Gambling Las Vegas

February 13th, 2019 by


As I have posted a few times before on this website, I enjoy traveling to Las Vegas. I have had several posts involving favorite hotels, and some travel advice, even gambling advice. I am going to do some basic math so people reading understand the concept of bankrolling. Setting aside money specifically for gambling.

GAMBLING ONLY MONEY! This means you will only use money to gamble. Budget for meals and souvenirs or shows separately. Do no commingle gambling money into your budget. Yes, you can have an overall budget for a trip that includes the gambling money, but keep the money separate. Also, if you are planning to bring only so much money to gamble, make sure to separate that money into per day chunks, and do not gamble any more than that amount of money. If you are bringing $600 for a three night stay, that will mean you only have $200 per night to gamble.

Now getting into actually bankrolling money you need if you are planning on doing serious gambling, and not just fun money gambling. Which I just outlined in the above paragraph.


Slot machines or gaming machines are designed to entertain and incrementally take your money while you play. Giving you the feeling of winning while you are losing. As discussed in the past, you could gamble 40¢, the machine acts as if you had won, but only returns 30¢. You have lost 10¢ for the privilege of feeling like you won.

How much money you bring to Las Vegas to gamble is up to you. You do not have to go with the feeling that you will lose it all nor do you have to gamble all the money, because you intended to lose it all. Just stick to losing the money you bankrolled for that day. When it is gone, it is gone. Go do something else. People watch, lounge by the pool, walk up and down the strip. Just do not gamble.

First a simple mathematical fact. If you are playing a slot machine or modern gaming machine, most people will play 400-800 times per hour. Fast players will play 800, slow players play 400. It depends on how much time you want to pause between plays. This alone can save you a lot of money.


800 plays per hour amounts to roughly 13 plays per minute or about 1 play per every 5 seconds. Just pausing 5 seconds between plays can save you money. Reducing your amount of plays to 8 per minute, will bring you down to 500 plays per hour.

Most gaming machines have a minimum amount you have to play in order to receive bonus games. Bonus games can mean a big difference between playing for a long time or short time or even winning. It is always a good thing to understand the required minimum for a bonus game. On average, most penny machines require 40¢ minimum for a bonus game. That will mean 40¢ per play.

500 plays per hour
40¢ per play

$200 per hour

The final figure of $200 per hour is what you would have to bankroll if you plan on playing one machine at 40¢ per play for an hour. If you pace yourself and play at 500 plays per hour. Unless you are a quick player who goes for the 800 plays per hour.

800 plays per hour
40¢ per play

$320 per hour

Just pacing your play and reducing the amount of plays per hour could save $120 per hour.


Most casinos want a customer/player to spend at least 4 hours in the casino gambling. If you plan on doing this, $200 per hour multiplied by 4 hours will mean you need to bring with you $800 per day.

Average stay in Las Vegas is 3 nights. Which roughly correlates into 3 days. At $800 per day, that is $2400 for three nights.

As try can see, basic math shows that gambling can be very expensive, if you are serious, and want to bankroll to maximize playing time. However you choose to gamble, whether it is bankrolling or just casual, sticking to your budget is a must. Too many people get caught up in the fun or mentality that they can win the lost money back, and end up gambling everything in a day. That is sad, but it happens. Remember, multi-billion dollar resort/casinos are not built because more people are winners than losers. The only sure way to win in Las Vegas as a gambler is to quit while you are ahead. How much you are ahead when you quit is up to you. I personally quit gambling one time when I was $5 ahead.

Thanks for stopping by.