Yes, you can make a living gambling. This post presents detailed advice including the best games to play, how often you would have to win a month, and how to play full time to make $50,000 a.
You can find stories about people gambling for a living. Many people play poker for a living, and it’s easy to see why. Poker doesn’t have a built in house edge; it has what amounts to a seat charge in the form of rake. Poker players aren’t trying to win the house money, they compete for other player’s money. This is different than most other forms of gambling.
You can also read about blackjack players that have learned how to count cards or find sloppy dealers that flash the value of down cards. Some of these players are able to play blackjack for a living. A small percentage of sports bettors, horse track bettors, and dog track bettors are also able to make enough money to gamble for a living.
But it’s rare to find people who can gamble for a living who play other casino games. Bob Dancer claims that he was able to play video poker for a living several years back, but even if his claim is true, many things have changed since then. It’s harder to find full pay video poker machines and casinos pay lower comp rates for video poker play.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that and I’m not trying to say that he didn’t make money playing. But I don’t know if anyone is making a living playing video poker today. It’s possible, but if there are players doing it, there aren’t very many.
A few authors claim to make money playing craps using dice control. This has always struck me as a way to sell books and training courses, but just like Dancer’s claim in video poker, I suppose a few people can use dice control. Also just like video poker, if people are successful at dice control, there aren’t very many of them.
Games like slots, roulette, baccarat, and other table games don’t have stories about gamblers playing them for a living. Does the lack of stories mean that these games are impossible to beat?
Slots are the most popular form of gambling in casinos. People love to play slots. This brings me to the reason for this article.
The Hard Truth
Before you continue, consider exactly what making a living means. Some people live on $25,000 a year, while others seem to need $50,000 or $100,000 a year. Many factors come into play when determining how much someone needs to live.
Some of the factors include:
- Where you live
- How many people you have to support, like a spouse and children
- How frugal your lifestyle is
- How much debt you have
For the purposes of this article I’m going to use $52,000 a year as the threshold for making a living. This works out to $1,000 a week. You can use any number that you want, but unless you live in an expensive area, most people can survive on this amount.
Another issue that must be considered when you think about playing slots for a living is the lack of health insurance and other benefits. Professional gamblers have to find health care and they don’t get paid time off. Health care is a serious expense for many people and it can be dangerous not to have some type of coverage.
Many young people don’t worry about the lack of health care coverage, but as you get older it often becomes a real concern. If you have to pay for health insurance it can take a big chunk out of your income. Keep this in mind when you determine how much you need to make to play slots for a living.
The hard truth is playing slots for a living is almost impossible unless you’re already wealthy and have enough money that you can afford to lose in the long run. It’s much more likely that you’re going to lose $1,000 a week than win $1,000 week playing slots.
While most slots players lose in the long run, it’s not 100% impossible to play slots for a living. But such a small percentage of players make money that the truth is that you should probably forget the idea.
Each machine is programmed to pay back a certain percentage of every dollar wagers and keep the rest for the casino. These numbers are called different names, but I call them pay back percentage and the house edge.
A slot machine’s pay back percentage is the amount of all bets returned to the player through wins on the machine. If a slot machine has a 95% pay back percentage that means that on average it gives back $95 out of every $100 wagered to the player.
If you consider this from the other angle you get the house edge. When the slot machine pays back $95 out of $100, it keeps the other $5 for profit. In other words, a machine that pays back $95 out of every $100 wagered has a 5% house edge.
When you add the house edge percentage and the pay back percentage together, they always equal 100%. This means that if you know one number you can subtract it from 100 to get the other number.
You can use these numbers to predict how much money you should win or lose over a set period of time, based on how much you bet per hour. Because the house edge is in the casino’s favor, it means that if you can’t figure out how to overcome the edge or get lucky, you’re going to lose in the long run.
Most slot machines have a payback percentage between 90 and 98%. This means the house edge is between 2 and 10%. With a house edge, it means that you lose between 2 and 10% of every dollar you run through the machine.
Here’s an example:
- You play on a slot machine that has a 98% pay back percentage, which means it has a 2% house edge. Your bet size is $2 per spin and you make 400 spins per hour. You can figure out your average loss rate, or what you can expect to lose on average per hour, by using this formula.
- Amount bet per spin times spins per hour times the house edge.
- $2 X 400 X 2% = $16
This means that if you play for 10 hours your expected loss is $160. You simply multiply the expected hourly loss times the number of hours you plan to play and you get the average expected loss.
Slots are run by computers, which use a program based on math. These programs, unless the programmers made a mistake, make sure that the underlying math principles always come true. It might take millions of spins, but the programs guarantees that the machine produces the programmed profit percentage for the casino.
The house edge and pay back percentage are long term things. This means that these percentages are realized over a long period of time. In the short term the house edge and pay back percentages vary, sometimes a great deal. But eventually the short term variance evens out and produces the correct results.
