People often ask me what their budget should be for the casino. The simple answer is that it should be whatever you're comfortable losing! So let's say you only have $500 for a weekend or $50 for a day. What should you play?

Personally, it takes me 90 minutes to get to my 'local' casino, one way! So I won't be making that drive with a $50 budget as it would cost that much to get there in gas, haha. Regardless, let me entertain that notion. 

$50 Budget
$50 is not a lot of money, especially when you're considering using it to gamble with and potentially lose. I have lost $50 in a single spin many times, haha. Don't get me wrong, I have friends who have played on $20 for an hour betting 8 cents a spin. If that's your prerogative, go for it! However if you have $50, then keep to those 50cent spins or under. It may sound small, but that's only 100 spins and that may not be enough to even land a bonus. Perhaps get yourself 10 $5 bills and pick out 10 games to play. After 10 spins, re-evaluate if you want to keep spinning or continue playing. Trust your instinct because if you don't, you'll hate yourself for it later and you'll get in a sour mood. Keep that smile people, you're supposed to be having FUN!

$500 Weekend Budget
Say you're going to Vegas for the weekend and you want your money to last the entirety of your stay. Well you better be strong willed and ensure you follow a plan. For starters, you can forget about the high limit room! It's easy to get carried away on your first night and lose it all, so bring some envelopes! Label the envelopes by date and time (because you know once midnight strikes, that next days budget could be gone in a blink of an eye!). The first day give yourself a little less than a third of your budget, say $150. That way if you lose it all, it won't hurt as much and you'll still have a positive outlook on the weekend. If you lost half right away, you may be swayed to bet higher the next day to try and re-coop your funds which is a huge no-no! Better still, give yourself 3 envelopes for the night with $50 in each for 6pm, 9pm and 11pm! Don't put $20 bills in there because you're bound to lose it all at once. Use $5 bills. The act of continuously putting money in the machine should be enough for your brain to catch on the fact that you're losing your butt. Once the first envelope is done, go and refresh in your room, grab a bite or sip on a cocktail at the bar. The whole point is to keep that positive energy going and staying active. Bad mojo can ruin it all for you, so have fun with a realistic outlook. 

What to Play?
There are volatile machines (tough to win on, but when you do it can be huge) and there are non-volatile machines (pays out more frequently but at lower amounts). Of course they don't label that for us, so you'll have to go by memory of watching my videos. Another trick is that progressive machines (ones with large jackpots that keep progressively rising) tend to be a bit more volatile. At a low budget you'll want to keep your bets low. Even at a $3 max bet, your $50 budget can be gone in as little as 17 spins, or 1 minute. So be smart. If you're a Rudies member, you've seen dozens of Rudies win huge jackpots at 50cent or 80 cent bets, so don't think for a second you have to max bet. Keep your max to $2 or under per spin. Honestly whenever I max bet, I swear everyone sitting beside me betting 8 cents or 50cents a spin gets that bonus 3 times as often as I do. So take the pressure off, get your free drinks from the servers while betting 18 cents and and have fun! 
If luck is on your side and you find yourself UP $100 for example, don't take that as a sign to start upping your bets. That is a sure way to lose it twice as quickly. Keep to the same level of bets that got you the wins in the first place. It must be working!

Make it FUN!
Turn it into a game and give each envelope a purpose. Perhaps you want to only play one style of game, or only play until you get a bonus, or only do 20 spins per machine. One of my favorite things to do is play until you make 5 times your bet back and get off. Or cash out after you make a profit, even if it's after the first spin! Maybe you want to take some bigger chances, so allocate one of your envelopes for $3 spins on a non-volatile game. If you lose it, well you still have another 9 envelopes, so no biggie. But at least you gave in to some of that temptation. 

Group Pull it UP!
Playing with friends? Pool your money and that $50 budget is now $100! Take turns spinning and set up some rules and follow a game plan together. It definitely helps you be more accountable when you play with friends....so long as they are as responsible as you and follow the rules!

