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Session Risk of Ruin Calculator

Calculate the risk of ruin, expected wins/losses, and volatility of any gambling session, regardless of your bankroll or the game you’re playing.

Our Risk of Ruin calculator tool lets you set up your budget, rounds per hour, and session length, covering most popular casino games played in live dealer tables. It then tells you how much you can expect to win or lose by the end of the session based on the statistical averages for that game, as well as the probability of turning a profit or losing your entire bankroll.

The purpose of this handy tool is to allow you to easily plan out gaming sessions by planning for statistically average results over many repeated rounds. It can be set up to work with many popular casino games, ranging from multiple types of roulette to blackjack, three-card poker, craps, and more.

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How to Use the Risk of Ruin Calculator Tool

The tool is straightforward and intuitive to use. Here are the steps you need to take to get reliable results with it:

What is Risk of Ruin?

In gambling, the Risk of Ruin is defined as the probability that the player will lose their entire bankroll before reaching their profit goal.

To understand RoR, we first have to understand two essential gambling terms: house edge and expected value.

The house edge means that every casino game features an inherent advantage for the casino. In many cases, it means that the player is slightly more likely to lose than to win any bet they make. Alternatively, the house edge exists because bets pay less than their probability implies they should, which causes players to lose more than they win in the long run. You can read more about it in our guide to RTP in live casino games.

The expected value represents how much you can expect to win or lose from a bet or series of bets based on its odds. In gambling, expected value is always negative due to the house edge: on average, you will lose a small part of your stake with every bet. If applied to a longer series of bets, it tells you how you can expect your bankroll to change as you keep playing. You can read more about this term and its effects here.

With that in mind, the Risk of Ruin shows the probability that you will lose your entire bankroll due to repeated bets against a house advantage. Like we just said – on average, you lose a small part of your bankroll with every bet. These losses compound over repeated rounds. The RoR is the chance that the losses will add up so much that your bankroll eventually reaches 0, preventing your from any further betting.

What do the Results Mean?

Now that we understand the calculator’s main purpose, let’s look at the data it provides and how it can be used:

Why Use Our Risk of Ruin Calculator Tool?

The tool offers a lot of insight into the maths and statistics behind common gambling games. This is useful in several ways:

FAQ

What is risk of ruin in gambling?

Risk of ruin is the probability that you’ll lose your entire bankroll before achieving your win goal or completing your planned gambling session. It’s calculated based on your starting bankroll, bet size, game house edge, and session length, helping you understand the likelihood of going broke during a specific gambling session.

How does the session risk of ruin calculator work?

The calculator estimates your probability of losing your entire bankroll during a session by analyzing factors including your starting bankroll, average bet size, house edge of the game you’re playing, hands per hour, and total playing time. It assumes you’ll stop playing if you run out of money before your session ends.

What is an acceptable risk of ruin percentage?

Most experienced gamblers aim to keep their session risk of ruin below 25%, with conservative players targeting under 10%. A 50% risk of ruin means you have a coin-flip chance of losing everything, while anything above 70-80% indicates you’re severely underbankrolled for your bet sizing and session length.

How can I reduce my risk of ruin?

You can lower your risk of ruin by increasing your bankroll size, decreasing your bet size, shortening your session length, or choosing games with lower house edges. The most effective approach is reducing bet size relative to bankroll—betting 1% of your bankroll per hand carries far less risk than betting 5% or 10%.

How does house edge affect my risk of ruin?

Higher house edge games dramatically increase your risk of ruin. For example, with a $500 bankroll and $10 bets, playing blackjack (0.5% house edge) might give you 15% risk of ruin over 4 hours, while playing roulette (2.7% house edge) could increase that to 40% or higher under identical conditions.