I visited my first casino, The Sands in Las Vegas, in 1996. The VP of marketing at the company where I worked told me that the first thing I should do when I got there was place a bet on “7 black” at the roulette table. He thought this was big fun, because, of course, the 7 on the roulette wheel is red.

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In my opinion and my personal experiences the best time to win at slot machines is from about 2am until about 6am. The crowds are gone and and you can choose the machines you like and have success playing rather than playing the available slots when it is crowded. There are strategies on how to select slot machines that are ripe for a win. The best way to make your bankroll go farther is to take advantage of the huge promo offers that occasionally pop up. Sometimes it’s a seasonal thing, sometimes the casino is just ready to push a new offer, but if you keep your eyes peeled, you can sometimes snag some incredible deals. Anyone who’s spent time in a casino knows they are designed to make sure you’ll lose track of the time (and of the money you’re probably losing). That means no windows and no clocks.

At a sportsbook, you are more likely to get an incentive to bet during a busy season than a slow time, so factor that into when you visit a sportsbook if you like. Still, at the end of the day, what matters more than when you might get a bonus is what you want from the sportsbook environment.

I wish someone had given me some real, practical advice before I visited a casino for the first time. Since no one did that for me, I’ll do that for you. The things you should know listed below are obvious to regulars at the casino.

But they can save you a lot of money and heartache if it’s your first.

Here are the top 10 things you need to know if you’re visiting a casino for the first time:

1. The Wide Area Progressive (WAP) Slot Machines Are Some of the Worst Bets in the Casino

A progressive slot machine is one with an electronic ticker at the top which displays an ever-increasing jackpot amount. You’ll find 3 kinds of progressives:

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1. Single machines
2. Local area progressives
3. Wide area progressives

What all these games have in common is that they “fuel” the progressive jackpot by taking a percentage of each bet and applying it to the jackpot. In the case of single machines, the jackpot only grows when you’re playing that specific machine.

Local area progressives are machines within a specific casino which tie into the same jackpot. Any bets placed at any of these machines grow the jackpot amount.

Wide area progressives are machines within a certain geographic radius. In Las Vegas, the most famous wide area progressive slots are the Megabucks machines. Literally, thousands of slot machines power these jackpots, and they’re correspondingly huge – at least $10 million.

The problem with slot machines with jackpots this large is that their payback percentage is inferior to the payback percentage on a flat top machine. (A flat top machine has a fixed jackpot amount.)

A typical Vegas slot machine has a payback percentage of at least 90%. A wide area progressive has a payback percentage of 80% or less when you discount the effect of the progressive jackpot. Since you only have a 1 in 15 million chance of winning the top jackpot, it’s sensible to deduce that amount from the overall payback percentage for the machine.

2. Payback Percentage Is How You Measure the Odds for Gambling Machines

You might have heard of the house edge. That’s a term used to describe how good or bad the odds are for table games. It’s a mathematical prediction of how much you’ll lose per bet on average over a tremendous number of trials.

The house edge is expressed as a percentage. If a game has a house edge of 1%, the casino expects to win $1 every time you bet $100, over the long run. In the short-term, anything can happen. What most gamblers don’t realize is that they long run is longer than they think.

The payback percentage is the flip side of the house edge. It’s the amount of money the casino expects the player to win back for every bet. It’s also expressed as a percentage. For example, if I tell you a game has a 99% payback percentage, the casino expects you to win 99 cents every time you wager a dollar – again, on average, over time.

You can use house edge and payback percentage to compare the odds for different games.

3. Video Poker Machines Have Transparent Payback Percentages that Are Superior to Slot Machines

The higher the payback percentage, the better. The problem with slot machines is that they’re the only game in the casino where you can’t know what the payback percentage is. In fact, the payback percentage for slots is usually the lowest in the casino.

That’s one of the major differences between slots and video poker, in fact. On a video poker game, the probability of getting a result is something you can calculate. The random number generator on a video poker game emulates the same odds as a standard deck of 52 cards.

