Gambling With Materia - a Guide to Profit and Getting Rich FAST (Maybe?)

I may be a bit of a gambler...

..

Okay its true. I'm huge on gambling. I love it in video games and I love it in real life. Casino games excite me. That's why when I unlocked The Golden Saucer I was really disappointed that the casino in our realm was full of NON CASINO GAMES.

I wasn't satisfied with that. I knew there was a way to throw away my money in hopes of coming out with big earnings if I was lucky enough. Then I found it. It was here all along, under my nose.. for so long..

Central Thanalan - Black Brush Station X22 Y17

Mutamix Bubblypots - not only is he the coolest guy around, this guy is the true casino in Final Fantasy. 

This guy takes 5 materia from you, and gives you a chance at getting a single materia that is one rating above what you turned in. What usually happens is you give him five 4 star materia, and in return you get one 4 star materia. Every once in a while he gives you a random 5 star materia.

But here is the thing that makes this so exciting, you can manipulate what kinds of materia will come out of his machine. 

For example, if you were to give him a strength materia, there is no way the output will be strength. If you were to give him a strength, a battledance, and piety materia... the output would not be strength, battledance or piety! 

Use this information to your advantage! You can avoid the bad luck of getting bad 5 star materias while getting on really solid 5 star materias. 

The best part about this is for about 50k a roll (or less, but I never buy 4 star fodder materia if its past 10k per stone) you can come out with sometimes 900k or higher! The lowest I've seen 4 star materia go for on my server is 3k a stone.. 15k for a chance at 500k+ is an exciting gamble that I'm willing to take any day of the week. 

ALTHOUGH this is not something for someone with 100k or less to attempt. You will more than likely leave with no results. However if you can test your luck enough times, you may come out with a couple great 5 star materia. I've gotten two 900k materias in a row before, and I've lost 30 attempts in a row before. Its all about how lucky you are that day. 

Good luck out there, and remember to only gamble the gil you're willing to lose. This isn't a consistent way to make money, but if you get lucky you might just start drowning in gil. 

Risk and Reward with a Little Logic - How I became a Multi-Millionaire with 50k and a Gambler Mindset.

You know, being a lower level while being broke is tough.

I decided enough with struggling to earn gil as a low level. I was still progressing through the main story and had no time or gil to level crafting. I was tired of being the guy with no money. No money in FFXIV means no power and without power you have no progression. I hate slow progression. 

If you're like me, you love Gil. Gil is a powerful beast, and is most certainly more powerful than any max level crafting gear. Gil has the power to generate real profit by just having a lot of it. Gil will outperform any max level crafter any day of the week, you just have to make your money work. 

I decided to try something risky. Truth be told I am a huge gambler. I love the thrill of throwing money on the table, and letting the numbers take the wheel. But I was always the gambler and not the one running the table. Gambling is meant to generate money for the house while giving out payments to a few lucky individuals. This is what keeps people coming back. 

I decided to take my wallet sucking hobby and flip it around - and play as house.

HOW TO OPEN A SUCCESSFUL CASINO

(Now before we start, I just have to mention that running a casino in FFXIV is completely legal and not breaking any rules. HERE IS A POST BY A MOD THAT EXPRESSES HOW RUNNING A CASINO IS LEGAL.)

Starting is simple. You need a nice chunk of money and a popular map. I chose standing next to the Limsa Aetheryte. The reason I chose this area in particular is for a few reasons.

1. There are lots of players, new and old. This really led to bored rich individuals who were playing the market or waiting to raid to come check out my street casino as well as noobies that figured why not give it a chance?
2. There is a lot of traffic. New people are always coming and going from this map especially. If you couldn't find any customers, chances are within 15 minutes you will have a set of all new potential customers. 

Now that you've found your map that you will open the casino, commit to this map. You are opening a business. You should be as accessible to your customers as possible. Think of it this way- if you wanted to go to a fast food restaurant to get some food, and the restaurant kept moving every day, how would you ever order your food? You would probably just find a new restaurant to eat at. This is the same principle. 

Like I said earlier, you need a nice chunk of gil. The more you have, the faster this process will go. I started with 50k and I stopped with a small home in the Mist and some capital to earn passive income. 

Home Sweet Home

The starting amount does not matter as much as your casinos maximum bet does.

1. Never set your maximum bet to anything above 10% what your maximum investment in this casino is. You have to realize you will lose gil. Chances are you will win more then you will lose and have a sustained business, but YOU WILL LOSE GIL from time to time. And since this isn't a scam business, you WILL PAY OUT EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU LOSE. By setting your maximum bet to 10% or less of what you have total, you are playing it safe and allowing your casino to safely lose money without risking everything.
   
   Casinos make money over longer periods of time. If you are consistently sticking to house rules and not getting greedy, you will see constant growth in your business and will slowly be able to allow bigger bets without risking stopping business operations.
   
   When I started my casino with 50,000 gil, I only allowed maximum bets of 5k. This ensured that when I lost it wasn't that big of a hit to my bank, but as I won more and more I slowly increased my maximum bet, until I eventually started rolling 1,000,000 gil bets. You have to be patient and not worry about losing a few times in a row. I have only once made the mistake of not listening to my own advice and I allowed the max bet to be 50% of my bank. Guess how quickly I had to restart my business? Don't forget you are house. You need to generate profit. The players are here for the thrill of winning big quickly, not you.
   
