We all think about it sometime – somehow finding a trick, shortcut or secret method to getting rich quickly. Gambling is often considered by enterprising millionaires-to-be because gambling offers the allure of massive cash payouts in a short amount of time. The question, of course, is if it’s possible to get rich gambling.
So is it?
Yes, it is possible to get rich gambling and I’m going to show you a few methods for getting rich gambling. I don’t want to waste your time so I’ll tell you up front that none of the following methods are easy or simple. If everyone could get rich gambling, well, you know… everyone already would be rich.
The good news is that at least one person has used each of the following methods to make a fortune gambling. People have (and do) use all of the following methods to get rich gambling. It’s not easy but it is very possible. In fact, I’m using one of these very methods myself to build my own fortune.
Count Blackjack at a Live Casino
Blackjack is one of the only games in the casino in which it is possible to gain an advantage over the house. The key to winning in blackjack is to learn how to count cards. Card counting involves keeping a running count of the high cards and low cards that appear on the table. This allows you to know when the deck is rich in high cards. When the deck is rich in high cards, you have an advantage and can then increase the sizes of your bets.
Card counting itself is pretty simple. I don’t want to get into a whole discussion about how it works here, but you can run a few quick Google searches to see how to keep count. It’s really not difficult at all. The difficulty in card counting is actually getting away with it.
Casinos also keep track of the current count and if you frequently place bigger bets at the right moments, the casino will know. It is not illegal to count cards, but casinos do have the right to kick you out in some states. So, you have to find ways to cover your play, such as playing with a team.
Play a Smart Video Poker Game
Video poker is another casino game in which you can gain an advantage if you play correctly. In certain cases, video poker machines return more than 100% when you play with perfect strategy. There are numerous resources on the internet that explain exactly how to play every single hand for every single video poker variant.
These Companies Will Get Rich Off the 2020 Election, No Matter Who Wins It's been a record-destroying year for political ad spending. In ten-rich shoes, the player makes better double downs, getting closer to 21. Blackjack: Both player and dealer will see more blackjacks, but the player gets paid 3 to 2, and the dealer does not. Surrender: The alternative to surrendering is much worse in ten-rich shoes. Self-made millionaire: This is the No. 1 way to get rich—and most young people are not doing it. Published Wed, May 15 2019 9:37 AM EDT Updated Thu, May 16 2019 1:40 PM EDT.
The difficulty in playing video poker for a profit is that every machine is a little different and you have to play with the perfect strategy 100% of the time. Video poker does require some serious volume as well, because the advantage is found over the long term. Royal Flush jackpots account for the player advantage, and that means you have to play a lot before you reach the full potential of player advantage.
Further adding to the complication is the fact that not every video poker machine can be beaten. Only certain video poker variants with the right pay tables can be beaten by the player. In some cases, the advantage comes from clearing bonuses or taking advantage of player comps.
Entire books have been written on beating video poker, so I’m not going to try to cover everything here. A great resource for getting started is the Wizard of Odds video poker page.
Start a Brick-and-Mortar Casino
The best way to make money gambling is to make money off other people gambling. Casinos reap in heaps of cash via gamblers, food, drinks, entertainment and hotel rooms. The gambling industry has taken a bit of a hit during the recent recession, but it’s still alive and well. They say that gambling and entertainment are the only recession-proof industries.
Obviously, there are a few challenges with starting your own casino. First of all, you’ll have to talk to a lawyer to work your way through the legal process for starting your own casino. The casino industry is regulated and protected to death. You will face a long, uphill battle in the beginning. If you can maintain the fight, the rewards will be great.
Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is a great example of getting rich via gambling. As the Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, it is estimated that his personal fortune exceeds $20 billion.
Start an Underground Casino
If you can’t get a license to own a casino legally, the underground casino is always an option. This is actually a pretty bad idea though because it is highly illegal to run an underground casino in most countries. Additionally, it’s tough to make a lot of money while remaining under the radar.
Having said that, I do know of a few people who have made a lot of money with underground casinos. I wouldn’t recommend this method to anyone, but it makes the list simply because people have made money off underground casinos.
