Ten Commandments of Online Gambling - PART ONE

It's worth it to point these things out, even if you think you know them already. Not enough people do. They are the "Ten Commandments of Online Gambling," although they could easily be called something else. They should guide you in the pursuit of having some fun at an online casino, and not drive up your blood pressure.

We're going to take care of this in three parts. The first part is today, with the second part tomorrow.

Here we go:

(1) Don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose.

• This one doesn't come as very much of a surprise, and no doubt you have heard it before. When you open up an account at an online casino, you are obviously putting money in there that you have, or in the case of a credit card, money that you are going to pay off. But that doesn't mean that money wasn't earmarked for something else entirely. Maybe it was meant to pay your mortgage, or your rent, or your electric bill. Is this really the way you want to go?

(2) Learn as much as you can about how to play.

• This is essential. You want to choose the game or games that you want to play and have something of a plan as to how you are going to attack these games. Think about all the books and magazines that have been written about casino games. And with the internet, think about how much material is located online. There is simply no excuse for not having information on how to go about playing the games. Yet very few people go into action with anything in the way of education. This is a mistake. What you want to do is learn the proper way to play the games, even those games where you don't have very much in the way of a long-term positive expectation.

(3) Understand how to manage your bankroll.

• You always want to be in a position where you are not betting so much that you face a very high element of ruin. This is something you have to guard against. During any particular session, what you want to avoid is betting out of proportion to the point that you will have to reload your account and get into the danger zone. That's when you start dipping into money that is meant for something else (see Commandment #1). Don't go over the line; hold on to a little discipline in this regard.