Most players can’t, and this is why it’s almost impossible to play slots for a living.
If you still want to try to play slots for a living, the following sections have additional information you need to know. Just keep in mind that even if you use every trick and strategy in your power, you still might lose money in the long run.
Finding the Pay Back Percentage of Slots
You just learned about pay back percentage and the house edge and how these things guarantee the casino a profit. So the next question is how do you find out the house edge and pay back for slot machines?
Most casino games are designed in a way that it’s fairly easy to determine the house edge and pay back percentage, or you can easily find the numbers with a quick internet search. But slots are different. The programs that run the machines have so many variables that unless you have access to the program it’s impossible to determine the house edge and pay back percentage.
Another problem is that some machines offer different pay back percentages from the manufacturer, so each casino can order their machines with the percentage they want. You can find out more about finding slot machine pay back percentages here, but the news isn’t good.
The following sections include everything I know that can help you improve your chances to win. Four of them are strategies that you can put into action yourself, and the other one is based on hope. Sadly, hope isn’t much of a strategy, but it fits in perfectly with how most people gamble. They put their money out and hope to win.
Online Bonuses
Online casinos often offer bonuses for slots players when they make a deposit. You can get 100% or more of your deposit matched with bonus money you can use to play slots. This sounds like a great way to overcome the house edge, and if the money was free it would be.
While bonus money looks like it’s free, when you read the conditions and terms associated with the bonus you find out that it’s not a simple as the casino giving you free money.
Every online slots bonus comes with rules and regulations about how you can use it, what you have to do before you can cash out your money, and if you get to keep any bonus amount when you meet the terms of the offer.
The terms vary from online casino to online casino, so it’s important to read them before you make your deposit. Some bonuses are deducted from your balance when you make a cash out request, while others can be cashed out eventually.
When you accept an online slots bonus you have to meet certain requirements. These are usually called play through requirements. A play through requirement means that you have to play the bonus amount, and sometimes the deposit amount as well, a certain number of times to clear the bonus. The requirement is usually shown as a multiple, like 25X or 50X. This means you have to make wagers totaling 25 times or 50 times the bonus, and sometimes the deposit amount.
Here’s an example:
- You sign up at an online casino that offers a 100% sign up bonus on deposits up to $250. You make a $250 deposit and get a $250 bonus. This gives you a total bankroll of $500. The terms and conditions state that you have to play the deposit and bonus amount 50 times before you can cash out.
- The total of the bonus and your deposit is $500, so you multiply this by 50 to find the total amount you have to bet. 50 X $500 = $25,000, so you have to make $25,000 worth of bets before cashing out. The best can be any size as long as the total amount reaches the limit.
You can use a trick at this point to get an idea of the possibility of clearing the bonus and having money left over. You can multiply the total amount you have to wager times the house edge to find the expected loss.
Using this example, if you play on a slot machine with a 5% house edge, your expected loss is $1,250. This means that usually you’re going to run out of money before you clear the bonus. The only ways to change this are to play on a machine with a lower house edge, or find bonuses that have lower play through requirements.
You also need to make sure you understand the difference between cashable bonuses and the ones that are deducted from your balance. A bonus that can’t be cashed out when you meet the playing requirements makes it unlikely you can beat the house edge.
Here’s an example if you play a slot machine with a 2% house edge, using the same bonus numbers in the last example.
$25,000 X 2% = $500. This means that your expected loss is the same as your total bankroll of $500. Even if you get lucky and don’t lose all $500, the odds of you having more than your deposit of $250 left after clearing the bonus is slim.
You should defiantly use online slots bonuses if you want to play slots. Even a bonus that’s not cashable gives you extra money to gamble with. It also gives you extra chances to hit a big jackpot, which is the only way most slots players have of getting ahead.
Slots Tournaments
Slots tournaments aren’t run at all casinos, but some casino run them from time to time, and a few run them on a regular basis. A slots tournament offers a minimum amount of play for a set entry fee and awards prizes for the top finishers.
Some casinos offer slots tournaments as a reward for a set amount of play and/or connected to their slots club program. If you can earn a free entry into a slots tournament, anything you win helps overcome the house edge on your normal slots play.
When you’re looking for a slots tournament that has an entry fee, you should look for ones that have a guaranteed prize pool. If you can find tournaments that don’t get enough entrants to cover the prize pool you can play with an edge. It won’t greatly improve your chances of finishing in the money, but when the entry fees don’t cover the prize pool it’s profitable to play.
Here’s an example:
- The casino offers a slots tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000. The entry fee is $10 and they only get 80 people to sign up. If you divide the prize pool by the number of entrants you get the average value of playing.
- In this case, the average is $12.50. Any time the average return for playing is higher than the entry fee you’re playing with an edge.
