This follow-up to yesterday’s post consists of a mixture of general concepts and specific circumstances. The one thing these gambling mistakes all have in common is that they can quickly cost you a lot of money and lost EV. So read on if you’d like to know what NOT to do in the casino.

1. Bet With Your Heart, Not Your Mind

This is one of the most common mistakes people make at the casino. They make big wagers based on intuition, guesses and past events. Admittedly, it can be fun sometimes to straight-up gamble with your heart, but remember that this isn’t the only way to gamble.

This gambling mistake is often displayed when people fall for the Gambler’s Fallacy. In other words, people see the roulette ball land on red 5 spins in a row and then place big bets because they think the roulette ball is “due” to land on black any time now. Wrong! The little roulette is completely random every single time. It has no memory and no way to push itself into a different-colored slot.

If you really want to reduce the house advantage, it is better to use math to your advantage. I know math is boring, but you don’t need to be a mathematician to make smart bets. Just take a look at any of these gambling guides for easy, straightforward gambling advice.

2. Take Insurance in Blackjack

The casino does not offer insurance out of the kindness of its heart. The casino offers insurance because it increases the house advantage. It might be scary seeing the dealer sitting on an Ace, but you will do better over the long run by passing on insurance and instead playing according to basic blackjack strategy.

If you have a strong feeling that the casino has a blackjack and insurance is necessary, go back and see item #1 on this page. Remember: the odds never change. Insurance is a bad bet and it won’t make you any money over the long run.

In short, insurance is a bad bet because it pays less than the odds of the dealer actually having a blackjack. There are very rare situations in which insurance might be a good bet, but you have to be good at knowing which cards have already been shown and how many cards are left in the shoe. For the average blackjack player, insurance is a bad bet.

There is only one time I would recommend insurance to the average blackjack player: when your entire life savings is on the line. This is the same reason why we get insurance for our health and houses. Even though the odds of your health or house being destroyed are low, we cannot tolerate even a slight risk of something catastrophic happening.

However, this should never be the case in blackjack. If you somehow wind up with your entire life savings on the table, you went wrong a long time ago.

3. Bet Big at the Slot Machines

Slot machines are the most profitable games for most online casinos. Even though online slots may have payout rates of 97% or higher, the “churn” at these games is substantial. What I mean by “churn” is that slots are good at keeping your money moving through the system. It is very easy to place a large number of bets in a short amount of time at the slot machines.

So, a great way to lose money at any casino is to bet big at the slot machines. Get in there, activate every pay line and wager $25 or $100 a spin. The house advantage may be small on each bet, but you’ll go through bets faster at slot machines than anywhere else. Beware the one-armed bandits.

4. Bet the Basket in Roulette

The basket bet in roulette is a wager on the group of numbers 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. If you place this bet and the ball lands on any of those numbers, you will be paid 6:1. There are two things wrong with the basket bet in roulette.

First, the basket bet has a higher than normal house advantage. The house advantage of every other possible bet in roulette is 5.26%. The basket bet, on the other hand, has a house advantage of 7.89%. Every single other roulette bet is better than the basket bet.

Second, the fact that the basket bet is available means that you’re playing at an American roulette table. American roulette tables should always be avoided because they have an extra slot reserved for “00.” European style roulette tables only have a single zero slot. This results in European roulette having a house advantage of just 2.7%.

5. Gamble on Credit

Other than whipping out a gun, gambling on credit is the stupidest thing you can do at any casino. Nothing good ever comes from gambling on credit. If you don’t have the cash available right now to gamble, just wait. Seriously.

Even if you know for sure that your direct deposit will hit your bank at exactly midnight, you should never take out a loan, borrow money or open a casino line of credit. Just wait until you have the funds available. Gambling on credit leads down a dangerous road because it’s easy to gamble more than you intended and it’s easy to get stuck in a tight spot if something happens between losing your money and getting paid.

It’s also easy to get used to the idea of gambling on credit. If you gamble on credit a few times and everything goes smoothly, you might get comfortable with gambling on credit. Don’t do this. Just take my word for it and never gamble on credit.

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The following myths, habits and gambling systems are all good ways to lose money quickly. So if you want to save your money, avoid falling into these same traps. If you have some sick desire to lose money, then feel free to implement any of these things into your gambling strategy.

1. Use the Martingale System

The Martingale System is one of the best ways to lose a lot of money at any online casino. There are dozens of variations but at its heart, the Martingale System is all about increasing your wagers every time you lose. The simplest form of the Martingale System is to double your wager every time you lose.

