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During my years as a blackjack and roulette dealer I watched a lot of people lose a lot of money. I also saw a few players win money — I’ll get to that in a moment.
Oddly, most of my coworkers loved to gamble. You would think they’d know better, since all of their wages (and all those pretty buildings) are paid from gambling losses.
I didn’t (and still don’t) share their gambling habits. On the other hand, it can be fun to hang out in a casino, especially if they have free drinks.
Mar 25, 2020 There is still risk – we could play 100 flips and I might make money. But I am more likely to lose. On each coin toss I expect to lose 5p. We use this word “expect” a lot when it comes to making money from casino bonuses. It means the average in the long-term. Players can find many types of poker games at online casinos, and all of them Best Free Online Casino To Make Money require skill, strategy, and a bit of luck.Texas Hold'em is the most popular poker game in the world, but three card poker is one of the quickest to learn. Dec 22, 2019 Unlike RTP, House edge shows how much money the casinos will make from your bets. If you are looking for the best online casino slots for the money, you have to pay attention to RTP rates of online games. It will help you win more money and lose less. However, let me remind you that winning casino games will always require a bit of luck.
So I understand why people might budget a little bit of money to lose at the slot machines or table games.
Of course it would be even more fun if you could do better than limit your losses, right? It would be great if you could make money at casinos.
Well, you can! And 44 states have casinos!
Here are ten ways to make money at casinos, along with some ways to save money by going to a casino, and — in case you need to satisfy your inner gambler — a way to risk a little money to win big.
Table of Contents
Regular blackjack gives the “house” (the casino) an edge of about 0.5% to 3.0% depending on the rules and how well you play. However, at times the game is in your favor as a player.
Specifically, you have an advantage when the remaining cards include more aces and face cards than normal.
To know when this situation has developed you can track the cards using a simple plus-or-minus count, and then bet more when the count is right.
You can learn card counting in a few hours, but to be proficient while playing at a busy blackjack table takes many more hours of practice.
Keep in mind that casinos can ask you to leave, even though card counting isn’t illegal. Where I worked management tolerated small-time card counters.
They probably figured that having a few winners encouraged the less-disciplined players to keep trying. The edge from good card counting is only 0.5% to 1.0%.
So, for example, if you play at a table with a $5 minimum and alternate your bets between $5 and $50 (when the count is right), and there are 50 hands dealt per hour, you might bet a total of $700 per hour, for an expected profit of just $7 per hour (with a 1% edge).
Clearly, to make some serious money you have to be good and bet more.
By the way, having the odds in your favor doesn’t eliminate the ups and downs. I can tell you from experience that even the house, with a larger statistical edge, loses on some days.
So with bets of, say, $25 to $100, you may do well in the long run, but you have to stomach nights when you lose thousands of dollars.
Still, if you do it right, you’ll be ahead in the long run, so you’re working, or investing, not gambling.
Credit hustling is simply looking for leftover credits on slot machines. Players often forget and leave without cashing out.
On slow nights when I had no players at my blackjack tables, I used to watch credit hustlers checking the machines, and they sometimes found credits.
A Daily Mail article on people who live in the tunnels under Las Vegas reports on one couple that survives by doing this.
They once found more than $900 in a single machine, although finding a dollar or two is the norm.
While not illegal (if the credit have been truly forgotten and abandoned), casinos don’t care for credit hustlers, so you’ll normally try to keep a low profile.
Almost every casino has some sort of “players club” you can join for free.
Apart from earning points as you play, which can be redeemed for freebies of all sorts, you also usually get some rewards up front for signing up.
For example, many casinos offer “match play” money. That might be $5 coupons or chips, for example, but you have to bet $5 of your own along with each one.
You can lose, but when you win $10 for betting $5 of your own money the odds are with you even at the worst games.
If you round up enough of these deals you can be pretty sure you’ll make a profit playing just long enough to use up your match play.
Casinos may offer a free meal or other goodies for joining the club too, which at least saves you some money.
The casino where I worked handed out out $10 in free play to everyone who walked in the door (for a while anyhow).
Some couples came every day to get $20, playing perhaps 50 cents each in the slot machines before leaving with the rest of the money.
When my wife and I lived in Florida we went to a casino where they gave us each $5 in free slot machine play, and a free dinner, and free wine.
