Best 5 Ways to Control Your Emotions While Gambling

Making decisions based on emotions can be a good idea in your private life and relationships (although it’s quite risky to go full-emotional even in these scenarios). When it comes to business, investments, and gambling (anything involving money, really), you’re at risk of a real financial loss. With that in mind and in order to avoid a full-blown disaster, you need to find a way to control your emotions while gambling. Here are the top five ways you can do so.

1. Understand It’s Not a Way to Make Money

The best way to let your emotions overpower you is to enter the casino with the wrong presumption or in the wrong mindset. Assuming that you’re going to make money from gambling is a grievous mistake and a completely unrealistic expectation. It will leave you disappointed most of the time and make you take unnecessary risks.

The most important lesson you need to take away from this is the fact that gambling is for entertainment. You see, it’s a game and as long as you’re having fun, you’re on the right track. No, it’s not a reliable source of income (even though you can’t explain this to the IRS). It won’t pay off your mortgage and it definitely won’t pay for your kids’ college tuition. Just focus on the thing you love the most.

Always gamble with the money you can afford to lose. Set a budget and, most importantly, set stop orders. Always walk away from the table after losing X amount and always limit your bets to a certain number. Keep in mind that this may seem like taking the game too seriously but it does reduce the risk quite drastically.

2. Stick to the Strategy

There are so many gambling strategies out there, ranging from Martindale to Fibonacci. However, picking a strategy is not what matters the most – it’s actually sticking to it that counts. In order to figure out why this is so important, you need to understand why these strategies exist in the first place.

One of the biggest psychological traumas of gambling is the idea of missing an opportunity to make money. For instance, let’s say you’re playing roulette and you bet on 25 every single time and then, once you decide to change things around a bit, the first next round lands on 25. It’s enough for one to go insane. With a strategy, the consistency is far greater, which keeps the likelihood of this substantially lower.

Understanding the game better and knowing what to expect is much simpler when sticking to the right strategy. This can even help you master some of the basic game mechanics a lot easier. The key thing is that you stay focused.

3. Understand the Odds

Every game has its own odds. For instance, even with a simple coin-toss, there’s a 1 in 6,000 chance that the coin will not land on heads or tails but on the side. This is the so-called house edge. Every game in a casino has a house edge but what’s far more important is your own understanding of your odds. If you know that your odds of winning are 1 in 60,000, you won’t have unrealistic expectations about potential gains.

The benefits of this are multifold. First of all, it helps you understand that losing 20 games/spins in a row is not an anomaly. It also helps you understand that just because you’re playing for an hour or so, it doesn’t mean that victory is just around the corner. Sure, it can happen on the first try but this is an anomaly rather than a general rule. Sites like AskGamblers are, generally, a great source of information regarding game odds.

One of the ways to avoid being troubled by this is to limit the time you spend playing. This can be just as cunning as limiting your gambling budget.

4. Don’t Gamble When You’re Already Too Emotional

Gambling when you’re already upset or depressed is the quickest way to lose money. Your judgment will be impaired and you’ll be more prone to taking risks. Moreover, you shouldn’t gamble when you’re feeling exalted either. Why? Well, mostly because you’re more likely to succumb to positivity bias. This is a scenario where you expect good things to happen eventually (or assume that they must happen).

While it’s impossible to achieve a complete equilibrium or just go to the casino when you’re feeling serene, you can avoid gambling in extreme emotional conditions. Sure, you may go to a casino to get some excitement but just try to avoid pushing it further than you have to.

Keep your cool and the results will follow.

5. Take Regular Breaks

This is a trick that’s not used by a lot of people but sometimes you just need to take a micro-break in order to clear your head. Just think about it, in a lot of casinos, drinks are on the house. Why? Well, because the drunker you get, the more impaired your judgment and decision-making become. The general idea is that you’re sitting behind the table with only a couple of seconds of time to think before each round.

Just take a stroll, go to the toilet, or skip a hand or two. This can sometimes be enough to help you clear your mind and make some rational decisions. Sometimes, just taking a minute to think about something can help you avoid making a rash decision. Always take your time to think things through, even if you end up making the same decision you originally intended.

Moreover, when gambling, you might want to ease a bit on the substances, as well. While alcohol may be both a fun enhancer and a social lubricant, it’s also something that will numb your senses and slow down your brain function.

Wrap Up

In the end, controlling your emotions is not easy but if you have a habit of visiting casinos, this can become a much bigger problem. It’s important to establish a healthy relationship between gambling and your personal life. Otherwise, you’ll be in serious trouble before you know it.