The Martingale System is often promoted as a way to win money because it sounds good on paper. The idea is that if you lose your first wager, you can just double your next bet to cover your losses. If you lose yet again, you double your next bet and hopefully win. Eventually, the logic goes, you have to win. And when you do win, you’ll recoup all your losses.

There are a number of reasons why the Martingale System doesn’t work in practice, but I’ll leave all the details for this Martingale discussion. The most important thing to remember is that it’s a lot easier than you might think to lose multiple bets in a row. A run of 10 losses in a row is not that uncommon. And when you constantly double your wagers, you will eventually hit a bad streak. Thus, it’s easy to win a little money with the Martingale System, but it’s even easier to lose a whole bunch.

2. Wager Large Portions of Your Bankroll on a Single Bet

This piece of guaranteed-losing advice goes for every game of chance in the world. If you wager a large portion of your bankroll regularly, you will quickly go broke. Even in games in which you have an advantage (such as poker), you cannot rely on skill alone. There is always a chance that you lose any single wager.

The whole reason bankroll management was invented is to help reduce the risk of ruin. For example, you wouldn’t want to wager your life savings with a 51% chance to win even if it is technically a good bet. The same thing goes for gambling. You have to keep all wagers small relative to the overall size of your bankroll to last long at the casino.

The optimal size of every bet depends on the size of your bankroll, your advantage and your risk tolerance. The greater your advantage is, the more you can bet. If you are working with a small advantage, your bets need to be much smaller.

I can’t give you single number for optimal bet sizing because there are so many different games and so many variables. You can often find in-depth guides by doing a few Google searches. Do a search for the name of your game with the words “bankroll management” behind it.

3. Do Not Set Strict Loss Limits

This is an awesome way to lose a painful amount of money. If you don’t set strict loss limits, there’s no clear-cut definition of when you should quit. This can get dangerous if you go on a bad run and become tempted to chase your losses.

The only thing you need to do to lose a lot of money is to ignore loss limits and gamble until you finally break even again. This gives you the maximum potential to turn a bad night into a terrible night. If you’re lucky, you might even dip into your rent money or your kid’s college tuition.

4. Get Black-Out Drunk

So, you want to lose a lot of money tonight but you’re feeling lazy. Well, my advice to you then is to get black out drunk while you’re at the casino. If you don’t remember it, it’s like it never happened, right? So hit the Vegas clubs for a few hours, go to the casino and take advantage of all those free drinks.

Remember, casinos give you free drinks because alcohol lowers your inhibitions and makes it harder for you to make smart decisions. With all that money in front of you, they have every reason to feed you as many drinks as you can handle.

5. Feed the Anger

Anger is a powerful ally in the fight for losing money. When you let your emotions affect your play, you are bound to make risky bets and wager more money. Anger comes in handy at the blackjack tables, poker tables and slot machines. Let Anger take you away and tell you how to play. Don’t take a break or stop for the night, just keep gambling while you and Anger dwell on how much Lady Lucky screwed you tonight.

Anger also has a cousin named “Desperation.” Desperation often comes along to clean up after Anger has ripped your wallet to shreds. You’ll know Desperation has come for a visit when you start thinking about your losses, feeling panicky and getting the urge to take drastic measures to get even again.

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Large poker sites such as Bet365 rarely offer no-deposit bonuses. These big poker sites are well-established in the industry and don’t see any need to give away free money. However, Bet365 has decided to give its poker room a push and offer all new UK players $5 free to try the software and join the real money games.

No bonus code is necessary to get the Bet365 no deposit bonus. The only thing you need to do is sign up for an account and the money is yours. If you decide to deposit later, you can still take advantage of the 200% deposit bonus for up to $1000 extra.

Bet365 has been one of my favorite poker rooms for a long time. The company that operates Bet365 is well known in the UK, with a history that goes all the way back to 1974. Over the years, Bet365 has developed a reputation for fair betting. I have worked closely with Bet365 for several years now and love working with them. The whole team is great and they have never misled me or mistreated any of my visitors.

It’s hard telling how long this bonus offer will stand. I got word of the no-deposit bonus a few days ago but never heard how long Bet365.com plans to keep the offer open. It might stay forever and it might be a limited-time thing. I’ve never seen Bet365 Poker offer a no-deposit bonus like this, so my guess is that this will be for a limited time only.

Note: This bonus is only available for the poker room. The free $5 bonus cannot be used in the casino or sportsbook. Bet365 is going strictly for poker players this time around.

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If you follow online poker at all, the chances are good you’ve already heard about the mess. But if not, here’s a quick rundown of what happened:

On April 26^th, a hacker broke into secure sections of the website and was able to see user e-mail addresses and 2+2 forum passwords. The notice on the front page of the forums states that the passwords were stored in an encrypted state, but that somehow the hacker had managed to bypass the encryption and see raw passwords.

