There is one thing and one thing only that will take any gambler from constantly losing to any hope of making a profit. Its not lady luck; its not any magic trick, and its not a mystical ritual.

Gambling has been around in various forms for hundreds of years and is an enormous source of revenue for a multitude of casinos, government agencies, bars, clubs and other organizations. The reason that these organizations make such a lucrative income is not so much the huge numbers of people gambling as it is the high percentage of these people who fail to learn the one secret they need to know to have any chance of making a profit at all.

The usual gambling approach goes something like this: You go to the race track and overhear a stranger telling a friend that a particular horse is ready to win so you put ten bucks on it. Result the horse loses. Or you go to the casino and put fifty bucks into a slot machine because you believe it is your lucky machine. Result you walk out fifty bucks lighter if youre lucky. In most cases youll have blown even more because you have the extra cost of drinks, and you may have been so caught-up in your attempts to win that you actually put more like sixty or seventy bucks into the slot machine.

So what is the secret that you need to change your gambling situation? The secret is this, Education. While ever there are people who make no attempt to educate themselves to a point where they can make informed choices then the casinos and bookmakers will always make very lucrative profits from the suckers who walk through their doors day and night.

As an example, lets say we play heads-or-tails with a coin and I offer to pay you $1.80 per dollar bet every-time you pick the correct outcome. A typical gambler might think thats pretty good and try to pick more winning picks than they lose in the mistaken belief that they can make a profit. An educated gambler on the other hand would see the truth, which is that the odds of picking any one outcome here is 50/50; so over one hundred spins on average you would win fifty times. The reality is that with a 50/50 game if you outlay one hundred dollars and win fifty of those at $1.80 your total return is $90 or a loss of 10%.

The above situation is not uncommon in many casino games. Slots for instance has a house advantage of up to twenty percent (meaning that the casino always makes up to a twenty percent profit on all money that is put through the slot machine), and yet gamblers continue to throw their money into the slots despite the fact that the longer they play the more theyll lose.

To improve your overall chances of coming out in-front when gambling start with a few of these tips:

• Play games where you either have an edge or the house edge is very low, and
• Games where you have some choices over the outcome (for example with slots you have no influence as the machine is programmed).
• Learn to spot the games where the house has a large edge and stay away from them.
• Never gamble on the basis of a tip, lucky number, favorite color etc.
• And finally, never gamble with money you cant afford to lose.

Note - If your gambling has reached a point where it is an addiction then stop and get help. You will find many sources of help by searching for the term problem gambling on the internet.

Successful stock market investors never buy stocks based on a tip or because they like the name of a particular company, otherwise they would go broke very quickly. They learn all they can and make informed decisions when choosing what to invest in. Stop gambling now until you educate yourself enough to make gambling choices that are likely to return a profit, rather than lining the pockets of the casinos.

Copyright 2006 Colin L Wolfenden