Every gambler has thought about what it’d be like to earn a living through casino games. This spawns visions of making a 6-figure salary, feasting on comps, dressing like James Bond and traveling the world.
- Make Money Promoting Online Casinos No Deposit
- Make Money Promoting Online Casinos Play
- Make Money Promoting Online Casinos For Real
- Make Money Promoting Online Casinos Poker
- Online Casino Make Money
Looking to win money online? Check out one of the sites above!
But is being a professional gambler really this lucrative?
The casino is running a triple loyalty point promotion. The casino comps 0.1% of your total bets, or 0.3% for triple points. 1,000 x 1.25 x 0.0076 = $9.50 regular hourly winnings. $1,200 total bets x 0.003 = $3.60 in comps; You earn $13.10 per hour.
Let’s begin discussing the matter by defining what it means to be a pro. You and I will also cover the salaries that pro gamblers make in different games.
How Do We Define a Professional Gambler?
The term “professional gambler” is sometimes used interchangeably for both people who earn part-time and full-time income through gambling.
This makes sense because both groups have the skills to earn long-term profits. Therefore, you can technically be considered a pro gambler as long as you’re making profits of any kind throughout the year.
But I keep a much tighter definition of a professional gambler.
Make Money Promoting Online Casinos No Deposit
A true pro not only makes profits through gambling, but enough to pay all of their living expenses. This includes rent (house payment), utilities, car payment (transportation), insurance, meals, clothes and anything else deemed necessary.
A semi-professional is somebody who makes enough to supplement their income, but doesn’t earn full-time living through gambling. I’m only going to cover full-time professional gambler salaries in this post.
What Casino Games Offer the Chance to Make a Living?
The gambling world doesn’t offer an abundance of opportunities to make a living, but there are a few different games where you can earn some nice profits.
Here’s a list of the most common games that you can make long term profits with:
- Blackjack card counting
- Daily fantasy sports (DFS)
- Poker
- Sports betting
- Video poker
Blackjack and video poker both see you try to win money directly from the house.
Casinos do everything in their power to hinder successful card counters. This includes using continue shuffling machines, multi deck shoes and watching for counters.
Anybody who’s caught counting cards is often kicked out of the casino and banned. This is why it’s so important for card counters to blend in with normal players.
Casinos don’t usually worry about advantage video poker player. In fact, some games are set up to offer positive expected value (+EV) to players who use perfect strategy.
Another problem is that it’s now harder than ever before to find video poker games offering over 100% payback like Deuces Wild (100.76% payback), Double Bonus (100.17%) and Double-Double Bonus (100.07%).
DFS and poker both see you compete against human opponents. The house merely takes a small cut of tournament fees or cash game pots (poker).
Sportsbooks create lines in an effort to get equal betting action on both sides. The sportsbooks make their money by taking 10% vigorish (juice) from the losing group.
Every form of advantage betting has its pros and cons, but the key is that each of these activities offers the chance to make a full-time living.
Think you have what it takes to make it as a proffesional gambler? Test your skills at some of the best sites in the game.
Salaries for Professional Gamblers in Different Games
Card Counting
People have been making a living through card counting since the early 1960s, and despite all the obstacles that casinos have put in players’ way, it’s still possible to earn profits with card counting today.
You need a sizable bankroll in order to properly spread your bets and survive variance. The bare minimum you should aim for is $20,000, but it’s better to have closer to $50,000.
How much you make depends upon several factors, including the following:
- Skill level – Successful counters have between a 0.5% and 1.5% edge on casinos.
- Hands per hour – 50 to 200 depending upon dealer speed & table size.
- Bet spreading – Difference between your lowest and highest bet.
- Deck penetration – The further into the shoe you get, the more confidence you can bet with.
- Counting system – Some systems are more accurate than others.
- Game rules – You want the best rules possible in order to lower the standard house edge.
- Tips – $5 per hour for the dealer is standard.
Now, let’s set up an example by creating variables behind your counting session:
- You have a 1% edge based on the rules, your skill level and using the Hi-Lo counting system.
- The dealer is dealing 100 hands per hour.
- Your minimum bet is $25, and you spread up to $175 during favorable counts (i.e. 1 to 7 spread).
- You get 70% deck penetration before the shoe is reshuffled.
- You tip $5 per hour.
Here’s how this example would play out in terms of profits:
- Your average bet is worth $50 ($25 minimum; spread up to $175 for favorable counts).
- $50 average bet x 100 hands = $5,000 in hourly bets.
- 5,000 x 0.01 edge = $50 hourly win.
- $50 hourly win minus $5 tip = $45 hourly profit.
Some counters make $100 or more per hour by improving their edge up to 1.5% and/or increasing bets, but many players are happy with a $45 per hour rate to start with.
The final step is to figure out how many hours you’ll play and convert this into an annual salary. Here are a few different figures on how much you’d make per year:
- $45 x 40 hours per week x 52 weeks = $93,600 per year
- $45 x 30 hours per week x 52 weeks = $70,200 per year
- $45 x 20 hours per week x 52 weeks = $46,800 per year
- $100 x 40 hours per week x 52 weeks = $208,000 per year
The last figure shows what’s possible for a really good card counter who makes $100 per hour. The $45 calculations show that even decent counters can make good money.