You still have to finish in the money to win some money, but if you play in enough of these types of situations you come out ahead eventually.
Playing Slots for Comps and Promotions
Every time you play slots you should be earning comps. Sign up for the slots club at your local casino and look for online casinos that have a rewards program. The casinos don’t give back enough in comps to overcome the normal house edge, but every penny you get back in comps helps lower your cost to play.
Casinos also run promotions from time to time. You might be able to find free slots play vouchers and match play coupons in the local paper or on the web site of the casino where you’re planning to ply. Promotions and coupons are a great way offset the built in house edge of the slot machines.
Getting Lucky
I hate to say it, but the only way most people can play slots for a living is to get lucky. If you’re lucky enough to hit a big jackpot sometime in your life, and are smart with the money, you can afford to play slots full time.
The only slot machines I play are the ones that offer either a progressive jackpot or ones that have a set top jackpot prize of $100,000 or higher. I know I can’t overcome the long term house edge without a big win, so I don’t waste my time on machines that can’t make a big deposit into my bank.
Getting lucky isn’t a strategy, but if you don’t put yourself in position where you have the chance to be lucky you don’t even have reason to hope. If you want to play slots for a living focus on slots with big jackpot possibilities.
Progressive Jackpots
The only way to truly play slots with an edge over the house is to play a progressive jackpot slot machine where the top prize has grown so high that it overcomes the edge. The problem with this is the same as I discussed earlier. If you don’t know the house edge you can’t determine how high the progressive jackpot has to climb before it makes the play profitable.
If you don’t know the house edge, simply play the slots that have the highest jackpots. Most casinos, both online and off, have at least one slots game with a jackpot over $1,000,000.
If you can’t find one with a jackpot over $1 million, look for the highest one you can find. A $500,000 jackpot win might not set you up financially for life, but it’s enough to help out quite a bit.
Conclusion
Playing slots for a living is a dream of many gamblers. But the truth is that it’s almost impossible to succeed. The house edge locks in a long term profit for the casinos, so very few people win.
You can use the tips and strategies on this page to give yourself the best chance to overcome the house edge, but if you want to gamble for a living your best bet is to stop playing slots and pick a different game.
Many people are drawn to sports betting because they want a chance to win profits. After all, sports wagering is one of the few types of gambling that can be beaten.
Of course, winning money consistently is easier said than done. You need to win enough to beat both the odds and the bookmaker’s juice.
The average sports gambler loses most of the time. They may win between 45% and 48% of their wagers, which isn’t bad in the overall scheme of gambling. But this win rate isn’t enough to be profitable.
You need to know quite a bit about sports betting in order to be successful. The long-term winners are usually expert handicappers who can beat the bookies.
However, arbitrage betting (or “arbing”) offers a shortcut to earning profits. This technique requires looking for specific opportunities, rather than becoming an amazing handicapper.
If you’re interested in arbing your way to profit, keep reading as I discuss how you can use this technique and if you’ll be able to win big.
How Does Arbitrage Betting Work?
Arbing refers to betting on multiple outcomes within the same game in order to make a guaranteed profit. Of course, you can’t just wager on these outcomes at the same sportsbook or you’re guaranteed to lose money when considering the juice.
Instead, you need to find sportsbooks that differ enough on the odds to where you can turn a profit. Herein lies the main challenge of arbitrage betting, because these situations aren’t exactly advertised.
I’ll discussed these opportunities later, but just know that you’ll need to put some research into the matter to find them. Once you do spot a good arb, you can wager on all the outcomes and win some money.
Ways To Make A Living
Here’s an example:
- Dallas Cowboys -170
- New York Giants +180
- You wager $200 on the Cowboys
- You should bet $113.43 to complete the arb
- Your profits will be $4.17
You can see that your earnings aren’t huge. But you’d be doing much better than the average gambler just by booking yourself any kind of profits in this situation.
What Kind of Profits Can You Make?
When you think of winning sports gamblers, you may envision professionals who earn six and seven figures a year. Furthermore, you might think that arbing is a quick path toward riches.
But this type of betting is more of a grind than anything. You’ll typically only earn between a 1% and 2% profit on the total sum wagered.
Of course, professional sports bettors usually don’t have a very large margin either. However, they also don’t have to watch various sportsbooks like a hawk just to arb.
That said, you need to be perfectly comfortable with grinding out small profits through this method. You also need the bankroll to make large enough wagers, which I’ll cover next.
Finding Opportunities and Betting Enough
The good news about arbing is that you can find enough situations to earn profits. The downside, though, is that you must put serious work into the matter.
Your first instinct may be to monitor betting lines manually. This method involves constantly refreshing bookmakers’ lines on your phone or PC, then running the numbers through an arbing calculator (more on this later).
