Casino House Edge Percentage

For example, the more decks in play, the higher the house edge. If the dealer hits a soft 17 instead of standing, the house edge goes up. Getting paid 6 to 5 instead of 3 to 2 for a blackjack also increases the house edge. Luckily, we know the effect each of these changes has on the house edge. Using this information, we can make. The house advantage, or house edge, is the percent of a player’s initial bet that the casino will expect to make in the long run. Flip it around, and it is the amount you would expect to lose. The house has an advantage in every single game – that is how casinos make their money – but not all games are created equal.

The house edge is the most important number in gambling, yet the majority of gamblers don’t understand how it rules everything about gambling, and they don’t know how to use it to make smart betting decisions.

If you fall into this category, the good news is that you’re going to learn everything you need to know on this page.

If you're looking at RTP as a percentage, the amount needed to get up to 100% is the house edge. So, if a slot pays out an RTP of 90% then 10% is the machine's house edge. Paylines & House Edge. On a game with a house edge of 4%, that same wager would lose $4. That may not sound like much of a profit for the casino, but consider that the doors to these establishments are open 24/7. Every minute of the day, the casino is raking in 0.50% here and 12% there.

Another reason many gamblers don’t know much about the house edge is because they don’t like math, usually because they’ve never had anyone show them how to use it in an easy to understand way.

If you fall in this category, the news is even better. One of my best skills is breaking down math situations in a way that’s easy to understand. I’m going to detail the house edge in a way that a third grader can understand it.

The Basics of the House Edge

The house edge is the statistical percentage of the advantage the casino or house has in any situation. Each gambling game and activity has a built-in house edge, which is how the casinos, sportsbooks, racetracks, and poker rooms make a profit.

Some games and activities have a set house edge, and some have an edge that varies based on past events and player strategy.

Here’s an example.

What this means in real-world results is that the casino is going to keep, or win, 1.06% of all the money you bet on the banker hand in baccarat. If you make bets totaling $100, the casino is going to keep $1.06 of it.

Keep in mind that this number looks at the long-term results. In any given session, you may walk away with a big profit, a big loss, or anywhere in between. But the longer you play, the closer your lifetime results will be to equaling that 1.06% loss to the casino.

You can determine the amount by multiplying the house edge percentage times the total amount of your wagers. 1.06% converts to .0106 as a decimal. You have to convert the percentage to a decimal by moving the decimal in the percentage two places to the left.

.0106 x $100 = $1.06

If you’ve ever played baccarat, you know that when you bet $100 at one time, you either win $100 minus the commission or lose $100. You also probably know that if you make 20 bets of $5 each, you’re not going to end up with exactly $98.94.

This doesn’t change the fact that the house edge is 1.06% or the fact that the casino makes 1.06% on all the baccarat banker bets. The casino works in volume while individual bettors work with their individual bets. Some players win sometimes, but overall, the casino makes the house edge.

Here’s another example.

Blackjack has a house edge that varies based on the specific rules and the strategy you use. The house edge in blackjack can be as low as .25% and as high as 2% or more. Card counters can even turn the house edge in their favor.

The most important thing you need to understand is that every game has a house edge, and you need to know what the edge is for the games you play.

Here’s a list of games with the house edge.

Some other gambling activities make money for the casinos in a different way. Poker makes money by charging a rake on each hand. Horse and dog tracks make money by keeping a percentage of the total betting pool. Sportsbooks make money by charging vig when you make a bet.

These three activities all offer the best gamblers a chance to make money if they can play or make decisions better than most other gamblers.

Simple Ways to Use the House Edge in Gambling

The best way to use the house edge is to make bets with the lowest edge. If you’re looking for a bet with a low house edge that doesn’t require the use of strategy or playing decisions, the banker bet in baccarat is usually your best option.

• If you’re willing to learn more about the rules of a game and learn the best strategy, blackjack and video poker are good options.
• If you’re the type of player who’s willing to work hard to have a chance to win, poker, sports betting, and race track betting are all good options.

The pass line bet backed with the full available odds is a good betting combination. The house edge of 1.41% on the pass line is higher than the edge on the baccarat banker hand, but when you back at full odds, you’re making larger bets with a 0% house edge.

