1. Play outside bets when playing roulette. They’re the best odds in the game.
2. Use your frequent player points card for freebies and extra comps to get some money back.
3. Play a tight aggressive style on the poker tables, and get out when you’re up.
4. Learn basic strategy blackjack to optimize your chances of winning.
5. Stick to the banker bet on the baccarat tables. It holds an advantage over the player bet.
6. Search for slot machines with higher payout percentages. They’re posted on it.
7. Learn optimal video poker strategy to increase your chances of hitting a big hand.
8. Ask the pit boss for freebies in the nicest manner you can; you may get something.
9. Play progressive slot games when the jackpots grow large - the bigger the better.
10. Stick to the come/don’t come and pass/don’t pass bets on the craps table.

It takes a sharp mind to play and win in the casinos.

What makes a winner? In the world of casino gambling, getting to the pay window is the easy answer. Once again, the easy answer isn’t the right one.

This is a craft where there is no finished product - just your bankroll, and yourself. Which is more important to you? There are plenty of rich people out there acting like idiots. Some of them will win bets today despite themselves. Meanwhile, the more work you do on yourself by becoming a sharper casino player, the more money of theirs you will take.

The sharpest minds are those who can balance the desire to win with the cold realization that winning and losing don’t change who we are. We change who we are. Getting the order of things wrong and looking just at the bottom line is a great way to ensure that you’ll lose your money in as miserable a fashion as possible.

Just jumping onto a casino and “giving it a try” is not the recommended way to gamble. Even the casino would rather that you learned the games and had a fun and exciting experience. If you don’t learn to optimize your gaming experience, you’re likely to just lose your money quickly and you won’t be interested in gaming anymore.

Most casinos, both online and traditional, have tutorials that will teach you how to play properly. There are so many free casino games available online these days; there’s no excuse not to play them for a while before you put up your cash. You can download casinos and play their free games, or find a flash game somewhere that requires no download to play.

Only once you get things down pat – and have read up on any strategy secrets that the game may have – should you try your luck in a real casino environment.

Handicapping is all about brainpower. The sharpest betting minds build the biggest bankrolls by outsmarting everyone else – starting with other bettors, the media, and the front office people who make the call on which athletes to hire.

It’s relatively easy to catch us in the media when we make a mistake – it’s right there in black and white. Square bettors also get pretty quick feedback on their errors when their bankrolls dry up. But a franchise can go through years of frustration without ever owning up to its blunders. The New York Knicks lurch into this category; let’s pull up those ATS numbers under Isiah Thomas:

2003-04: 44-37-1 (Thomas was hired midseason)
2004-05: 42-40
2005-06: 38-44
2006-07: 39-43
2007-08: 37-44-1

Handicappers who shook their heads with every questionable roster move Thomas made were able to profit from his mistakes by fading the Knicks. He will be missed, but we suspect Thomas will be back.

If you’re thinking about getting rich from playing online roulette, you might want to re-think your position. Roulette is a game where you can win some money, but unless you’ve got a huge bankroll and a lot of nerve, roulette is not a get-rich-quick game. It’s more of a social game where you win some and lose some. The highest payout on the table is only 35 to 1. Even if you hit those odds numerous times in a row, you won’t become rich.

Roulette doesn’t carry a jackpot for you to hit, so winnings come in smaller denominations. It’s possible to win some money on a roulette table, but your luck won’t be consistent enough to make you rich. If you’re already rich you can make some big money on the roulette table with some big bets, but then again you can’t get rich if you already are.