Online Gambling Bankroll Management Strategy Explained

When playing online casino games, the ultimate strategy to minimise your losses and maximise your winnings is to use bankroll management.

Table of Contents

What is the Concept Behind Casino Bankroll Management?

Bankroll management is a simple yet effective way to manage your casino balance and time spent playing online casino games. It is all about finding the right balance so you don’t lose your entire balance in a single day due to excessive betting or bets beyond your budget.

In principle, the strategy behind online casino bankroll management is the same, no matter which game you play. However, various factors will influence the amounts you bet and the percentages you use.

Factors that Will Influence Your Bankroll Management Strategy

The main influences on your bankroll management strategy will be the time between each betting round and the minimum bet for each game.

• Online Slots – You can spin between 40 and 60 spins per minute, quickly depleting your bankroll. However, slots usually have a minimum bet of 0.01 and 0.40 per spin.

• Blackjack – Slower gameplay as each betting round requires you and other players to make decisions, plus the dealer needs to act. As for minimum bets, typically, they are 1.00 per betting round.

• Roulette – There is a grace period between each coup (spin) for players to place their bets. Also, additional time is taken for the ball to spin on the roulette wheel and land in position. As for minimum bets, you can find both virtual and live dealer games that accept stakes as low as 0.10 to 0.20.

As you can see from these three popular online casino games, you are taking into account the time played between each round and the minimum bet before deciding on your bankroll management strategy. You should apply the same principles to other games too.

How to Apply Math to Your Bankroll Strategy

Following the above statement, the strategy behind online casino bankroll management is the same no matter which game you play; this section will give you the math to apply to achieve sound bankroll management.

There are two approaches you can take. The first is to use only 1% of your entire bankroll as your bet size, and the second is only to take 5% of your bankroll into a session.

Using 1% of Your Total Bankroll as Your Bet Size

This is the strategy most of the Casinoplusbonus team uses because it is a conservative tactic to ensure you don’t burn through your entire bankroll by placing high bets. Therefore, if you happen to hit a losing streak, in theory, you will still have enough of a balance remaining to come back another day and hope the game’s RTP and variation will even out so you can win some of your losses back.

Of course, we are working with the theory that luck will swing back in your favour. You never when gambling. Sometimes, we have a bad few days and other times, we clean up with big wins – that’s all part of gambling entertainment.

Risks Involved with the 1% Strategy

This strategy doesn’t come without risk, either. Betting $1.00 per round from a $100.00 bankroll could still result in a substantial loss.

If you hit a bad run and the average RTP from your session is just 50%, then you will end up losing half your bankroll. The loss makes it difficult to recover your losses because you will have $50.00 remaining, and therefore, your bets will now be $0.50 per betting round.

If you feel 1% amounting to $1.00 per spin is too much, then you can play with the percentage, for example, reduce it 0.5% or even 0.25% of your bankroll.

The Disadvantages of this Strategy

• Problem 1: One of the issues with this strategy is that it doesn’t really consider low-budget players with just a $10.00 budget. If this is you, you may want to find slots like Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead and set the slot to 1 pay line or play classic slots. Alternatively, try your luck with $0.05 or $0.10 spin bets until your $10.00 runs out.

• Problem 2: With a $100.00 bankroll, your maximum bet after you deposit is only $0.10, which means you can’t play slots with a minimum bet of $0.15 or higher. There is a solution, which means taking a slightly higher risk by using a 10% rule instead of the 5% rule.

• Problem 3: When you begin with a $100.00 bankroll and your first two or three sessions result in losses, your bankroll is lower, and therefore, applying the 5% rule means lower minimum bets. A solution is to stick to the same bet sizing per deposit until you win enough to withdraw or lose and need to deposit again.

The Advantages of this Strategy

• Pro 1: This strategy takes into account low-budget blackjack and baccarat players whereby most table games featuring these games require a minimum $1.00 bet. Compared to the 5% strategy coming up in the next section, the 1% bankroll management strategy is suitable for all types of casino players.

• Pro 2: For those who don’t want to spin the reels for less than $1.00, the 1% strategy gives you the option to spin for bigger wins. With most slot RTPs at 96%, the worst-case scenario from my experience is a 50% RTP, and then, in general, you hit bonus rounds and replenish most of your losses.

• Pro 3: Table game players playing games with 99.5% RTPs will find the 1% strategy gives them hours of gameplay. Personally, the worst case I’ve had using a $100 deposit and betting $1.00 playing blackjack was that I only managed 22 hours of gameplay, which has only ever happened once.

Using 5% of Your Total Bankroll Per Session

This casino bankroll management strategy is slightly more conservative than the 1% version above because it uses a slightly different mathematical concept. Rather than using a percentage to determine your bet sizing, you are using 5% of your bankroll, and from this, you are determining your bet size.

Here is how I would plan this strategy:

• You have a $100 casino balance, and you take 5% of this into the game you want to play = $5.00
• You already know there is the possibility of 30 spins per minute = 1,800 spins for a 1-hour session
• You plan for a worst-case scenario of a 50% RTP from your session = $5.00 ÷ 50 = $0.10 per spin

By planning for the worst-case scenario, you will not be disappointed if you have a losing session and will be even happier if the worst-case scenario doesn’t happen. For example, if the slot pays out a 110% RTP or even an 80% RTP, you already exceed expectations.