The catch was we had to play at least 100 times, but at nickel machines with a 12% house edge the expected loss is only 60 cents (100 x 5 cents x 12%), so, by playing slowly, we left ahead (and full) every single time we went.
Watch for any promotions at casinos near you, and see if there is some way to turn a profit from them.
When you play against the casino, the house has the edge, but when you play against other players, you can have the edge if you’re good.
There are plenty of online tutorials on how to win at casino poker, but keep in mind that the house takes a cut of every pot, so you have to be significantly better than the other players to come out ahead.
As someone who has won money at poker (and chess) without much skill, I can tell you that the key is to play against weaker players.
Going against stronger competitors might help you prove something, but if you want to make money, look for tables with weak players.
Slot tournaments usually involve playing to see who does best in a set time, using machines set up with fake credits.
These events encourage fast play and are meant to get people into the casino, where they might gamble their own money before and after the competition.
Googling “free slot tournaments vegas” turns up (at the moment) a couple options, including one tournament that cost nothing and has prizes of up to $500 in slot play (you may have to play it through a machine, and then you keep whatever you’ve won).
Even tournaments with an entry fee can be money makers, because the prize pool often significantly exceeds the total of the entry fees.
In other words, if you’re good, and you play in a dozen tournaments, you’ll probably win more than what you spent on entry fees.
There are 38 pockets on an American-style roulette wheel, and a “straight-up” bet pays 35-to-1 when you win (plus you keep the bet). You can see that this is a losing proposition.
But what if, instead of each number coming up randomly 1-in-38 spins, some numbers came up more often than they should?
It happens.
When I ran a roulette table one of my customers made a profit of $80,000 over the course of 16 months or so. I met him at a coffee shop after I quit, to get the whole story. Here’s the short version:
He wrote down the winning numbers for 5,000 spins (it took weeks). The number 2 was winning an average of 1-in-28 spins.
He bet $5 repeatedly on that number. On average, he lost $135 for every 28 spins (27 losses), but won $175 (35-to-1 payout) when the number 2 came up, for a net profit of $40 per 27 spins.
There are various possible reasons for a bias, ranging from a sticky pocket (temporary) to manufacturing imperfections (a more durable bias).
The good news is you don’t need to know why a certain number comes up more often to take advantage. You just need to verify that it’s a true bias (which takes thousands of spins).
I’ll let others teach you more about biased roulette wheels, but I’ll warn you that it’s tedious work to find one, and even with an edge you’ll have losing nights (my customer sometimes lost over $700 in a night, even though he was far ahead in the long run).
Some dealers may habitually (unconsciously) repeat certain patterns when they spin the wheel and the roulette ball, which makes the winning pocket more predictable.
My experience? On a slow night with no players a pit boss and I each chose a number and alternated spinning the wheel and dropping the ball, betting a dollar for each win
I came out $14 ahead in couple hours, meaning I spun my number 14 times more than he spun his.
So I strongly believe dealer signature is possible, and even gambling expert Frank Scoblete agrees, but how often it happens in real play, and whether you can take advantage of it… well, who knows? But here’s what you might look for…
Note the number passing by at the moment the dealer releases the ball, and note the winning number. After doing this many times (with the same dealer) look for a pattern.
For example, a dealer might be so consistent (in the speed of the wheel and the ball) that the ball lands in a certain “section” of the wheel (in relation to the release point) more often than it should.
If it lands in a section that covers a third of the wheel, but lands there half of the time, you have a signature.
Now it gets trickier. If the target section is, say, the 13 numbers starting 4 pockets to the left of the release number, you have to identify the release number and quickly place bets on as many numbers as possible in the target section, before betting is closed.
Could it work? If not casinos wouldn’t be so quick to change balls, change dealers, and move roulette wheels when it looks like people are winning. Where I worked they did all three often.
Good luck!
I heard a lot of conversations at my tables. Sometimes they resulted in players getting new clients or developing new business relationships.
And I learned about how to make money from scrap metal from one such conversation.
It’s common for players to talk to other players at a blackjack or roulette table, which makes a casino a great place to network and find new ways to make money.
And watching how players handle those stacks of chips in front of them can tell you a little about whether you want to do business with them or not.
In 1994 I was making $14 per hour dealing blackjack and roulette. A BLS inflation calculator tells me that’s the equivalent of $24 per hour in today’s dollars.
