A Guide to help you to prevent losing control in the casinos or online poker rooms.

Game Clock:
In football the game is timed and when the time runs out the game is over. This method works well in gambling. Make plans to only gamble until a certain time, and when that time arrives, go do something else. As in football you can have breaks. Every half hour you can get up and leave the casino for 15 minutes and have a drink before coming back in, then after 4 hours you can leave and not come back for 4 more hours. By limiting the time you spend in the casino you can control the amount of money you can lose thus helping you to stay in control.

Loss Limit:
To make it impossible to go overboard set a limit on how much money you are prepared to lose gambling. I also recommend not bringing extra cash with you to the casino. Should you hit a losing streak you can feel safe because you have no more money on you, and to get some you will have to leave the casino to get more. This will get you away and give you a chance to regain your rational thought. This really only works for a casino, but in an online casino you can set up different accounts with so much money in each account. Should you reach zero on one account you need to log off.

Life Line:
No one should ever go to a casino alone. By going alone there is no one who can say "hey buddy don't you think you are spending too much?" this is important because sometimes we all need to be brought back to reality. Sometimes in a casino we can not only lose track of time, but we also loose track of reality. Chips do not appear to be real money, and where as you cam t the casino to lay a few hundred at the tables but before you know it you have spent over a thousand and cleaned out your savings.

Public Internet Access:
Many cafes and restaurants now offer free Wifi access to the internet and for those who do not have a laptop with them they will have one or 2 terminals that you can use but they are coin operated. Because they are only meant for short term use it will prevent you from sitting there and losing money for long periods of time, after a half hour or so someone is going to ask you if they can use the computer.

Gambling on the Go
Many people are too busy to be able to get away to a casino or play in an online casino, but they have the time to do their gambling from their cell phones. To help them stop from going overboard I recommend they use a prepaid cell phone which can be purchased very cheaply. These phones require you to purchase talk time in advance and when the phone is out of time until you buy more minutes the phone won’t work. So if you spend more time in the casino then you have minutes the phone disconnects. This allows you to limit your gambling time and helps protect your bank account.

Anything you can do to help keep your gambling under control is a good thing and if you are the type of person that can lose control you should definitely use some method when gambling in any of its forms.

After graduation Ashton Jenkins started writing reviews for casinos online and poker rooms. When he is not visiting an online casino for work he is usually playing poker online for fun.