Full notice text:

What does this mean for you?

If you use the same password for 2+2 and your registered e-mail address, you need to change your e-mail password immediately. You should also change the password for everything else that you log in to online. It’s one thing for someone to get your TwoPlusTwo.com password, but it can be a real disaster if someone gets into your e-mail address (think about how easy it is to get new passwords sent to your e-mail address).

Details of the hacking attempt are unclear, but this has been dragging on for a week-and-a-half now. It’s peculiar that 2+2 has been down for this long after being broken into. Hacking can cause major problems for websites, but it’s rare to see a site as large as 2+2 go down for this long. This is a huge poker community and home to some of the best poker strategy and industry information in the world. If 2+2 stays down, it would be a huge blow to the entire poker community.

It’s also odd that the hacker was able to decrypt passwords. Modern encryption techniques are unbreakable when applied properly. This is either a case of faulty implementation of encryption or a more simple brute force attacked mislabeled as decryption. In any case, it’s not good.

NoahSD ‘s blog has a quick list of security tips that every TwoPlusTwo member should read. I’d also like to stress here that having unique passwords for every login is a good idea today. It seems like we hear about a major website being hacked every few days now. If you keep the same password for every login, you’re just asking for trouble.

Look into a password management tool such as RoboForm. RoboForm can help you create unique passwords and remember them for you. Just lock it with a master password and you can keep dozens (or hundreds) of completely random passwords stored in RoboForm. The software can also be integrated into most web browsers. Just click the RoboForm icon in your browser and it will check the website URL and then fill in the username and password fields for you.

Password management is a real pain unless you have some kind of password manager. RoboForm, KeePass and LastPass all work well for storing passwords securely. RoboForm is extra nice because it has strong mobile apps and password syncing across multiple devices.

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• Rushmore Casino
• Slotsville
• Cherry Red Casino
• Slots Oasis Casino
• Pure Vegas Casino

These online casinos are all operated by the C-Planet gambling group. I stopped referring players to these casinos last year after reading just a few too many complaints in gambling forums. Things have gotten even worse now and it’s time to give up on these casinos for good.

Dozens of reports have been flooding in regarding the above casinos. The C-Planet gambling group was once one of the most respected brands in the industry. Key personnel left the group last year and the entire organization has gone downhill since then. Consider yourself warned.

The only time I would recommend playing at Rushmore, Slotsville, Cherry Red Casino, Slots Oasis or Pure Vegas is if you like to see the following words on your screen:

“We apologize again for this inconvenience.”

Because that’s all you’re going to see if you win much money at any of these gambling sites. Customer support has even joined the discussion at several websites, and it’s hilarious to see them in action. The operators of these casinos have a flagrant non-caring attitude regarding player issues.

For example, here’s a small excerpt from an AskGamblers.com complaint page. I’m only going to show the casino’s responses for the sake of saving room on this page. If you would like to read the entire exchange, just click on the link above.

Ok, so the casino has acknowledged the problem. That’s a start, right? Wrong! Not only does this original post have a dismissive attitude and offer no help, but it gets worse. See Exhibit B below:

So now the casino is refusing to pay all winnings to the player. Instead, the casino offers to return the original deposit only. This is hardly fair. The casino operates in a legal grey area and understands the risk it takes in accepting US customers. The player has done nothing wrong and is entitled to her winnings.

It gets worse:

Notice how the casino is already appealing to AskGamblers.com to close the thread. Fat chance – I am familiar with the owner of that website he’s a standup guy. The thread continues below:

You get the idea by now. Again, visit the link above to see this whole thread for yourself. I didn’t want to copy the entire exchange here. In any case, this should be evidence enough that C-Planet has major customer service and honesty issues. The exchange actually continues a little longer with support repeating that there is nothing it can do.

This is one of the most embarrassing examples of customer support I have ever seen in the gambling industry, and that’s saying a lot. The casino staff in this example has a terrible attitude. I would love to see this customer support “professional” talk to a customer like that in person.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incidence with the C-Planet group. There are multiple complaints at AskGamblers.com, CasinoScamReport.com, GPWA.org (thread here), CasinoMeister.com (thread here) and others. Some of these players have eventually been paid months later, but those cases have not been easy to deal with.

So if you decide to play at Cherry Red Casino, Rushmore Casino, Slots Oasis, Slotsville or Pure Vegas, you might get paid and you might not. If you do get paid, it will probably be after a long, frustrating series of back and forth e-mails in which customer support tells you nothing, treats you like an idiot and delays payments for months on end.