And, in fact, a friend who still works at that casino says she makes over $20 per hour.
Dealing table games is just one of the many positions you might find at a casino near you. One of my coworkers started as a surveillance officer with no experience, and used the knowledge and experience gained to later build a successful business selling surveillance equipment.
Other positions include slot machine tech, bartender, waiter, cage worker (handling the money), and pit boss.
Also, working in a casino usually means you’re forbidden from gambling there, which might be a good thing for some readers.
Some casinos have free events at which they put out snacks or even full meals. Other casinos offer inexpensive meals at their restaurants. Watch for these deals as a way to save money on a night out.
Even the free drinks offered by many casinos can make for a cheap night out if you know what you’re doing.
For example, my wife and I play 5-cent slot machines, set the speed to “slow” (keno machines usually have three settings), and, by the time we have lost a couple dollars we’ve had a few drinks and some fun.
Maybe you like to gamble, and you’re smart enough to limit your losses. But how you play still matters.
For example, with a $60 bankroll, if you bet $5 per hand at a blackjack table you can often play all night, but you’ll never be very far ahead at any point.
That’s great if you want to sit there and enjoy the free drinks.
But to win big you need to make bigger bets at some point. For example, if you’re $20 ahead, bet $10 per hand, and if you get further ahead, bet $20 or $40 per hand. To summarize:
Bet the table minimum when you lose, and bet more and more when you’re winning.
Most of the time you’ll lose your $60 faster this way (because you’ll often those big bets), but it gives you a chance to win big from time to time.
I saw many people turn $60 into $600 over the years, and not one player did it by always betting the table minimum.
You have to “press your luck” to win big. Just be sure to bring a limited amount of money, so your losses are not a big deal.
Final Thoughts
You may like to gamble, and if you limit your losses, it’s affordable entertainment. Even better, if you time your casino visits to coincide with promotional events you might get some free food and drinks.
And finally, if you’re willing to do the necessary work, you can even make money in a casino, and without really gambling.
If you know other ways to make money in a casino, share your ideas below … and keep on frugaling!
It can be hard to find the best casino game to win money with tons of options out there. But it is true that there are specific casino games that can be more profitable than others.
Here, I will show you the ones I consider to be the best casino games to win money.
Some games produce a significant payout based on the paytable, while others offer jackpots. High betting limits can help you find the most profitable casino game too.
Knowing which casino games to play is essential to investing in top-quality games that can help you build a substantial bankroll for even more wagering!
Here’s my list of the best casino games to make money:
Probably one of the best casino games to play for money. Slot games are a profitable option for many reasons. You can win jackpots, large standard prizes and access features that multiply wins and provide free spins!
Seek out slot games with high RTPs to have a better chance of beating the house and building a large bankroll.
You can check out our full guide on how to win real money at slots online if you want to know more about how to play for real cash.
Slot games are so profitable that players have been known to win five, six and even seven figure jackpots. The current Guinness World Record holder for the biggest win is Mega Moolah, which paid out a $21 million prize in 2018!
This slot game features a colorful Asian theme on a 5×3 grid. There are 243 betways and plenty of extra features.
RTG created this game to offer All Ways Pays and provide a bet multiplier with ways to win a Mini, Minor, Major and Grand jackpot prize!
Earn three or more scatter symbols on the reels and you enter the free games round where you are supplied eight spins!
Definitely one of the top gambling games for real money you can play online.
RTG has outdone themselves with this beautiful Day of Dead celebration. Diamond Fiesta is a colorful experience with wonderful music and high paying wins!
The slot is a 5×3 grid that can expand to an 8×4 size while you play. There are several in-game features including the Diamond Jackpot that can pay up to 4,000x the bet!
This is a great choice of real casino games for cash with some extra fun!
Follow the classic tale of Aladdin in RTG’s exciting 5 Wishes slot game. This slot has a 5×3 grid and features 25 pay lines. As you spin the reels, you will find Aladdin, the Genie, Abu and Jasmine on the reels.
The Genie is the wild in the game, and he appears on the 1st reel substituting for other symbols in the game except for the lamps.
Any winning combination with the Genie will provide double the prize!
You can also earn 10, 20, or 100 free spins when three, four, or five lamps appear on the reels!