Once you understand what the house edge is and how to use it, you’re in better shape than most gamblers. You can use your knowledge to make smarter playing decisions, which leads to lower losses over time.

You can also use the house edge to determine roughly how much it costs you to play the games you prefer. You can determine the expected amount you’re going to lose by using a simple formula.

Here’s an example.

You play roulette on a single-zero wheel and make 30 bets per hour of $20 each. This is a total of $600 wagered per hour.

Remember that the expected loss of $16.20 per hour is a long-term average. In any particular hour, you can lose more or less. Some hours, you’re even going to win. But the longer you play, the closer your actual results are going to be in line with the expected results.

Improving Your Gambling Skills Using the House Edge

When you play games like baccarat, roulette, and craps, you can’t do anything to change the house edge. The long-term results are going to be a loss in line with the house edge. But this doesn’t mean you can’t use the house edge to improve your gambling skills and results elsewhere.

Here are some specific ways to improve your results now that you know about the house edge.

Blackjack

The first step is to learn which blackjack rules offer the lowest house edge. Then you find games that use the best combinations of these rules. Now find a strategy card or chart for these games, and always use the best blackjack strategy.

When you do these three things, you can usually play with a house edge of less than .5%. Sometimes, you can find games with an edge as low as .25%.

If you want to take this to the next level, learn how to count cards. A good card counter can turn the tables on the casino and play with an edge against the house.

Video Poker

The video poker house edge is based on the pay table on the machine and on how well you use the proper strategy. Learn about the best machines and the best pay tables. Then find the proper strategy chart for the machine. You can keep the house edge under .5% by following this advice.

Poker

Poker offers an opportunity to win more than you lose. The rake is a small percentage of each pot, so you can win by outperforming most of your opponents. This isn’t especially easy, but with enough practice and knowledge about all the different poker strategies, you can do it.

Sports Betting

Sports betting profits are in the form of vig charged by the books. If you learn how to handicap games and shop for good lines, you can overcome the vig and show a long-term profit. Just like poker, this isn’t easy, but it can be done.

Conclusion

Understanding and using the house edge in gambling isn’t hard. All you have to understand is how the edge cuts into your profits and how to reduce the edge as much as possible.

By using this information on the house edge, you can make your bankroll last longer, and you can start looking for ways to actually become a winning gambler.

If you spend any time at all reading about casino games and gambling in casinos, you’ll encounter an expression—“the house edge.”

You’ll see writers explain that blackjack has the lowest house edge in the casino, and that the slots have the worst.

You’ll see them mention that some of the bets at the craps table have a house edge of less than 2%, while other bets at the craps table have a house edge of more than 16%.

Some Probability Background that Matters

You can’t understand the house edge if you don’t understand some of the basics of probability.

Probability is just a mathematical way to measure how likely something is to happen.

When a weatherman says there’s a 50% chance of rain, he’s using probability (as well as meteorology) to express that likelihood.

And most people have an intuitive understand of probability when it’s stated as a percentage, because we use it all the time.

If you paid attention in 8^th grade math, you probably already know that a percentage is just another way of expressing a fraction, and that’s all a probability is—a fraction.

To determine the probability of something happening, you just look at the number of ways it could happen and divide it by the total number of possible events.

Here’s an example:

• You’re rolling a 6-sided die, and you want to know what the probability of rolling a 6 is. A 6-sided die has 6 sides numbered 1 through 6. There’s only a single 6.
• Since there are 6 possible outcomes, and since only one of those outcomes is a 6, the probability of rolling a 6 is 1/6.
• You can convert that to a percentage of 16.67%.

You can also convert it to “odds format,” which just compares the number of ways it can’t happen with the number of ways it can. The odds of rolling a 6 on a 6-sided die are 5 to 1.

Once you have a basic understanding of probability, you can move on to the next step, which is determining the house edge of a bet.

What Is the House Edge and Why Does It Matter?

Every bet has a payout if you win and an amount you lose if you lose. This is often the same amount, or even money.