Fortunately, you don’t have to juggle all of these tasks anymore. In fact, you’ll find it nearly impossible to make decent money by watching lines yourself.
Next, you want to ensure that you’re wagering enough to take advantage of winning situations. Otherwise, you won’t make much off your small profit margins.
Assuming you wager $1,000 total on all the outcomes with a 1% margin, you’re only going to book a $10 profit. Preferably, you’ll have the bankroll to wager thousands of dollars on any given arb.
If you don’t have this type of bankroll, then you can still enjoy arbing on a recreational basis. You can make money this way too, just not enough to earn serious profits.
You Must Fly Under the Bookmaker’s Radar
As if arbitrage betting isn’t already hard enough, you also have to ensure that the bookmaker doesn’t find out what you’re doing. After all, online and land-based sportsbooks have a strict policy against arbing.
They feel that arbitrage betting is unfair to them. Sportsbooks don’t like any method that guarantees somebody a profit.
Most sportsbooks put something in their terms and conditions that covers arbing and gives them to the right to ban gamblers.
Odds are that if you keep arbing at the same sportsbook, you’re eventually going to be banned. But the hope is that you can get away with it long enough to make some profits over time.
Even if you do get kicked out of one sportsbook, you can always find plenty of others. This is especially true of the online sports gambling world.
Tips for Arbing Without Getting Caught
Bookmakers don’t have a perfect method for catching arbers. However, they do watch for certain signs when they’re suspicious of a particular gambler.
You can avoid being caught, or at least delay being found out, by taking a few precautions. There are some tips that’ll help you avoid attracting suspicion.
Avoid Depositing and Withdrawing Too Often
Gambling For A Living
One common way that online sportsbooks catch arbers is by looking at their banking patterns. An arbitrage bettor will typically deposit often to fund their account and take advantage of arbs. They’ll also withdraw money frequently in order to supplement their income or even fuel their entire lifestyle.
I’m not saying that you have to keep 100% of your money on-site and never think about cashing out. But your goal should be to deposit and withdraw money in a manner that makes you look like a recreational gambler.
Round up Your Bets
An arbitrage calculator helps you figure out exactly how much you need to wager on each outcome to make a profit. Usually, they spit out some weird numbers in terms of dollars and cents (e.g. $54.63).
You stand to gain the most value by following exactly what the calculator suggests. However, you should at least round up your bets to the nearest dollar amount.
After all, a sportsbook can clearly tell when somebody is making arb-type bets. They’ll have a very good indication that you’re taking advantage of them with wagers like $89.32, $94.91, $123.56, etc.
Sports Gambling For A Living
Make Bad Bets Once in a While
The whole idea behind arbitrage betting is to make profits. However, you might sometimes consider purposely placing a bad bet, such as a parlay or coin-toss wager to throw sportsbooks off.
If they review your account and see that you only place bets with positive expected value (+EV), they’re very likely to ban you. But they’ll have second thoughts upon seeing a parlay or unfavorable Super Bowl prop bet in your history.
Use Betting Exchanges
Betting exchanges differ from traditional sportsbooks. Rather than acting as the bookmaker, they merely offer a gambling platform.
The gamblers themselves serve as the bettor and sportsbook. The betting exchange merely takes a small commission from the winning and (possibly) losing side of a wager.
Exchanges don’t really care if you’re arbitrage betting, because they’re not on the hook. You might consider exclusively using exchanges for all or your arbing or at least for one outcome each time.
Avoid Betting the Max Every Time
Ideally, you’d be able to make the highest bets allowed in order to maximize your profits. After all, you have a very small profit margin with arbitrage betting anyways.
The problem, though, is that max bets are another sign that can give you away. When bookmakers see high wagers combined with lots of +EV bets, they’re almost certain to cut you off.
Don’t Use Small Markets All of the Time
Some of the best arbs exist in small markets, such as badminton, darts, and table tennis. Bookmakers usually differ quite a bit on these markets, because they’re not as liquid as popular sports or leagues like the NFL and Premier League.
You should definitely take advantage of more obscure markets to some degree. However, you don’t want to exclusively focus on less popular sports.
Conclusion
Arbitrage betting isn’t necessarily an ideal way to make a living through sports betting. You not only have to find lots of opportunities, but also need enough money to capitalize on your chances.
Further complicating the matter, sportsbooks hate arbers. They continually review accounts of various bettors to look for arbitrage patterns.
How To Make A Living Gambling
You have a lot of factors working against you when trying to pull off this technique. Therefore, your chances of being a professional arbitrage bettor are low.
Nevertheless, you might be able to make a living through it if you become a true arbing master. Much like a regular professional sports bettor, you must be willing to dedicate lots of time to the matter.
Of course, you also have to be careful while learning the ropes so as not to get banned from too many sportsbooks. You don’t want to limit your opportunities before you become a truly great arber.