Start an Online Casino
If you live outside the US, an online casino may be a better option than running a brick-and-mortar operation. Online casinos are cheaper to start than traditional casinos and they generate cash quickly. You can build your own gambling site from scratch or use a white-label solution for the software and payment processing.
There are two obstacles to overcome with an online casino. First, you must figure out the legality of running an online casino in your country. In some countries, it’s pretty easy to start an online casino. You just need to get a quick certification and you’re good to go. In the United States, it is illegal to run an online casino at all.
The second obstacle to overcome is the competition. The ease of starting a gambling site has led many people to open their own casinos. You will have to fight to bring business to your casino. I recommend starting an affiliate program, connecting with website owners via online marketing forums and running a reputable organization.
When done right, online casinos can be hugely profitable. The operating costs of online casinos are minimized because there is no building to keep up, no dealers to pay, customers to clean up after and so on.
Become an Online Casino Affiliate
This is the path that I have taken to get rich gambling and it’s the path that I recommend to everyone else. Casino affiliates make money by referring players to online casinos. Every player that you send to a casino is tracked to you and you receive a percentage of that player’s losses.
For example, let’s say I send a player to Buzzluck Casino. If that player loses money at the casino, I keep a percentage of those losses. I know this may make me sound like a bad person, but that’s how every gambling website works. If it helps any, I always give honest reviews, never recommend bad casinos and I always give players legitimate gambling advice.
Anyways, most online casinos have affiliate programs that you can join for free. Just visit the casino’s website and look for a small text link that says “affiliates.” After you sign up for the affiliate program, you can log in to your account and receive special links that you can post on your own website or blog. Any time someone clicks on one of your links and signs up, that person is tagged as one of your players.
The reason I chose this path is because it requires the least upfront investment. I didn’t have to spend thousands of dollars practicing card counting or setting up an offshore gaming site. What makes it difficult is that there is a lot of competition. You have to be willing to put in a lot of work before you get any return.
- Appendices
- Miscellaneous
- External Links
Introduction
Let me say loud and clear that card counting is hard and is not as rewarding as television and the movies make it out to be. If it were an easy way to make money, then everyone would be doing it.
If you do not know the basic strategy, trying to count cards is highly ill-advised. Experienced card counters still play by the basic strategy the great majority of the time.There can be no short cut around learning the basic strategy, those who attempt card counting without a firm foundation in the basic strategy are making a big mistake.
To be a successful counter you have to be able to countdown a deck fast and memorize large tables of numbers as well as make it look like you're just a casual player.Furthermore, with today's rules, a realistic advantage the counter will have is only 0.5% to 1.5%. You will not win money slowly and gradually but your bankroll will go up and down like a roller coaster in the short run. Only in the long run, over hundreds of hours of playing, can you count on winning.
The underlying principle behind card counting is that a deck rich in tens and aces is good for the player, a deck rich in small cards is good for the dealer. When the counter knows the odds are in his favor, he will bet more, and adjust his playing strategy to stand, double, and split in some plays where basic strategy says to stand. All the options the player has at his disposal favor the player even more when the deck is ten and ace rich. Here is a list and a brief reason why.
Standing: The player may stand on stiff totals of 12 to 16, and the dealer may not. In ten-rich shoes, hitting stiff hands becomes more dangerous, favoring the more conservative player strategy.
Insurance: On average, when the dealer has an ace up, the remaining cards in blackjack will be 30.87% tens (based on a six-deck game), making insurance a bad bet. However, if the probability gets above 33.33%, it becomes a good bet. Counters know when the remaining cards are ten-rich, and make powerful insurance bets at those times.
Doubling: Usually, when the player doubles he wants a ten. In ten-rich shoes, the player makes better double downs, getting closer to 21.
Blackjack: Both player and dealer will see more blackjacks, but the player gets paid 3 to 2, and the dealer does not.
Surrender: The alternative to surrendering is much worse in ten-rich shoes. If the alternative is hitting, the player is more likely to bust. If the player would otherwise stand, due to the high count, the dealer is still more likely to get a 10. While the counter will surrender more in high counts, the savings will be greater.