You need 2 pieces of data to calculate the payback percentage for a gambling machine:

1. The prize amounts
2. The probability of winning those prizes

Unless you’re Rain Man, you can’t just look at a video poker pay table and know the payback percentage.

But computer programmers and gambling writers have analyzed almost every video poker pay table you can imagine and published the results online.

A quick search of Google can help you compare video poker machines to find the ones with the best odds.

Also, even the video poker games with the worst odds are usually better than slot machines.

4. Drinks Are Free in the Casino

This isn’t true in every jurisdiction, but in most major casino destinations, drinks are free – but only if you’re gambling. (Last time I was at the Winstar, they were charging for alcohol, even if you were playing.)

You still need to tip your cocktail waitress, though. A buck or two is sufficient.

But just because the drinks are free doesn’t mean you should over-indulge.

Casinos offer free drinks because alcohol impairs your judgment. You’ll gamble over your bankroll and lose more money than you intend to if you drink too much.

Don’t be that guy who thinks he’s more macho than the other drinkers in the casino, either. He’s the guy who loses the most money, regardless of what he claims.

No one likes that guy.

Also, a word to the wise:

If you can’t control your drinking, you probably can’t control your gambling, either. You might be better off avoiding casinos altogether.

5. Table Games Offer Better Games than Gambling Machines – With One Exception

The rule of thumb for gambling at a casino is that the easier the game is to understand, the worse the odds are.

It’s easy to understand a slot machine. You put your money in, spin the reels, and hope that winning symbols line up.

Blackjack, on the other hand, is harder to understand. You have to learn the values of the cards. You have to know what your options are when playing each – hit, stand, double down, split, etc. And it helps to know what the right move is in each situation.

But look at the difference in house edge.

The house edge for most slot machine games is at least 7%. Even if you’re terrible at blackjack, the house edge isn’t more than 4% or so. If you spend a little time learning basic strategy, you can but the house edge to blackjack down to 1% or less.

Even the table games with no skill required, like baccarat, craps, and roulette, offer a lower payback percentage than most slot machine games.

There’s one exception, though – video poker machines.

Good video poker machines combine the thrill of playing a gambling machine with the low house edge of a table game.

Much of this is because video poker games are based on card games. The random number generator duplicates the odds you’d see if you were dealing hands from a 52-card deck.

Slot machine payback percentages usually range between 75% and 93%. The outliers might top out at 97% or 98%.

Video poker payback percentages range from 92% up to 100.1%. Those numbers assume that you play with a reasonably correct strategy most of the time.

6. Betting Systems Don’t Work

It won’t take long at the casino before you meet someone who’s a proponent of the Martingale or some other betting system. It’s tempting to think that a betting strategy like this might work, but it doesn’t – at least not in the long run.

Here’s how the Martingale System works:

You start by defining a single betting unit and choosing an even-money bet. The most common game people try the Martingale on is roulette, which has several even-money bets that seem to have a close-to-50% chance of winning.

You then start by betting a single unit. If you lose, you double your bet, hoping to recoup the previously lost bet along with a single unit profit. You repeat this doubling of your bets every time you lose.

Here’s an example:

You bet $10 (one unit) on red. The ball lands on black, so you lose your $10. The system says you double your bet, so now you bet $20 on red. The ball lands on black again, so you lose $20. The system says you double your bet again, so now you bet $40. This time, the ball lands on red, so you win back the $30 you lost on the previous bets. And you’re ahead by $10.

This can work well in the short run, but people have a few misunderstandings about the viability of such a system.

The first is the assumption that long losing streaks are terribly unlikely. The truth is, losing several times in a row is a lot more likely that you probably think.

The second is the lack of understanding of how fast doubling your bets makes you put money into action. $10 is no big deal, and neither is $20. Heck, even $40 isn’t that much for most people.

But if you lose 4 or 5 times in a row, you’re betting hundreds of dollars per spin.

It doesn’t take long for you to get to a point where the next bet in the progression is beyond your bankroll or beyond the betting limits at the table.

