but people have a few misunderstandings about the viability of such a system.
The first is the assumption that long losing streaks are terribly unlikely. The truth is, losing several times in a row is a lot more likely that you probably think.
The second is the lack of understanding of how fast doubling your bets makes you put money into action. $10 is no big deal, and neither is $20. Heck, even $40 isn’t that much for most people.
But if you lose 4 or 5 times in a row, you’re betting hundreds of dollars per spin.
It doesn’t take long for you to get to a point where the next bet in the progression is beyond your bankroll or beyond the betting limits at the table.
All the Martingale System does, in the long run, is get you some small wins here and there, all of which will eventually be wiped out by a huge losing streak.
The house edge for a casino game remains unaffected by your betting system.
7. Casinos Offer Classes in How to Play Their Games
Some people who are new to the casino adventure are intimidated by table games – especially craps. That’s too bad because these games offer better odds than the slot machines. They’re easy to learn, too. And I think they’re more fun.
But you don’t have to try to puzzle out how to play blackjack, craps, or roulette from tutorials on websites like this one. You don’t even have to buy a book or an instructional video about how to play.
Almost all casinos offer classes on how their games work. To find out when these games are scheduled, just ask anyone in customer service at the casino. If the specific individual can’t tell you what the schedule is like for these free classes, they can point you in the direction of someone who can.
These classes are usually held in the mid-morning. They’re usually followed by actual game-play, but that’s optional.
I learned to play blackjack from my mom at the kitchen table. Roulette was so easy I just sat down at the table and got the hand of it.
But I learned to play craps at a class at the Planet Hollywood Casino in Las Vegas.
You can also learn to play these games using free games at Internet casinos, but I think you’ll enjoy the free classes at the casino.
One caveat, though:
Take strategy advice from casino dealers with a grain of salt. For example, they love to explain hedging your bets in craps at these classes. That’s a lousy strategy.
8. Almost Everyone Working in or Near the Casino Industry Rely on Tips to Make a Living
You don’t have to dole out all your money to everyone working at a casino. But it sometimes feels like it. If you want to be a good person with a little bit of class, remember to tip a reasonable amount for various services.
If you eat at a buffet restaurant, a dollar or 2 for each person is a reasonable tip. Your waitress is only refilling your drinks, not providing full table service, so that doesn’t warrant a 20% tip.
Real sit-down restaurants work the same way in Vegas as anywhere else. You should tip a minimum of 20% in a casino destination. If you’re happy with the service, consider 25% or 30%, instead.
Casino game dealers deserve tips, too. It’s customary to throw them an occasional tip after a win. If you want to look sophisticated, place a bet on behalf of the dealer. This is especially common at the blackjack table.
A good rule of thumb is to plan on using 5% to 10% of your starting bankroll for tips to the dealer. It’s up to you to decide when to tip. Some players tip when they’re ready to leave the table, while others tip during the game. I think it’s more fun to tip while you’re playing.
Cocktail waitresses deserve at least a dollar for bringing you a drink. I’ll often tip more than this early in the evening to make sure I’m not ignored throughout the night, though. If you’re planning to spend several hours drinking in the casino, consider giving the cocktail waitress $10 or $20 for the first drink she brings you.
You can scale back after that but occasionally provide a larger tip to keep her coming around.
It’s also customary to tip bell hops, taxi drivers, and the hosts who seat you at the various shows. Tipping the host at a show can get you a better seat. You can even tip the person at the check-in desk in hopes of getting a room upgrade. It’s customary to include a $20 or $50 with your credit card when you check in. Don’t be shy. Ask if they have any upgraded rooms available at the same price as your room.
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If you get a reputation as stingy with your tips, you won’t have as much fun at the casino. No one likes that guy.
9. Casinos Have Their Own Rules of Etiquette
You’ll pick up on the most common rules of etiquette in the casino eventually. But a little knowledge in advance can help you be less of a bore.
I’ve already covered tipping, but there are other unwritten rules you should know about.
The most important rules of etiquette, at least from the perspective of the casino’s staff, relate to the handling of cash. You never hand a dealer money. You put your cash on the table, and the dealer exchanges it for tips.
This is for security purposes, but it also protects the dealer from accusations. By putting the money on the table, you make the entire transaction visible to the cameras above the casino floor. (These are called “the eye in the sky”.)
Kenny Rogers is right, too – never count your money at the table. It’s crass. It’s also dangerous because casinos attract pickpockets and thieves just like any other den of iniquity.
Specific games have specific rules of etiquette, too. For example, in a single deck blackjack, it’s customary to pick up your cards. But in a game dealt from a shoe, you should never touch your cards.
10. You Should Budget More Money for Your Trip than You Think
The biggest mistake I made the first time I went to Vegas was underestimating how much money it would cost. After all, Vegas is famous for cheap meals and free (or close-to-free) entertainment.
The thing is, all these cheap and free experiences are come-ons to get you gambling. And gambling is always more expensive than most first-time gamblers expect it to be.
I recommend having multiple budgets for your trip, too. Your gambling funds, especially, should be entirely separate from all your other expenses.
I have a friend who went to Vegas and gambled almost all his money away the first day. He barely had anything to eat for the rest of the trip, and he spent most of the rest of his trip watching television in his hotel room. He had enough sense to set aside money to get himself back to the airport.
I can’t imagine a more disappointing end to a trip to Vegas, though.
You should have a budget for meals, a budget for entertainment, and a budget for getting to and from the things you want to do while you’re there. Your gambling budget should be separate from all that.
I suggest drawing up a budget for each of those, based on what you’ve learned about prices there from Frommer’s or from travel guides on the Internet.
Then add 20% to each line item in the budget.
You’ll be better off having too much money for your trip than too little.
Conclusion
Casinos are a lot of fun, especially if you’re visiting for your first time.
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But gambling and casino entertainment can also be intimidating for the beginner. They don’t have to be, though. With a little bit of education and some planning, you can have a successful first trip to the casino.
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If you’re like most people, your first trip to the casino probably won’t be your last.