Splits: The player is usually splitting high cards and/or off of a weak dealer card. Either way, a ten-rich shoe helps the player get higher totals, and increases the probability of the dealer busting.
I'm working on an in-depth study of how these effects break down. The contribution to each factor depends on the rules, deck penetration, and bet spread. However, based on average conditions in a six-deck shoe, my initial results break down the benefits of counting as follows.
Why Card Counting Works
Player Option | Portion of Benefit |
---|---|
Stand | 40% |
Insurance | 34% |
Double | 9% |
Blackjack | 7% |
Surrender | 6% |
Split | 4% |
The probability for insurance was taken from Don Schlesinger's 'Illustrious 18' list, as found in Blackjack Attack. The rest of the breakdown is mine.
To gauge the richness of the deck in good cards, the player will keep track of the cards the are already played. Strategies vary, but all assign a point value to each card. For example, the hi-lo count assigns a value of +1 to 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, and -1 to tens and aces. Everything else is 0, or neutral. At the beginning of a deck or shoe, the count is 0. Then the counter constantly adds and subtracts from the count, according to the cards played. This running total is called the 'running count.' A positive count means that a disproportional number of small cards have already been played, which means that the deck is rich in large cards. To determine the 'true count,' divide the running count by the number of decks left to be played, or in some strategies, the number of half decks. This will tell you the relative richness of the deck in good cards.
The true count is used in two ways, to determine how much to bet and how to play your hand. Unless it is obvious, every situation has a line in which you should play one way if the count is above the line and another if below. For example, a 12 against a 6 may dictate that you stand if the true count is -1 or greater and hit if the true count is less than -1. The counter will also bet more when the true count is high, meaning the deck is rich in good cards.
Getting Rich Off Blackjack Games
A problem arises when it comes to treating aces. The player should bet more when the deck is rich in aces since they add to the probability of getting a blackjack. However, when it comes to playing your hand, the number of aces left is not nearly as important as the number of tens, so it is desirable, but not necessary, to distinguish between tens and aces. Some card counting strategies keep a side count of aces. In the Hi-Opt I and Revere Plus/Minus aces are counted separately and only considered when making the wager. This is a more accurate and powerful way to play than assigning a negative value to aces and not keeping a side count, as some strategies do. Yet, many people feel that for the beginner it is too confusing to keep two counts. A player is more likely to make mistakes keeping two counts and that costs money. The efficiency of a strategy that does not keep a side count of aces is only modestly less, but you likely will gain more from fewer mistakes made. Different experts fall in various places in the spectrum in terms of what to recommend for the beginner. The Zen Count takes the middle ground and gives aces a value of -1 and tens -2. Personally, I have tried both and would recommend against a count that requires a side count of aces to a person ready to take up card counting. The Uston Advanced Plus/Minus is a good strategy that does not involve an ace side count and can be found in the book Million Dollar Blackjack. How well you know a counting strategy is much more important than which strategy you know.
Legally speaking, the player may play blackjack any way he wants without cheating or using a computer, and the casinos may do anything from making conditions unfavorable to barring, in an effort to stop anyone who they deem has an advantage over the game. Much of the challenge of card counting is avoiding suspicion that you are anything but a normal non-counting player. The most obvious indication that somebody is counting is that they make a substantial increase in bet size after a lot of small cards leave the table. Although the greater the factor by which you can increase your bet the greater your odds of winning, more than doubling your last bet is a fast way to arouse 'heat'from the dealer and pit boss. Usually when casinos employees realize you are counting, they will either shuffle the cards whenever you increase your bet, essentially removing any advantage, or ask you to leave.
This is only scraping the surface of the subject of card counting. I suggest the following pages of mine.
Practice
Getting Rich Off Blackjack Slot Machine
Practice your card counting skills with our trainer.
Internal Links
- Blackjack main page.
- Hi-Lo Count.
- The Ace-Five Count, possibly the easiest way to count cards.
- Book review section, for suggestions on good blackjack books.
External Resources
- Blackjackinfo - A complete course covering everything from basic strategy to card counting
- BJ21 - By Stanford Wong; A membership based community covering all aspects of card counting.