Sure, you can say that this evidence is all hearsay, but you don’t see this much negative press around high quality gambling sites in the US or elsewhere. This is a C-Planet problem. Actually, it’s a C-Planet scam. Do not play here if you care about little things like customer support, fair treatment or, you know, money.

C-Planet was a respected casino group years ago, but it has gone way downhill. There are much better casinos out there right now. Do not let this story scare you away from online gambling altogether, because the best casinos pay their players quickly and treat their players with respect. The lesson to learn here is buyer beware. Do your research before you sign up and only read reviews from trusted websites that actually give you the honest truth about gambling programs.

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The Rules

There are a few rules you should know about this bonus:

1. The bonus is only open to new players who sign up for an account.

2. You must earn 40 Party Points before you can withdraw the bonus.

3. You must not sign up through an affiliate to receive this bonus.

Rule number three is the most important to know. This rule means that you must visit the Party Poker website directly to get this bonus. You cannot click on any affiliate links and be tracked to an affiliate. Party Poker promotes much of its business through its affiliate program. This is a big rule because if you click on any of the links here at CasinoFYI.com (or any other website), you will not be eligible for this bonus.

So to be safe, make sure you clear your browser history and delete all cookies before you visit Party Poker. After you delete your cookies, open a new browser window and type in www.partypoker.com by hand.

This promo is a little frustrating for me as an affiliate because I won’t get credit for sending players to Party Poker, but that’s fine. I just want you guys to remember that I’m looking out for you even when it doesn’t benefit me! Come back to CasinoFYI.com to get the real deal every time. My primary goal with CasinoFYI.com is to always give you the honest truth and best deals for all things related to poker, gambling and sports betting.

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A Daily Mail article recently showed just how William Hill does it. The article was titled “Risky Business: With the advent of online gambling, are we creating an epidemic of addiction?” but it barely delved into the issue of gambling addiction. Instead, the article focused mostly on how William Hill process and manages thousands of bets every day.

Although the article barely even touches on its primary subject, it’s an interesting read. The article goes behind the scenes at William Hill to show how the company manages the betting action during busy days. With the help of computers, dozens of employees watch bets roll in on their screens while they monitor games on live TV, adjust the odds and manage the bookmaker’s risk. It was a great read from that standpoint.

However, it was odd that the article was titled as an indictment against online gambling, but did not even go into any detail on the issue. Other than a quick stat (problem gambling has increased from 0.6 to 0.9% since 1999), the article focuses entirely on how William Hill works in the backend. It looks like just another case of the media writing an attention-grabbing headline for the sake of attracting more viewers.

Despite the article’s shortcomings, it was still an interesting read. If you’ve ever wondered how a big bookmaker is able to manage the vast amounts of information that come with running an online sportsbook, head on over to the Daily Mail to learn all about it.

On a side note: I’m still highly skeptical that online gambling is linked to any increase in problem gambling. The UK has had legal online gambling for about 7 years now and there is little evidence supporting the theory that online gambling leads to greater gambling addiction.

It’s understandable why people would assume online gambling makes it easier to fall victim to gambling addiction. However, we still don’t have any strong evidence pointing to this after 7 years. A 0.3% increase in problem gambling is not rock solid evidence of cause and effect. The change could be a result of increased awareness, better reporting, changing population or a hundred other factors.

BetOnline itself sent out a separate notice telling players that the poker room was down temporarily for maintenance. A short time later, BetOnline sent out yet another notice telling players that it was “happy” to announce that BetOnline has moved to a new poker network. The same notice also told players that  although their balance are showing $0 at the moment, all balances will be restored upon completion of the move.

This story is difficult to write about because the BetOnline poker room has been surrounded in confusion since the very beginning. When BetOnline first went live, it claimed to be a part of the Hero Poker Network. It was later revealed however, that BetOnline was lying and that it was actually a part of the Action Poker Network. The Action Poker Network supposedly does not accept US players and has a long, murky history on its own.

Now, we are hearing that BetOnline is a member of the Chico Poker Network and that the Chico Poker Network has decided to kick BetOnline off its network. Either that, or BetOnline decided to leave on its own accord. It all depends on who you ask at this point.

A BetOnline representative appeared today in the PokerAffiliateListings.com forums stating that everything was back to normal. The representative is now telling us that BetOnline did not change poker networks, and that it was just “an issue with our network supplier.” Whatever that means.

Just this evening, some players are reporting at 2+2 that their account balance have been repaid and that BetOnline is still on the Chico Poker Network. Other players are reporting that they still have $0 account balances. Customer service agents are now telling the players with $0 balances to just sit tight for a little while longer.