All the Martingale System does, in the long run, is get you some small wins here and there, all of which will eventually be wiped out by a huge losing streak.

The house edge for a casino game remains unaffected by your betting system.

7. Casinos Offer Classes in How to Play Their Games

Some people who are new to the casino adventure are intimidated by table games – especially craps. That’s too bad because these games offer better odds than the slot machines. They’re easy to learn, too. And I think they’re more fun.

But you don’t have to try to puzzle out how to play blackjack, craps, or roulette from tutorials on websites like this one. You don’t even have to buy a book or an instructional video about how to play.

Almost all casinos offer classes on how their games work. To find out when these games are scheduled, just ask anyone in customer service at the casino. If the specific individual can’t tell you what the schedule is like for these free classes, they can point you in the direction of someone who can.

These classes are usually held in the mid-morning. They’re usually followed by actual game-play, but that’s optional.

I learned to play blackjack from my mom at the kitchen table. Roulette was so easy I just sat down at the table and got the hand of it.

But I learned to play craps at a class at the Planet Hollywood Casino in Las Vegas.

You can also learn to play these games using free games at Internet casinos, but I think you’ll enjoy the free classes at the casino.

One caveat, though:

Take strategy advice from casino dealers with a grain of salt. For example, they love to explain hedging your bets in craps at these classes. That’s a lousy strategy.

8. Almost Everyone Working in or Near the Casino Industry Rely on Tips to Make a Living

You don’t have to dole out all your money to everyone working at a casino. But it sometimes feels like it. If you want to be a good person with a little bit of class, remember to tip a reasonable amount for various services.

If you eat at a buffet restaurant, a dollar or 2 for each person is a reasonable tip. Your waitress is only refilling your drinks, not providing full table service, so that doesn’t warrant a 20% tip.

Real sit-down restaurants work the same way in Vegas as anywhere else. You should tip a minimum of 20% in a casino destination. If you’re happy with the service, consider 25% or 30%, instead.

Casino game dealers deserve tips, too. It’s customary to throw them an occasional tip after a win. If you want to look sophisticated, place a bet on behalf of the dealer. This is especially common at the blackjack table.

A good rule of thumb is to plan on using 5% to 10% of your starting bankroll for tips to the dealer. It’s up to you to decide when to tip. Some players tip when they’re ready to leave the table, while others tip during the game. I think it’s more fun to tip while you’re playing.

Cocktail waitresses deserve at least a dollar for bringing you a drink. I’ll often tip more than this early in the evening to make sure I’m not ignored throughout the night, though. If you’re planning to spend several hours drinking in the casino, consider giving the cocktail waitress $10 or $20 for the first drink she brings you.

You can scale back after that but occasionally provide a larger tip to keep her coming around.

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It’s also customary to tip bell hops, taxi drivers, and the hosts who seat you at the various shows. Tipping the host at a show can get you a better seat. You can even tip the person at the check-in desk in hopes of getting a room upgrade. It’s customary to include a $20 or $50 with your credit card when you check in. Don’t be shy. Ask if they have any upgraded rooms available at the same price as your room.

If you get a reputation as stingy with your tips, you won’t have as much fun at the casino. No one likes that guy.

9. Casinos Have Their Own Rules of Etiquette

You’ll pick up on the most common rules of etiquette in the casino eventually. But a little knowledge in advance can help you be less of a bore.

I’ve already covered tipping, but there are other unwritten rules you should know about.

The most important rules of etiquette, at least from the perspective of the casino’s staff, relate to the handling of cash. You never hand a dealer money. You put your cash on the table, and the dealer exchanges it for tips.

This is for security purposes, but it also protects the dealer from accusations. By putting the money on the table, you make the entire transaction visible to the cameras above the casino floor. (These are called “the eye in the sky”.)

Kenny Rogers is right, too – never count your money at the table. It’s crass. It’s also dangerous because casinos attract pickpockets and thieves just like any other den of iniquity.

