Some people take their gambling more seriously than others. For many, gambling is a way to pass some time and take your mind off the stresses of everyday life. For others, gambling is everyday life.
Everyone has different motivations. Many hit the poker tables or slot machines looking to make a few bucks on the side over the course of a quick weekend jaunt to Las Vegas. Other more serious gamblers literally make a living off of it, either at land-based or online casinos.
Regardless of why you gamble, it’s generally a good idea to keep tabs on your expenditures. This isn’t just true of betting, of course.
Keeping a gambling spreadsheet is a smart way to make sure you don’t go overboard in your gambling endeavors. That’s not the only benefit, either.
Why maintain a gambling win/loss spreadsheet?
Bankroll Management
Your gambling spreadsheet doesn’t have to be overly fancy. It can be as simple as writing down the amounts of your wagers and wins on a piece of paper. If you’re a little more technologically savvy, however, we recommend doing so in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
One of the most important rules of thumb to follow when gambling is to never wager more than you’re willing to lose. While your goal is obviously to win as much money as you possibly can, there’s a reason everybody isn’t a professional gambler by trade.
Gambling is inherently risky. You’re wagering a certain amount of money on a particular outcome. This is true whether you’re playing poker, blackjack, slot machines, or betting on sports. If you lose a bunch of bets in a row, the desire to bet even more as a way of offsetting those losses is only natural.
However, that’s one temptation to avoid. One way you can remain disciplined and ensure you don’t bet more than you should is by keeping tabs of your betting activity in a gambling spreadsheet.
Before you place your first bet, you should have a designated amount of money set aside that you’re willing to wager in a given time period. Rather than trying to do the math in your head, entering the numbers in your gambling spreadsheet is a quick and easy way to make sure you don’t take a blowtorch to your bankroll.
Improve Performance
Another perk of keeping gambling spreadsheets is that they can help you improve your betting performance. Because you’re making notes of both your wins and losses, you can paint an accurate picture of your pros and cons as a bettor.
Let’s say you’re betting on sports. You place five bets on NFL games on a Sunday afternoon and five more on the English Premier League. If you’re properly keeping track of things in a gambling spreadsheet, you’ll note the amount wagered and the amount won with each bet.
If you go 4-1 on your NFL bets and 1-4 on your soccer bets, you might use that as a sign to focus more of your attention on football in the future. Scaling back your EPL betting activity might be in your best long-term interests, as well.
Keeping gambling spreadsheets is one surefire way for you to analyze your strengths and weaknesses. If you can successfully identify certain trends in your past betting performance, you’ll likely improve your results in the future.
Using a gambling spreadsheet is a terrific way to help you avoid making the same mistakes over and over.
Tax Records
If you’re a successful enough bettor, you will actually have to pay taxes on your winnings. Such is life as a gambler in America.
Unfortunately, Uncle Sam won’t be able to keep tabs on your wins and losses automatically. Once tax season rolls around, it’s your responsibility to report gambling winnings on your federal income tax form.
Absolutely nobody likes doing their taxes, but if you’ve kept track of all of your activity using gambling spreadsheets, figuring out exactly how much to report on those tax forms should be a piece of cake.
Obviously, you don’t want to put yourself at risk by reporting the wrong information. As long as you have the numbers right in front of you, however, you should not run into any issues.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are plenty of benefits to keeping a gambling spreadsheet. That’s why you should consider doing so regardless of your skill level as a bettor.
In the long run, keeping track of gambling spreadsheets can only prove advantageous if you want to improve your bankroll management and your overall bottom line.
