Do you have a poker budget? Listen, no judgement if you don’t.
But you should know that you should really, REALLY figure yours out. And learn how to stick to it too.
Budgeting for gambling is the responsible thing to do. And not just that, it’s the smart thing to do. No one has endless money to spend on gambling, even if you’re a super high roller. From the top poker pros to the people just starting out, everyone needs a budget.
So we’re going to show you how to work out yours. It might take a little time to work out your poker budget, but trust us, it’s going to be worth it in the long run.
You need a poker budget for the obvious reason: to keep on top of your spending. But a poker budget can also be useful for other things too. It can be a way to properly track your progress, see how much you’re winning vs losing and slowly but surely build your bank roll.
Think about it. If you’re depositing haphazardly all over the place, you’re not going to know for sure what’s going in and what’s going out. You’re at risk of spending way more than you bargained for.
But when you keep track with a poker budget, you know you won’t overspend and you can also have a clear idea of how your playing is going over the past few weeks or months.
To figure out your poker budget, the sensible first step is to work out how much you spend on it. Online poker rooms are handy for this, as you can quickly take a look at your transaction histories to see how much you deposit. If you play cash games or tournaments in a bricks and mortar online poker room, try looking at your online banking receipts to tot up how much you spend. If you don’t have records, think honestly about how much you spend.
Once you add all that up together, you’ve got how much you currently spend. Is it more or less than you thought? If it’s more, you need to curb that spending.
When you want to come up with a limit of how much you want to spend on poker, first add up all your income. That’s your salary (after tax), any Government payments, pensions or anything else that comes into your account.
That subtract any outgoings. Think major outgoings like mortgage repayments, rent, energy bills, grocery bills, utilities, transport costs, school fees, childcare costs, insurance, pension fees. Then think of the more discretionary items. Like restaurant meals, cinema trips, hobbies, gym membership, socializing costs, birthday or holiday gifts, coffees and all those other little treats.
You also need to subtract any charity donations or savings. And, as we all know, it’s important to save at least three to six months of income in order to cover any major expenditures that might come down the track.
Once you’ve subtracted all your outgoings from all your income sources, you’ve got the absolute maximum amount you can spend on poker (or any other gambling). Now have a think. Do you really want to spend all that on poker? If you have a substantial chunk left over, try to make sure you haven’t forgotten about any other expenses. And see if you want to up your savings too.
Of course, personal accountability is the best way to stick to any budget. But there are tools that can help you stick to your poker budget. If you’re using online poker rooms, you can set a deposit limit. That means for any given period of time (say a week or month), you can only deposit a set amount and no more.
We’d also highly recommend working out when you’re going to withdraw your funds from your online poker account. It can be tempting to let it build up, but we prefer to keep a set amount in (say $50) and if we win over that amount, just withdraw it straight away and put it towards something useful IRL.
If you or a loved one can’t stick to your gambling budget and you’re frequently overspending, this could be a sign you have a gambling problem. You need to stop gambling straight away. Self-exclude on any online gambling accounts you have. And, most importantly, get help.
There are lots of organizations all over the world designed to assist people with gambling problems, including:
Here are other responsible gambling articles you might be interested in:
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