Money management is one of the most important features of casino gambling, often overlooked. The Casino has developed many ways of removing you not only from your money but also psychologicaly removing the money from you so that you no longer think of it as money but rather as tokens or toys.

There are a number of levels used by the casino to give you the sense that you really aren't playing with real money and often you aren't this is one of the big advatages the Casino has over the average player. How does the casino do this? What techniques do they employ?

One of the basic and most obvious tactics is, of course, to change your bills into coins, nickles ,quarters. Usually from this point on you receive tokens for your paper money. Many Casinos begin using tokens at the quarter level. Coins and tokens are required for slot machine play and well over 50% of Casino revenue is generated by the slot machines so it becomes crucial that they create the illusion of playing with non money.

Almost all modern slot machines have counters that keep track of the coins you win and visibly show you the number of credits you accumulate. This is just another level of removing you from your money. The coins or tokens are now translated as credits and it becomes much easier to just press a button to spin the reels, you are now playing with numbers the transition is complete. In three easy stages you have gone from bills to coins and tokens to credits (numbers), the transition is painless and hardly noticeable.

Playing slot machines is a mindless activity and it is meant to be that way, just you and a machine grinding away. Before you are aware of just what is going on you have pumped a lot of coin into those willing slot machines. There are two deadly habits that we develop on the slots, one is to play all of your coins untill there are none left, the other is to play off all of your credits untill there are none left. My style of play suggests that with a little thought and a little money management you can have more fun, make your money last a lot longer and maybe, just maybe come home a winner.

There are a number of ways you can level the playing fireld when playing the slots. You must exercise a bit of self control, not so much that you don't enjoy playing but just enough to you give yourself a better chance to survive the Casino. You go to Vegas to have fun, to let your hair down to forget your mundane daily responsibilities so it becomes difficult to apply any discipline while also having fun. This is understood by the Vegas wise guys who concentrate only on more ways to loosen you up so that you will play in an undisciplined way.

The seduction starts when you enter a Casino for the very first time, the glitzy opulance, the surreal picture that greets you has your head spinning. The lights, the noise, the clanging of coins into hoppers, the ever constant buzz of human voices, people coming and going and the action in every corner of the Casino. It's all so intoxicating and it's all about money. The game is very simply reduced to convincing you to part with your money, the Casino supplies the means (games) you supply the money.