Specific games have specific rules of etiquette, too. For example, in a single deck blackjack, it’s customary to pick up your cards. But in a game dealt from a shoe, you should never touch your cards.

10. You Should Budget More Money for Your Trip than You Think

The biggest mistake I made the first time I went to Vegas was underestimating how much money it would cost. After all, Vegas is famous for cheap meals and free (or close-to-free) entertainment.

The thing is, all these cheap and free experiences are come-ons to get you gambling. And gambling is always more expensive than most first-time gamblers expect it to be.

I recommend having multiple budgets for your trip, too. Your gambling funds, especially, should be entirely separate from all your other expenses.

I have a friend who went to Vegas and gambled almost all his money away the first day. He barely had anything to eat for the rest of the trip, and he spent most of the rest of his trip watching television in his hotel room. He had enough sense to set aside money to get himself back to the airport.

I can’t imagine a more disappointing end to a trip to Vegas, though.

You should have a budget for meals, a budget for entertainment, and a budget for getting to and from the things you want to do while you’re there. Your gambling budget should be separate from all that.

I suggest drawing up a budget for each of those, based on what you’ve learned about prices there from Frommer’s or from travel guides on the Internet.

Then add 20% to each line item in the budget.

You’ll be better off having too much money for your trip than too little.

Conclusion

Casinos are a lot of fun, especially if you’re visiting for your first time.

But gambling and casino entertainment can also be intimidating for the beginner. They don’t have to be, though. With a little bit of education and some planning, you can have a successful first trip to the casino.

If you’re like most people, your first trip to the casino probably won’t be your last.

Like everything else, sportsbooks have a natural ebb and flow. Sometimes, they’re packed and full of manic energy, with a million different sports going on at the same time. Other times, sportsbooks are slower and filled only by hardcore bettors.

If you go to a sportsbook when it’s hectic, you will definitely get a different vibe and betting experience than if you went during a slower time. Really, whichever one is “best” depends on you and your personal preferences.

The good news, though, is that you can easily judge when a book is going to be more or less active and pick your times to go. Even better, the faster and slower times are fairly logical, so it’s not hard to remember when you should go and when you should stay away.

With that said, we’ll look at the lifecycle of a sportsbook and when the crowds will be at their biggest.

Busiest Times of Year

It’s pretty easy to tell when the busiest times of the year are at a sportsbook. Just check your television. If there are a bunch of games on TV, there will be a lot of activity at your local bookie.

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The truth is that it’s a little harder to tell exactly when the very busiest times at the sportsbook might be because, frankly, sports are an international business and not every sport attracts as much gambling as others.

For instance, the most popular sport to bet on is soccer, followed by American football. Unless you’re a fan of soccer, you probably don’t know when the season is (August through May) or when the hot times to bet are (around the time Cup games and near the end of the season).

With that said, if there’s NFL football on, the sportsbook will be busy. If it’s playoff time for any of the major American sports, expect the sportsbook to be hectic then, too.

The real exception to this are family-oriented holidays (Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day). Sports bettors have to spend some time with their families and tend to stay away from the books during this time.

Busiest Events of the Year: The NFL Championship Game

Even within already busy sports seasons, there are going to be events that attract people to the sportsbooks.

Two of these are major no-brainers—the NFL’s Championship Game and March Madness. During the Super Bowl, gamblers and partiers alike descend on Las Vegas like sharks to an injured swimmer. Some of them don’t even have rooms. They just fly in, bet, watch the game, and fly home. It’s that kind of party.

It’s possible that some of these gamblers are there to do things other than bet on sports, but there are fewer people who want to throw craps during the game than want to bet on odds.

Therefore, if you want to bet the Big Game with a bunch of your closest friends, head to Vegas. Just make reservations in advance or don’t plan on sleeping much.

Busiest Events of the Year: March Madness

March Madness is also a frenetic time in the sports betting industry, but whereas the NFL’s Championship clash is a single 60-minute affair, March Madness literally goes on for weeks.