I really don’t know what’s going on with this poker site. I have a feeling player balances will be back to normal soon, but this is just one of the most poorly run businesses in the world. They offer no communication to players and have had numerous complaints of refusing to honor large withdrawals from the poker room.

At this point, it’s really anyone’s guess what the real story is. The only thing I can tell you is that this is NOT a poker room at which I would trust my money. Something isn’t right here and these are not the kind of people that you want holding your money. There are plenty of other options out there.

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This is actually a pretty straightforward promo that requires no luck. Just earn the number of casino comp point stated below and you’ll get your prize. There are no drawings or anything of that nature. All you have to do is play casino games at Bet365 and earn comp points.

How It Works

As you play casino games at Bet365, you automatically earn comp points. These points are used as a part of the VIP system at Bet365. For every $10 that you wager at the casino, you earn anywhere from 1 to 3 comp points. Low advantage games such as video poker get you 1 comp point per $10 wagered while high advantage games such as slots get you 3 comp points for every $10 wagered.

The simple act of earning these points is enough for you to earn prizes in this promo. You don’t have to trade your points in to claim these prizes. Just earn the points and the prizes are yours.

In this promotion, there are three levels of prizes based on your level in the VIP club. Gold and Diamond level players have the best selection of prizes, but anyone can win. If you get enough points, you get the prize. Here’s a quick look at the highest tier of prizes in this promo:

• 70,000 comp points: $3000 cash prize
• 150,000 comp points: $7000 cash prize
• 350,000 comp points: $10,000 cash prize or Euro 2012 travel package
• 500,000 comp points: Audi A1 Sportback 1.2 TFSI or $25,000 cash
• 800,000 comp points: Free cruise aboard the Queen Mary 2 or $44,000 cash prize
• 1,200,000 comp points: Range Rover Evoque Coupe Dynamic or $72,000 cash prize
• 1,600,000 comp points: Jaguar XJ 3.0 or $110,000 cash prize

The best prizes in this promo require a lot of comp points, but remember that you don’t earn these points by spending money in the casino; the simple act of wagering is enough to get comp points. Win or lose, these prizes are open to you.

Don’t Forget to Opt In

You need to opt in to this promo at some point during April to participate. If you opt in halfway through the month, you’ll still get credit for the comp points that you have earned so far. However, I think it’s best to opt in now and get it out of the way.

You can opt in by visiting the official Bet365 casino website. Click on “view promotions” on the top right corner of the window and a new window will open. Click on the “prize ladder” promotion and then look for the “opt in” button. Click that button and you’re good to go.

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The grand jackpot is expected to top $700 million by the end of the day and that means that even after potentially splitting the jackpot with other people and paying taxes, you are still getting the best of the odds this time. Expected value is one of the key concepts in gambling because you can use EV to tell you whether any bet is a good bet or a bad bet.

Let’s say for example that you and a friend decide to flip a coin and bet $1 on the outcome. You each put $1 on the line and can possibly win a total of $2. In this case, the odds of winning are 50/50 and your total profit is $1. This means that your expected value is exactly zero. You neither win money nor lose money over the long run with this bet.

But – if you change the rules of the game so that you only have to wager $0.50 on each flip of the coin and your friend has to wager $1 on every flip of the coin, your expected value is now positive. Every flip of the coin is worth $0.50 over the long run.

In the lottery example, the exact EV is difficult to calculate because the prize pool is constantly growing as more people buy tickets at the last minute. Additionally, the odds of winning change as more tickets go into circulation. But even with all that accounted for, it is widely being predicted that the Mega Millions lottery is a positive investment.

Going by a purely mathematical standpoint, should you invest your entire life savings in the Mega Millions lottery tonight? After all, a positive return is a positive return. The problem here is that if you invest your entire fortune in the Mega Millions tonight, your risk of ruin is too high. You have a limited bankroll and the odds of winning are low enough that you stand a very high chance to lose everything.

So even when you’re getting the best of it, you should not always wager everything you have. This is why bankroll management is such as important concept in poker and gambling. Even the best poker players and the best gamblers go on losing stretches due to natural variance in the game. You reduce your risk of ruin by keeping your bets small compared to the overall size of your bankroll.

So for that reason, I only bought 10 Mega Millions tickets tonight. Every dollar that I spent on the lottery was well-spent, but my bankroll is too small for me to buy a hundred million tickets.  Even though I’m getting the best of the bet (over the long run), I cannot sensibly invest every dollar I own in lottery tickets.

Good luck lottery players.

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