   Your minimum bet is more based on personal preference. I never did bets under 1k because it never seemed worth it to me. I also never allowed bets with weird numbers, only flat bets that could be easily doubled in my head. If you're better then I am at doing math on the spot, then be my guest. I'm good at making money, not doing math problems haha!

Now that you have a consistent map and maximum bet, I will explain my version of the dice game.

HOW THE DICE GAME WORKS

The dice game is simple, clean and fast. If you are unaware of the command /random - this is your casino's bread and butter. The way /random works is the user types it in and rolls a 1000 sided dice. 

For your casino to succeed consistently, you need to give house a better chance of winning. I consistently got players by setting the winning numbers to 650 or higher and the payout for winners to be at x2. 

That means if a player rolls a 649 or less, you keep their bet. If the player rolls a 650 or higher, you will give them double their gil. 

HOW TO ACTUALLY PLAY THE GAME

Now that you understand how the game works and your role in it, you need to create a stable and consistent way to play. The game should be played the same way 100 times. You want your players to only have to learn once and be comfortable with you. 

Call players to your casino

I start by calling potential players with a /shout macro every 5 to 10 minutes. Before I even go into the macro I have to reiterate that you are not a spammer, and if nobody came to you within a few minutes of you calling players to your casino, then you're only going to anger the community by spamming within a short period of time. Don't be a spammer.

My macro was quite simple and straight to the point. It went like this:

"Vanilla Mocha's Street Casino is now open! I'm at the Aetheryte. Roll 650+ to double your gil, trade to play!" 

This macro is beautiful as its straight to the point. Lays out the SIMPLE rules quickly and expresses that you won't play until the gil is in your hands.

Interaction between you and your new player

Once a player trades you, wait for the player to show you the amount of gil and click "trade" locking in the amount of gil they want to play with. 

IN SAY CHAT announce the players name and how much they bet. Not only does this eliminate the chance of accidentally forgetting their bet, or having them lie about how much they bet, you also draw attention from neighboring people-potential players.

"PlayerName 50k!" is usually good enough for me. 

The game begins.. good luck everyone!

Tell your player to roll the dice by typing the command /random

DO NOT ROLL FOR THE PLAYER UNLESS THEY ASK YOU TOO. Its much more fun for the player to actively be involved in the process, and people like to spam rolls until they feel lucky. But remember that once they trade you, the dice is live. They only get one roll so you can only count the first one. 

Now the player has either rolled a 650+ and won, or they have rolled a 649- and lost. 

If the player has won, simply congratulate them and ask them to trade to collect their money, or trade them yourself and give them double the gil they bet. Be happy for them. You want winners, people in the chat notice that someone just won big and will want a chance at doubling their own money. Do not be a poor sport, I've lost multi million dollar bets and I was HAPPY for the winner. 

If the player lost, tell them better luck next time, and move on. You need to keep your casino ready to play with other people and chances are the losing player will want another shot at the game soon. 

Dealing with poor sports and competition (other casinos!)

• Poor sports are not a huge problem but they do happen every once in a while. People feel salty for losing and may cause a huge scene about how you "Didn't pay out" or how you are a scammer. Personally I never even respond to these accusations. I've never scammed a player and have always paid out. The chat history only shows the truth. If a GM was ever involved (which I have never seen happen after all my time of being a gambler) then you will have proof to shut up the poor sport once and for all.
• Competition is not something to be upset about. This is a simple concept and a fun one. Other players will open casinos, and have before you. However some casino's will try to create wacky games or lower the odds so players will win more at their casino. Your casino is more simple, people will prefer to play a game that is up front and simple. They want to quickly see their money rise or fall. Gambling is all about quick results and the thrill of it. The casinos that offer lower odds will also lose money quicker, and will probably lose their bank due to it. Remember that you're running this from a business perspective. The same kind of person that would lower odds to get players quickly is the same kind of person that would lose their bankroll to a crafter 50x richer than them. Do not worry about them and stick to your plan. I would avoid flame wars and territory arguments with rival casinos too. NOBODY owns the map and an argument will just make you seem childish and unreliable. I would avoid casinos that argue with each other as a player, wouldn't you?

TIP FOR THOSE WITH HOMES - PRIVATE CASINOS

(Sorry to those who don't have a home, this awesome way to run a private casino doesn't apply to you. But keep playing street dice until you're in this position. Its how I got here.)

After I bought my player home I had one thing in mind. Running a home casino. 

Home casinos are so much less work then standing in a town and stating your open every 10 minutes or so. The game still plays the same but instead of attracting players VIA macro, I would just open a party finder stating my home's location and the fact that I was open for business.

My co-leader and I would act as dealers and it was a great time hosting. I even decorated the living room to look like a casino! It was a great time and a fun way to earn some extra gil while meeting cool people.

After running a casino for a good while and building up a stockpile of gil, I finally had enough to make money with less effort and more consistently on the market-board. I was able to play the market-board as a low level still progressing through the main story without any crafter classes. I was then able to fund my Blacksmith and generate even more gil, while living in a comfortable home thanks to my successful casino. I won't run a casino anymore since its a little to active of a way to make money, but its a solid way to make money if you've got a little bit of gil to risk and the heart of a business man gambler. You just need to push through the losses and consistently win until you snowball into a multi-millionaire!

Good luck out there!