Table Games Has your buy in amount/session loss limit/trip bankroll changed over time?

I ask the question mainly for table game players, but its probably applicable for slot players as well. I'm a low-rolling table game player who tries to find $5 minimum tables (normally blackjack or craps) if possible, but will play a $10 minimum if necessary. My default initial buy-in has pretty much always been $200 for a while (regardless of whether its a $5 or $10). My session limit I would put at $400. And overall, for a 3-day trip, I tend to allocate $1000-1500 for gambling. I've never come close to losing that amount...….one time I was down $900 for the trip before recovering a bit the last night to be down $600. Conversely, the most I've ever won overall on a trip has been $600 (sounds exciting huh?).

Anyway, was more curious about whether folks' buy-in amount, session limit, and trip bankrolls have changed much over time.

 

Yes.

 

I'm pretty much just like you though my buy-ins with craps started at $100. I jumped from there to $300 once I got more comfortable with the game and have been at $300 ever since. I also normally play $5. I'll occasionally buy in for $300 on a $10 table, but I usually don't last long enough to be all that enjoyable. My upcoming trip I'm gonna try a $500 buy-in on a $10 table and see how that goes. I usually just play pass line and inside place bets with the occasional hard 6/8.

 

Yes.

 

Outside of flight and hotel cost, my trip budget has remained the same, but my expenditure has gone down. I play low-limit cash game poker a lot more than I used to, and the promotions in the poker rooms are more lucrative, which keeps costs low. I play bubble craps now instead of table craps, and get my craps fun at lower cost.
My benchmark spend on gambling, food, drink, tips and transport is $150 per day; my average spend during my 2019 Vegas trips was $54.45 per day.

 

My trip bankroll has probably expanded by 20X since my first trip, but the first time I went to Vegas I was a college student (so the beginning bankroll was quite low!), and now I have been a practicing attorney for 17 years. So things is just different.

 

It greatly depends upon what you're playing. If you're playing $5 blackjack, losing $1,500 takes awhile. If you're playing $10 craps, taking 3x-5x odds, placing numbers, etc....you could easily burn through $1,500 in a day.

My limits have evolved, but partly because I don't spend as much time in Vegas. And my limits/betting probably are a bit random by game. I play VP for quarters and pai gow for $10-15. I pretty much only play 21 for quarters, though. And I like to get to a $5 craps table if I can because I play odds heavy and like to press place bets.

 

I used to only be able to budget like $50 a day when I first started going, then a few trips it was $500 and $600 a day. The last few trips I have been down to around $100 a day, mainly because they are so tight with the alcohol now and they increased the fees on everything. You want me to play and spend more, get something in me and stop with the parking and resort fee bullshit. Otherwise I'm just going to sightsee and take pictures and shop with my gambling money. Feels a lot better coming home knowing you only lost $175 or so rather than the couple grand you took with you.

 

Yes, to all the above. Probably increased 20x since I started going in the early 90's.

 

No, Yes, and Yes.

I am predominantly a video poker player and my buy in is and was a 100 dollar bill and while that is my session limit (lose and take a breather) I have increased the number of "sessions (bills)" I have for a day. My trip bankroll has increased around 50% and amazingly most of that increase came because I progressed to Caesars Diamond. Now my food budget has been added to bankroll since my wife loves the diamond lounge. We have 1 meal a trip sometimes 2 and RC, Celebration, and host almost always covers it.

What has alaso increased dramatically is how much time i spend playing.

 

Yes. When I first started gambling 40+ years ago, it was $300 per trip, it has since gone up.

 

Sure, it changes, due to inflation, changes in table minimums, and my income. Like a lot of others, I’ve gone from having maybe $75 I’m willing to lose the whole trip, to now much more than that. However, going once a year I see that I win some and I lose some Over time, probably averaging a few hundred in losses per trip? In that sense it’s been very steady for a decade or more.

My standard blackjack MO is to buy in at $200, and base bet $20 per hand, playing until I either lose the whole thing, or walk away the first time I lose a hand and I’m still up at least $100. Depending on how I do and how long the sessions take, I’ll do probably 6-12 of these sessions
in a 3 day trip. This has not changed in 10+ years, and probably won’t until I can’t find decent rules with a minimum that will accommodate me — right now it’s not a problem.

 

Hoo boy, yes!

 

My early trips (in the 80s), my bankroll was $300 to $500 per trip. $5 blackjack & craps. Session bankroll was always $100.
In the 90s, the trip-bankroll doubled to about $1000, but I still stuck with $5 tables, but would frequently advance to $25 blackjack as the trip went along.
In the early 2000s, the bankroll was about $1500 per trip, and I started playing 3-card poker as well...$5 tables. My blackjack base-bet was now $10 instead of $5. Session bankrolls became $200.
These days, I budget $700-$800 a day, and will go as high as $300 per session (that's what happens when you add UTH to the games you play!).