The keys, though, include keeping an accurate count amidst casino distractions and blending in with normal players.
Daily Fantasy Sports
DFS is the newest game that offers skilled gamblers an opportunity to make money.
Daily fantasy sees you pay an entry fee to enter contests and compete against other players. The goal is to create lineups that score the most points and rank the highest in tournaments.
Daily fantasy sports experienced a big boom in 2015, thanks to clever marketing campaigns that make it seem like any sports fan can win.
The truth, though, is that only a small percentage of those who play actually win. A McKinsey study from 2015 showed that 1.3% of daily fantasy baseball players collect 91% of the winnings.
Despite these long odds, many people still enjoy trying to win in daily fantasy, but what exactly can you expect to win if you’re among the small percentage of DFS pros?
The potential for big winners is there for the most skilled daily fantasy players.
Saahil Sud, profiled in a WBUR piece, said he made over $3 million in profits in a single year. Former poker pro Aaron Jones switched over to DFS and won a DraftKings contest worth $5 million in early 2016.
Of course, the average professional DFS player doesn’t earn quite this much. To determine a standard DFS salary, let’s consider the following factors:
- Entries per day— Most DFS pros enter several hundred contests every day.
- Stakes – Typical entry fees range anywhere from $1 up to $1,000.
- Fees— DFS sites tack on a 10% fee to each buy in, which is where their profits come from.
- Skill level— Some pros have a bigger edge than others.
Now, let’s input variables to come up with an average daily profit:
- 300 entries per day
- $100 + $10 (fee) average buy in
- 300 x $110 = $3,300 daily fees
- You’re playing for $3,000 after subtracting fees
- Expected value based on skill is 115%
- $3,000 x 1.15 = $3,450 winnings
- $3,450 – $3,300 = $150 in daily profits
If we multiply $150 by 365 days, you’ll earn an annual salary worth $54,750.
Of course, DFS is filled with variance, and you won’t always feel like you’re on the path to a solid $55k per year. This is why it’s key to have a large enough bankroll to survive the ups and downs.
Poker
Poker has long been one of the most viable options for becoming a professional gambler. The reason why is because you’re competing against other opponents instead of the house.
It’s tougher to make a living in poker these days because strategy is more prevalent. Online poker gives players a chance to rapidly accelerate their learning curve by seeing more hands per hour.
You can still become a profitable player with enough hard work and experience though. In fact, some pros still make six or seven figure annual incomes with the game.
However, the vast majority of pros these days earn between $40,000 and $100,000 per year.
Poker is unique in that there are essentially two types of professionals: tournament and cash game pros.
Most rounders mix up their play between both platforms. However, the majority of poker pros also specialize in either tourneys or cash games.
Let’s look at the different considerations for cash vs. tournament play:
Cash Games
- Profit measured in big blinds (BB) made per hour.
- House takes 5% rake from cash game pots for running games.
- More control over annual salary than tournaments.
Tournaments
- Profit measured by rate of return (ROI) on buy ins.
- House adds 10% fee to buy ins (e.g. $10 + $1 fee).
- Only top 10 15% of field makes money.
- Tournaments have more variance than cash games.
A cash grinder needs to figure out what stakes they must play to make a comfortable living based on BB earned per hour.
An example is if you played $10/$20 no limit Texas hold ‘em and made 1.5 BB per hour. This equates to $30 per hour, $1,200 per week for a 40-hour workweek and $62,400 for a full year.
A tournament pro must decide what buy-in level they must choose to make a high enough ROI to live comfortably.
If you spend $20,000 on tourney buy-ins in a week and make $22,000, then your RIO is 10% ([22,000 20,000 / 20,000). This means that you’ll earn a $10 profit for every $100 you spend on tournament buy-ins.
One more consideration here is whether you’ll dedicate the bulk of your time towards live or online poker.
Online cash games and tourneys offer more volume because you can play multiple tables. Plus hands and tournaments go much faster, giving you an opportunity to boost your hourly wages.
Another Internet poker advantage is that you cut out extra expenses like traveling, hotel stays, meals and dealer/waitress tips.
Nevertheless, many players find that their win rate is higher in live games. The most lucrative tournaments are found in land-based casinos, too, such as the World Series of Poker events.
Make Money Promoting Online Casinos Play
Sports Betting
The good thing about sports betting is that you don’t need to have a massive win rate just to book profits.
Sportsbooks only take 10% juice from the losing side. This differs from DFS and poker tournaments where you must pay an extra 10% fee regardless of whether you’re a winner or loser.
The juice can be lowered or adjusted based on where the sportsbook is trying to push action, but 10% is generally the amount you’ll see taken from the losing side.
The end result is that you need to win 52.38% of your bets to break even. How do we arrive at this number?
You need to bet $11 to win $10 when the juice is 10%. You must win 11 out of every 21 bets to break even at this rate, which is a 52.38% winning percentage (11/21).