Like the tournament itself, things are going to be a lot more energetic on the first day, followed by the second day and that first weekend. After that, the games die down, as fewer and fewer teams end up with a legitimate chance at making the Final Four.

The excitement cools off even more during the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds. One would think that the Final Four and Championship games would attract a fair crowd, but when I was last at a Las Vegas sportsbook for the Final Four, the excitement was fairly tepid and there weren’t more than a dozen or so people in the sportsbook.

(This didn’t prevent me from losing money by betting on Kansas to win, but that’s a whole different story.)

Therefore, at the end of the day, the first four days of March Madness are high volume times for sportsbooks. After that, the excitement seems to be no more or no less than a normal March weekend.

Busiest Events of the Year: High-Profile Boxing

Las Vegas still generates a lot of excitement around the sport of boxing and still attracts a lot of high-profile matches. Therefore, when big names in boxing meet in the ring, this is also a time of higher-than-usual sportsbook activity.

Busiest Days of the Week

Like many of the businesses in Las Vegas, activity in the sportsbook ebbs and flows throughout the week. However, it doesn’t necessarily follow the same pattern as a restaurant.

That’s because the draw of a sportsbook isn’t a special or a family night on the town, but rather, a big game or sporting event.

With that said, more people vacation in Vegas during the weekends, so there will normally be more people at the sportsbook during those days than at an equivalent event during the week.

In other words, if Duke plays North Carolina on a Wednesday, expect a smaller crowd than on Saturday.

Slowest Times at the Sportsbook

As noted before, if you want a sportsbook all to yourself, plan to visit on certain holidays. It’s kind of frowned upon to fritter off to Vegas on Christmas. Therefore, the sportsbook is likely to be slow. This is not true of Mardi Gras or New Year’s Eve, when the partiers are out in full force.

Also, the weeks between the end of the NFL’s final game and opening day of baseball tend to be very, very slow. (Seriously, watch ESPN during those weeks, and you’re likely to find a whole lot of filler.)

The dog days of summer after hockey and basketball have ended, while baseball is in the middle of the season, can also be pretty slow as well.

Finally, if you just want to pull a night out of the hat, not many major sports leagues have regular events on Tuesdays. Some soccer games are played on Tuesdays, but those tend to be over by the afternoon, making Tuesday a good night if you want the books all to yourself.

Does the Action Change During Busy Periods?

Still, at the end of the day, one has to wonder if a slow versus a fast time really matters that much in sports betting. Does the action really change that much?

The answer, quite frankly, is no. Unless you can find one with a loyalty program or get some kind of first deposit bonus, a sportsbook is not likely to cut you any kind of deal to place a bet except for a few small cases.

The odds themselves are designed to increase the likelihood that you will bet for one side or the other. Other than the previously mentioned initial deposit fees, a slow day or a fast day isn’t going to matter much to a sportsbook.

However, like I said, there are a few cases where you might get the sportsbook to give you a betting bonus. Strangely enough, a lot these happen around some of the major events like the NFL Championship game. It’s possible that some books will give you bonuses to your deposit so that you make larger or more bets.

To find these types of bonuses, look to events that have lots of prop bets. Having prop bets gives you more things to bet on and, eventually, more ways for the sportsbook to potentially earn some of your money.

Conclusion

So, in the end, there are a few cases when paying attention to the activity of a sportsbook could earn you some cash. Still, in the end, these cases work in reverse of how a lot of incentives normally operate.

Still, at the end of the day, what matters more than when you might get a bonus is what you want from the sportsbook environment. You can’t control whether the sportsbook offers a bonus or not, but you can control whether you prefer to bet alone or in a mass of fellow sports fans.

Personally, I prefer the crowd. Even if I’m not feeling particularly social, most sportsbooks are large enough where I can find a seat away from most of the noise if I want. Still, putting cold, hard cash on a game adds an extra dimension to the fun and brings out a little wildness in people that can be entertaining.

The choice is yours, but the good news is that there’s a sportsbook and a perfect time for you.