Are you dissatisfied with your job? Do you feel you should be earning more but do not know what to do? Let’s assume a person earns $25 per hour working 8 per hours per day. This equals $200 per day. Working 5 days per week equals $1,000 per week. Working 50 weeks per year (take two weeks off for vacation) equals $50,000 per year. Not a bad income for most people.
For argument sake, let’s assume I can make $25 per shooter playing craps. Taking it further, making $25 per shooter, betting on 8 shooters per day equals $200 per day. On average there will be approximately 15 shooters per hour at a craps table. In other words, you can make in one hour or less what a person earning $25 per hour makes in a day. Think about it for a moment.
Playing craps professionally requires you to avoid distractions, maintain mental discipline, adhere to precise rules and techniques, and to control your emotions. The greatest reward as a professional is the freedom to “work” your own hours and to be your own boss.
Playing craps as a business avoids typical problems and/or costs. For example, it requires no accountants, bookkeepers or attorneys to operate. You will have no collection problems with receivables, no inventory, no advertising, no “customers” and no employees, which means you do not need to contribute to employee benefits or taxes. Playing craps as a business requires no insurance, licenses, dues or registration. There are no “competitors” playing craps professionally. If anything, you have a commonality with other players at the craps table – – to take money from the casino, not each other. Caveat: Playing craps is gambling! There are no fool proof systems, strategies or methods. You will not get rich overnight. There will be times when you will lose money. How you handle these loses will determine if you will be successful or not. Success requires a lot of patience.
All of this sounds great right? Wrong. Here are some problems with the logic. First, unless you live in Las Vegas, Laughlin or Reno, Nevada you need to live in a geographical area where the local casinos operate craps tables. Phoenix, where I reside, does not. So there is a cost and expense to travel to Vegas to play craps.
Second, you will not win on every shooter. So you need to have a large enough bankroll to withstand some losses. An adequate bankroll is $2,500 of money you can afford to lose. Having an adequate bankroll is a must to ensure you have a proper psychological attitude. Herein is the problem because most people play not to lose instead of playing to win.
Third, the majority of people who play craps do not have the discipline to stick with a betting strategy or to be satisfied with earning $200 per day, let alone per hour. Greed has turned many winners into losers.
Fourth you need to have a betting strategy wherein you can make $25 on each shooter while minimizing your risk of loss. So you need to understand the basics of the game and then some. There are many different betting strategies that will allow you to win $25 on a shooter. Some are better than others.
If you are going to play craps to make a living treat it like a business. Operating any business requires operating capital. Most businesses fail if they are under funded or do not have a written business plan with specific objectives and how they will meet these objectives. Likewise, if you do not have a sufficient bankroll to play craps, you will fail. Also, if you do not have a written plan with specific goals and how you will achieve them, you will fail. If you do not understand these concepts, please do not risk any money attempting to earn a living playing at the casinos.
Several keys to help you succeed include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. Stay at the craps table for short periods of time. Take breaks often to avoid getting tired. Longer stays at the table increases your exposure to potential loss.
2. No system is fool proof. Craps is a game of chance. You can and will lose money. You must maintain discipline and proper money management. You cannot get greedy playing craps. Set daily goals and adhere to those goals. If you win your daily goal, leave the casino. If you lose your daily limit, stop playing and leave the casino. The casino will still be there tomorrow.
3. NEVER GAMBLE WITH MONEY YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE EITHER EMOTIONALLY OR FINANCIALLY. NEVER BORROW MONEY TO GAMBLE.
4. Never gamble when you are depressed, unhappy, tired or not feeling well. You must be able to focus and concentrate on what you are doing.
5. Never increase your bets when you are losing.
6. Never drink alcohol or take drugs when playing craps. Again, you must be able to focus and concentrate on what you are doing at the tables.
7. Keep an eye on your bets and make sure the dealer has made the proper bets for you. If you call off your bets, make certain the dealer has used the “off” button to indicate so or has taken down your bets. Make certain the dealer has paid you correctly. If you do not catch the mistake in time, it may cause you to incur a substantial loss. Dealers are people, they make mistakes.
8. Treat dealers with respect and courtesy. Tip or “toke” dealers. You generosity will pay off in the long run. My experience has been that if you treat dealers with respect and courtesy and tip them they will watch out for you and they will take care of your bets.
These are only a few points to help you be successful. There are plenty more keys that will help you be successful.
There are many “professional” craps players. You do not generally hear about them because they are very quite about what they do for a living. They do not boast or brag. They do not draw attention to themselves. Most professional craps players are earning more than $50,000 per year. I have met them and I have played with them. The key word is that they are professionals who know what they are doing. So be careful. The entire point of this article is to make you aware that it is possible to make a living playing craps.
By: David Udjat, for Walk Away Craps
