Most of the time, when asked the question, “why do you gamble?” people will respond “to win” or “to have fun.” Most people think of these answers as one in the same thing; winning is just more fun than losing! But depending on what your goals truly are determine how you should gamble.

If your goal truly is to make money, then your focus needs to be on playing a gambling game that you can win at in the long-term, which generally means your focus should be on poker. Some can win by betting sports as well, but poker is the only game people can generally beat in the long-term.

If you are more focused on having fun, then you should mainly play the game that is fun for you. However, if you want to still have a decent chance at winning, you should focus on a game with a low house edge. That way you may have an increased chance of walking away a winner.

If you are very concerned about the raw amount of money you may lose in a game, then your focus should be on the variance/swings in a game. It is more of a concern then to play a game where you can bet a little. Even if the house edge is 20%, if youa re just betting  €.50 at a time, then you won’t lose that much money. In this case, your expected value loss is  €.10 a bet, though the important thing for you is that the most you can lose is €.50 a bet.

Put it this way, suppose one game has a 20% edge and the other has a .2% edge. In the 20% edge, by betting €.50 a bet, you lose €.10 of expected value but in absolute terms, will lose a maximum of €.50. In a game with a .2% edge, you can get €50 of action for the same expected value loss. However, in most cases, you will win or lose €50. In the €50 case, you just have a much more likely chance of winning. In the €.50 case, you have a much smaller chance of winning anything at all, but the amount you will lose will be small no matter what.

So if your gambling goal is to win money long-term, play poker. If you want to have a lot of action and don’ t mind the swings, find games with low house edges or potentially beatable games. If you are just afraid of losing much money no matter what, just bet a small amount and don’t worry about the house edge.