Celebrate the small wins!
You're betting 50 cents a spin and you just had a $50 win when your whole budget was $50? Take that money and stash it away in your Winners Bank!! You basically just won the lottery (seriously, the machine was meant to TAKE your money, not give it away), so rejoice and take it home with you. Even if you're up $10 on a machine, take that money and run. You beat the system!

​Notice I've used the term "lose it all" quite a bit. That's because the odds are forever in the favor of the casino. If you lose, you really don't 'lose', because you came and had an adrenaline rush of gambling and that is an accomplishment and a win. And hey, if you went away with some of your original money, or with a profit - then amazing! I'd say I leave a casino with a winning trip on 1 out of every 5 trips. Sometimes I'll have three back to back winning trips, but that usually is followed up by a big slump. Winning money or even jackpots is never a given, it's a bonus! Go to the casino for the experience, for the excitement and with a donation in hand! Win or lose, you have accomplished your mission if you leave the casino satisfied and with a smile on your face.

I'll end with something to make you think twice about splurging on higher bets. Here are my top 5 Jackpots by bet amount, win and payout percentage. Notice which one OBLITERATED the other bets by payout, it's unreal!

Wheel of Fortune - $50 Bet, $10,000 Win, 200xWin
Cleopatra 2 - $9 Bet, $7385 Win, 820xWin
Triple, Double Red Hot Strike - $10 Bet, $11,250 Win, 1125xWin
Double Easy Money - $6 Bet, $10,000 Win, 1666xWin
>>Mighty Cash - $0.80 Bet, $7234 Win, 9042xWin

​Brian Christopher xoxo ❤️

Bingo games were popularized in some states by the company VGT, now owned by Aristocrat, and a lot of investments in the idea and the system were made by the Seminole tribe in Florida. You can spot them pretty clearly as a bingo card is placed on the screen and the games are rendered against the cards as the slot reels are spinning. Some players have played them enough to be able to spot winning/losing patterns on the cards faster than the reels can render.

Does One Pay Better Than the Other?
Paybacks on Class III machines are set machine by machine - the casino decides what they want to pay back out of a selection of a half dozen or so choices. Most casinos will select the setting closest to what they want to achieve for that denomination(s) across their gaming floor.

Similarly, a tribe can set the Bingo prize levels to achieve the payback they wish to see for the game. As such, both have a level of control for the casino to decide what they want to pay.

Accordingly, neither will guarantee to pay better than the other; it’s up to the casinos themselves to make that call, as long as it meets the state-mandated minimums, which are usually laughably low compared to what most casinos actually pay back.

Many players will find it frustrating to learn that most tribes are not required to report their payback percentages. Some, like in Connecticut, do, because of the agreements they made with the state, but that’s an exception.

If I Don’t See a Bingo Card, Does That Mean It’s a Vegas-Style Machine?
Not necessarily. Some states, like New York, allow for other types of games that are also not governed by an RNG, but aren’t bingo either. Sites like the American Casino Guide give you a breakdown state by state of the games offered and by who, and can help you figure it out a bit. Some games act like virtual scratch-off cards, and some even use historical horse racing results to determine the outcome.

Many of these other alternatives are set up to support horse racing facilities get around slot machine limitations and regulations through legal loopholes, just as the Class II machines were designed to get around Bingo regulations in a similar way. And like the others, usually there is no real difference in long-term play unless you get very granular, as the payback scenarios are set up over time to basically achieve the casino’s desired outcome.

Conclusion
While Vegas-style slots and Bingo machines take very different courses to get you to your outcome, in reality both play similarly, and many of you may not have even noticed that you’re playing a different sort of game. The next time you get a big win, if you see you’re on a Class II machine, you might find that the right reaction is to stand up and yell out BINGO!

Joshua O’Connell is the founder and creator of Know Your Slots, a website that aims to educate about slots, advantage play and casino comps. He’s a slot enthusiast and a proud member of the Rudies since launch.
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Thank you so much Josh for that insightful blog! If you would like to be a guest writer for BCSlots.com, kindly send us an E-mail. 
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