The key to this strategy’s success is sticking to your bet sizing and managing your expectations. As the team here at Casinoplusbonus always says, gambling online is for entertainment and not a get-rich-quick scheme.

With $5.00 per session, you have 20 one hour sessions of game play, and that’s if you lose 100% every session, and even if you did lose 50% per session, you have 40 one hour sessions using this casino bankroll management strategy.

Risks Involved with The 5% Strategy

The problem with this strategy is that it takes a while to master. If you are already a seasoned casino player, you’ll pick it up quite quickly as you already know how the games you play work.

For beginners, my advice would be to stick with the 1% strategy above, and once you start to get a feel for how often your proffered casino games payout, try the 5% bankroll strategy.

On the flip side, this is an excellent bankroll management strategy to preserve your casino balance, especially if you are trying to build a healthy balance. I say this because if you lose most of the 5% you take into your session, the next session, you will only use 5% of what is remaining in your bankroll.

The Disadvantages of this Strategy

• Problem 1: The 5% rule doesn’t account for Blackjack or Baccarat players, who will find most table games require a $1.00 bet per round. You

• Problem 2: Again, this strategy doesn’t really consider super low-budget players who deposit only $10.00. Using 5% of $10.00 means you have a $0.50 budget per session, which means your only option is $0.01 classic slots or early BetSoft online slots, which allow you to adjust paylines to one giving you $0.01 spins.

• Problem 3: If you hit a losing streak over consecutive sessions, you could end up with just $50.00, giving you $2.50 as your session budget. However, this is only if you play by the 5% rule, no matter your balance. Alternatively, you can apply the 5% rule to your original deposit for the duration of your deposit until you win and cash out or need to make another deposit.

The Advantages of this Strategy

• Pro 1: If you use the same bet sizing until you win and cash out or lose your deposit, in theory, your deposit should last 40 days or more if you play an hour a day. You could also break it down into hours of gameplay, which is the 5% strategy, in theory, gives you 40 to 60 hours of gameplay.

• Pro 2: This strategy is flexible. You can create a 10% rule if you feel a little more brazen. With 40 to 60 hours of online slot gameplay, you can reduce the hours via an increased percentage, but only if you can afford to deposit more money in the future.

The Casinoplusbonus Casino Game Bankroll Management Round-Up

At the end of the day, it is entirely down to you whether you apply a bankroll management strategy to your online casino gaming. Some players don’t like the restrictiveness of following percentage rules, while others prefer the granular control of the 1% or 5% strategies offered in the guide.

Speaking from personal experience and originally from a multi-player poker background, bankroll management was one of the first points I got wrong as a beginner. I say I got it wrong, what I really mean is I didn’t have a bankroll management strategy, so I burnt through my cash fast!

Once I understood the concept of using percentages to manage my poker balance, I played for longer, and my poker skills improved.

When the penny dropped, I realised I could apply bankroll management to my slots and blackjack gameplay. My online slot play didn’t improve per se, as slots are pure luck, but I don’t burn through my bankroll like I used to when I played slots as a teenager and in my early twenties.

As for my blackjack, well, I play for longer, and because of this, my decision-making is much better because I’ve memorised basic strategy. I believe you can do the same by also applying the same bankroll management strategies in this guide to your online casino gaming.

Good luck, and happy hunting!

Tips and Tricks

Bankroll management is fairly straightforward when you stick to the rules, so there are few tips and tricks per se. However, a couple of factors can affect your bankroll management strategy.

Some of these tips are simply making sound financial decisions when it comes to managing your money, and some are based on the type of games you play in order to get the best value or returns by choosing high RTP games. See the FAQs below for some more tips and tricks.

FAQ

Can I use responsible gambling tools for bankroll management?

Arguably, using responsible gambling tools to set deposit and loss limits is one of the best ways to manage your bankroll. A great tactic is to set a limit of $100.00 a week, and if you lose the deposit after three or four days, you can take a break and return another day. We have a great guide covering responsible gambling tools here.

Are there any alternative bankroll management strategies?

There is one I’ve seen land-based video slot players use, and it’s a simple strategy. For example, they will take $100.00 into the game and bet the entire amount, but any winnings remain separate. Therefore, only $100.00 is bet. The player banks the winnings and then moves on to a different slot.

Is there a difference between online slot bankroll management and table game bankroll management?

There isn’t one regarding mathematics, from the 1% and 5% bankroll management strategies per se. However, you can be slightly more generous with percentages on table games as betting rounds last between 30 and 60 seconds, while each spin playing online slots can last 2 to 3 seconds.

How can table limits affect the bankroll management strategies in this guide?

You may need to deposit more for games like Blackjack and Baccarat, which typically come with a minimum bet of $1.00. Naturally, if you are a mid to high roller, you’ll need a large casino balance to play on VIP tables with $50.00 or up to $5,000 minimum bets.

Can using a foreign currency affect my bankroll?

Yes. Spreads and exchange rate fees can take out a portion of your bankroll. For more info, please see our guide on betting using Foreign Vs—domestic currency.