For a unique slot with an ancient theme, try Aztec’s Millions. This slot is a profitable one as it offers a huge progressive jackpot.
Earn free spins from the scatter symbol, with up to 25 games on offer.
The Aztec King is the wild in the slot, helping you earn a winning combination by substituting for other game icons.
One of the top online casino choices is BetOnline.
They feature slot games from Betsoft Gaming along with other providers.
To play the above mentioned slots, you can find them at El Royale Casino. Each of these sites provides a large selection of profitable slot games.
Blackjack is one of the best casino games to win money due to its low house edge. Most everyone knows how to play a game of 21 and with online casino action, the wins can be plentiful!
In general, the house edge in traditional blackjack is 2%. If you factor in strategy, the house edge can go as low as 0.5%, which gives you a better shot at a return on investment.
There are many game variations to choose from at online casinos including American Blackjack, Blackjack Switch, Spanish 21, and more!
This version of blackjack is super fun to play as it offers a side bet called Suit’Em Up. This bet is optional and can be placed on top of the standard blackjack bet.
You win the side bet if your initial hand has two cards of the same suit. The card value will determine the payout.
Suited Aces usually payout 50 to 1! Definitely a great option to play for real money.
Blackjack can be found at many online casinos, but I recommend you Red Dog.
Several formats of games that payout real cash are provided, including 21 Blackjack, Pirate 21, European Blackjack, Match 21 and more.
Play each type and get to know the various ways you can turn a profit with the game of 21!
Another great option of gambling games for real money.
Typically, this category consists of traditional five-card draw poker games. Unlike an online poker room where you play against other players, an online casino offers standard options.
Easily play five-card draw in many formats with buy-ins ranging from the low to high end. With each format, if you have a basic understanding of poker, you can easily have a good time!
When you have a solid knowledge of winning hands, then you up the ante a bit and have a better shot at winning!
So far, Antonio Esfandiari has the record on the highest single poker tournament payout in history with nearly $18.35 million.
This game is one of the most popular casino poker games. Also known as three card poker, it is played with one 52-card deck. It is essentially two games in one. You have the Pair Plus option where you wager on if you will be dealt a pair or better or not.
A good winning strategy is to play this game when you get at least a queen, 6, and 4 in hand.
You also have the Play/Ante portion where you wager against the dealer to determine who has the better hand.
For casino poker games, El Royale has a strong selection of real cash casino games.
From 7 Card Stud to Joker Poker, you can easily play poker games from your desktop or mobile device to win money. You can find a long list of games on the home page under the Poker tab and start playing!
Like blackjack, the game of roulette is profitable due to the house edge.
European and French Roulette are popular options among players as they have the best odds of winning. Both have a house edge of 2.70% which provides more chances for you to win.
American Roulette is a fun option, but with a higher house edge of 5.26%, your winning chances decrease slightly.
You can also use strategies such as the martingale system or the reverse martingale to increase your chances of winning.
When it comes to Roulette, BetOnline is a top choice for games that payout real cash.
Plenty of roulette titles can be found here, including European Roulette, which has the low house edge, putting the outcome in your favor.
Give the roulette titles a try and see which proves more profitable for you!
If you are a fan of poker, then video poker games are a great alternative to make real money. Video poker games are played against the computer and your main goal is to create the best hand.
Online casinos like BetOnline and El Royale offer a solid set of video poker games, including Double Bonus Poker and Joker Poker.
The games are easy to play and list the paytables so you can see what you can win based on the hand you draw.
Video poker has been around for quite some time and remains a popular choice today to win money. Did you know the first online video poker game was created by Microgaming way back in 1994?
Video games are plentiful at BetOnline and Red Dog Casino.
These sites provide a large selection of video poker titles including Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Bonus Poker, Double Double Jackpot Poker and more.
Betting limits vary, ensuring players of all bankrolls can enjoy video poker while making some profit.
As you can see, there are several online casino games you can try that payout real cash. From slots to blackjack, video poker and roulette, the options are truly endless.
It is important to play such games at legit sites for a secure gaming experience. Each of our recommended sites in this list is licensed and regulated, offering a safe environment for online casino gaming with real money wins.
Get started trying these games out for yourself by playing the suggested games and titles at online casinos like BetOnline and El Royale.
You will find these games along with many others that provide a profitable way to play and win real money!