In other words, if you bet $100 on a hand of blackjack and win, you usually win $100.

If you lose, you usually lose $100.

That’s called even money.

(And some bets in blackjack result in bigger winnings, and you sometimes have the option of surrendering, which means you only lose half your stake. But that’s a complication that doesn’t help you understand the house edge, so I’m going to save that discussion for another blog post.)

A bet’s payout can also be expressed using odds, though.

• An even-money bet pays off at 1 to 1.
• A bet that pays off at 5 to 1 is also possible—if you win, you get 5 units, but if you lose, you only lose 1 unit.

In the die-rolling probability example I used above, if you have a payout of 5 to 1, you’re playing a game with no house edge.

That’s because in the long run, you’ll win as much money as you lose.

But suppose I reduced the payout for rolling a 6 to 4 to 1?

You can use statistics to determine an average amount you’ll lose per bet in this situation.

You assume 6 statistically perfect rolls of the die. This means you’ll win once and lose 5 times.

Lowest House Edge Casino Games

If you’re betting $100 every time, you’ll have a single win of $400 along with 5 losses of $100 each, or a $500 total loss.

Your net loss after that is $100.

Since that’s a net loss of $100 over 6 bets, you’ve lost an average of $16.67 per bet.

That’s the same thing as lose 16.67% of each bet, and that percentage is the house edge.

There are other ways to arrive at that number, but that’s the easiest method I’ve seen used.

With every casino game you play, the house pays off your bets at odds lower than the odds of winning. This results in a mathematical edge for the house.

That’s why casinos are profitable in the long run, even though every, a percentage of their customers go home with winnings in their pockets.

Probabilities—and the house edge—are always long-term phenomena. In the short run, anything can happen.

Individual casino gamblers are always playing in the short term.

Casinos are always playing in the long term.

If the House Has an Edge, Why Do People Still Play Casino Games?

Best House Edge Casino Games

The answer is simpler than you think:

Most people don’t think about things from a long-term perspective. If they did, everyone in the United States would save 10% of everything they earn and retire early because their cost of living would be low enough to be easily affordable.

I have a friend who visits the casino at least once a week. He loses money on 4 out of 5 visits to the casino, but on one of those 5 visits every month, he comes home a winner.

He doesn’t care that he’s losing money hand over fist in the long run. He just wants to keep getting that buzz from his occasional wins.

The human brain is irrational, especially when it comes to gambling.

How the House Edge for Various Casino Games Compares

The house edge is only one factor that affects how much you’re going to lose when you’re gambling on casino games. Other factors include how many bets you place per hour and how much you’re betting every time you place a wager.

That being said, if everything else is equal, you should play the casino games with the lowest house edge.

Keep in mind, too, that game conditions affect the house edge, too.

Blackjack is a good place to start a discussion of the house edge for various casino games. It’s widely known that the house edge for blackjack is between 0.5% and 1%, but that number assumes that you’re making the optimal move in every situation. The average blackjack player is probably giving up 2% or so in mistakes.

House Edge Casino Games

Craps is a game where different bets have a different house edge. If you stick with the basic bets, pass and come, you face a house edge of 1.41%, which is relatively low. The more “exciting” wagers on the craps table come with a higher house edge.

Roulette comes in 2 main versions—single zero and double zero. The double zero version of roulette is predominant in the United States, and the house edge for that game is 5.26%. By removing one of the zeroes, the casino reduces the house edge to 2.70%.

Slot machines have a house edge that varies based on the PAR sheet for the game. (That’s the logic behind the game which determines the probability of getting various combinations of symbols and the payouts for those combinations.) You can find slot machines with a house as high as 35% or as low as 5%, but you never know what the number is.

Video poker machines look like slot machines, but they offer a better house edge—if you play the hands optimally. Depending on the pay table, the house edge for video poker can be as low as 0.5% or as high as 5% or 6%.

Conclusion

And those are the basics of the house edge as it pertains to casino games.

Now that you have an understanding of the probability behind casino games and how it affects your winnings and losses, are you going to be more or less likely to play casino games?

Are you going to change the amounts you bet or the games you play?

Let me know in the comments.