From (painful) trial and error, I have all my thumb slug holes drilled a bit large in anticipation of swelling and use a bunch of white tape to get a nice snug fit. In one of the bowling balls I have, I had the pro shop operator replace the slug 4x to get the feel just right, then I reproduced that same oval size on all of my subsequent bowling balls.
For me, I probably use 2-3 pieces of white tape during fall/spring; sometimes up to 4 pieces of tape during winter (Boston, MA). Normally on hot summer days and on the day after bowling 10-15 games from practice/tournament, I use only 1 or 1.5 pieces of white tape.