This doesn’t sound intimidating when compared to how good you must be at poker or DFS to win long term, but it’s also really tough to continually find value because sportsbooks are so good at setting lines.
Professional sports bettors usually win anywhere from 53.5% to 55.0% of the time.
Some handicappers brag about higher win rates ranging from 58.0% to 60.0%, but these figures are almost impossible to sustain long term.
Pro sports bettors must be very adept at handling their bankroll since they’re dealing with such a small profit margin. They also need to make larger wagers than the average bettor to increase potential profits.
The general rule of thumb is to never bet more than 1% to 2% of your bankroll on any given contest. If you have a $100,000 bankroll, you’d never put more than $2,000 of this on any single event.
Some sports bettors like Billy Walters and Haralabos “Bob” Voulgaris have made millions of dollars with this model. But the average bettors are looking at more modest salaries ranging from $50,000 to $150,000 annually.
The key to figuring out how much you can make involves determining your ROI just like a poker pro. For example, if you make $10,000 worth of bets during a week and earn back $10,500, then you have a 5% ROI for the week ([10,500 10,000 / 10,000).
You then need to expand this to cover an entire year. Let’s look at an example below:
- You place $1,000,000 worth of bets during the year.
- You win $1,060,000.
- Your profit is $60,000 for the year (1,060,000 1,000,000).
- Your ROI is 6% ([1,060,000 1,000,000] / 1,000,000).
A 6% ROI is extremely high for sports betting, but this is just a simple way to show how to calculate your ROI and salary.
Video Poker
Video poker has good and bad things going for it these days.
The good news is that you can virtually guarantee yourself profits if you become a skilled enough player. The downside is that there are fewer and fewer +EV machines in casinos today.
Your best bet is to find a full-pay Deuces Wild machine, which pays back 100.76%. You also need to take advantage of as many double and triple comp point promotions as you can.
You can find which land based casinos offer full pay Deuces Wild by visiting the site vpFREE2.com.
Once here, navigate to the “Casinos” tab and look in the Las Vegas section. I see 13 different casinos that offer full pay Deuces Wild at the time of this post.
Unfortunately, the highest coin denomination for these machines is only $0.25. In past decades, you could find $1 denomination machines that quadrupled your potential profits.
Even under the right conditions, the odds of you making a good living with video poker are slim. Let’s run the math on what you can expect:
- You play full pay Deuces Wild (100.76% payback).
- You bet 5 coins per hand on a quarter denomination machine ($1.25 per hand).
- You play 1,000 hands per hour, which is extremely fast.
- The casino is running a triple loyalty point promotion.
- The casino comps 0.1% of your total bets, or 0.3% for triple points.
- 1,000 x 1.25 x 0.0076 = $9.50 regular hourly winnings.
- $1,200 total bets x 0.003 = $3.60 in comps
- You earn $13.10 per hour.
Even if you spend 50 hours in the casino, this only works out to $655 per week, and you’d earn $34,060 when we stretch this out for an entire year.
Most people can get by on this salary, but it’s far from what anybody envisions when becoming a professional gambler.
Conclusion
Being a pro gambler has some obvious benefits, including flexible hours, being your own boss and the ability to increase your income.
Some gamblers, such as Saahil Sud and Bob Voulgaris, have even gotten rich with their skills. Of course, you may be perfectly happy making mid 5-figures, as long as you get to enjoy the aforementioned benefits, but there are also some downsides to be aware of. These include risk, highs and lows, no sick days and the potential to lose everything.
It’s up to you to weigh the good and bad before ultimately deciding to pursue a professional gambling career.
The potential rewards can be great in the case of card counting, DFS, poker and sports betting, but you also have to be disciplined and good at handling risk.
Want to Earn Some Extra Money?
- Survey Junkie: Earn up to $50 per survey with one of the highest-paying survey sites on the web. Join Survey Junkie Now
- Swagbucks: Make money watching videos, taking surveys, shopping online and more. Join Swagbucks Now & Get a $5 Bonus
- Mistplay: Earn free cash by playing games online with friends from your mobile phone. Join Mistplay Now For a 50 Unit Bonus
- MobileXpression: Earn free money (passive income) just by leaving an app installed on your phone. Join MobileXpression Now & Get a Free Gift Card in One Week
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.
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.
1. Become a Card Counter
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.
2. Try Credit Hustling
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.
3. Join A Players Club
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.
4. Take Advantage Of Promotions
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.
5. Become A Good Poker Player
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.
6. Play In Slot Tournaments
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.
7. Play A Biased Roulette Wheel
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).
8. Identify A Roulette Dealer Signature
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!
9. Use Casinos For Business Networking
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.
10. Get A Casino Job
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.
Save Money By Taking Advantage Of Casino Freebies
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.
Turn $60 Into $600 By Betting The Right Way
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:
Make Money Promoting Online Casinos For Real
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.
Make Money Promoting Online Casinos Poker
If you know other ways to make money in a casino, share your ideas below … and keep on frugaling!