Casino House Edge Explained

Posted : admin On 4/10/2022
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Casinos are a place where adults can have as much fun as kids do at amusement parks. This could not be any more of an apt description because amusement parks and casinos are exactly the same—they both take as much money as they can from you and still manage to send you home happy. While casinos are all about having fun, it is important to keep in mind that, at the end of the day, casinos are in the business of making money. Though you may not understand how these establishments make money, rest-assured they are doing it every time players make wagers.

Some people think that casinos make their money by cheating players, but nothing could be further from the truth. Money is made thanks to guaranteed profit being built into every bet that is placed. This is known as the house edge.

House Edge Explained

However, some casino games are different to Roulette when it comes to house edge. As you can see above, the house edge for Blackjack is set at a default of 0.5%. Although, this can be even higher if you are playing without knowledge of the game or a specific strategy, something that catches out novice gamblers.

Before we go any further, it is important to point out that two games—video poker and blackjack—do not have any house edge built into them.

The best way to simplify house edge is to explain things in terms of a simple coin toss. If, for example, you and a friend were to be placing wagers on a coin toss, you know that the odds of the coin landing on either one of the sides is an even 50%. If you wager $2 and are playing at true odds (50%=1:1), a winning bet on your part would see you win an even $2. If this same coin toss played out on the floor of a casino, you might see something like a winning bet pay out only $1.90 as opposed to an even $2. The $0.10 difference between true odds and what you are actually paid is known as the house edge. No matter how many times a player wins, they will, with each and every winning bet, be paying the casino 5%. In this hypothetical example, the coin-toss game’s house edge would be 2.5%.

  1. The house edge percentage tells you the casino’s profit margin. For instance, when you play double exposure blackjack with a posted 0.69% house edge, the casino can expect to make a £0.69 profit for every £100 wagered on average. With this in mind, the house edge probably won’t reflect your individual experience.
  2. Every casino game has an inherent advantage for the casino known as the 'house edge'. This percentage represents how much the casino expects to make from every betting unit wagered. For example, the house edge in double zero roulette is 5.6 percent.
  3. The house edge is a scientific advantage that the casino has over the player in a given round of shot. Alongside the rake in poker and baccarat, the house edge is the reason casinos make benefits. With the lawful ideal to set a house edge on its games, a betting organization makes enough profits to handle the cost of extensive gaming staffs.
  4. The Baccarat House Edge for Common Bets. The three most common bets in this game are the banker, player and tie wagers. Most games use an eight-deck shoe, and this means that the house edge on the banker bet is 1.06%, which is the lowest of any bet in the game.

Casino House Edge Explained Download

You may be wondering why you have never really taken note of house edge before, and that is because casinos do well to avoid advertising just how much they are making with each turn of a card, roll of the dice, or spin of the wheel. Just like taxes, house edge is a cost you will be forced to pay whether you like it or not. After all, casinos have bills to pay too, and without house edge they would all surely go bankrupt in a hurry.

Varieties of House Edge

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In the example above, the house edge is pretty cut and dry and is easy to understand. As you begin playing games that are more complex, the house edge can be a bit more confusing to understand. When it comes to the game of baccarat, for example, the house edge depends on the position upon which you are wagering. A bet on the bank has a very small house edge, but a bet on the tie sees the house have a very large edge.

Even now you may think that understanding what house edge is and how it is applied to your favorite games is a waste of time, but that is patently not true. Once you gain a better understanding of how house edge is applied to games you may also change your casino play to give yourself a better edge.

House Edge FAQs

Are there any casinos that do not host games with a built-in house edge?

The short answer to this question is no. House edge is the way in which casinos make their money. If a casino—online or brick and mortar—did not boast house edge, they would quickly run out of money and be forced out of business.

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If a game has a high house edge should I not play it?

This is something that you must decide for yourself. Now that you know more about what house edge is and how it works, you may want to stay away from games with high casino commissions, but at the same time it is important to remember that some of the most profitable bets (if you are able to win them) also have some of the highest house edges.

Do different casinos have different house edges for identical games?

Sometimes you will find that a casino is raking in more per bet than standard house edge. Though this isn’t entirely common, there are some casinos who look to get one over on their players by utilizing a higher house edge. For this reason, doing your due diligence and finding out everything there is to know about a site prior to playing there is incredibly important. Through very minimal amounts of research you will be able to differentiate casinos with unfair edges and those that align with industry standards.

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Unless you’re walking through life wearing pink glasses 24/7, you’ll be aware of the fact that house always wins. That is, overall and long-term. The reason why casino inevitably comes out a winner in the long run, is that every game has a built-in mathematical edge. Let’s have a look at the math side of things as this is something you need to understand in order to grasp what house edge is and how it works.

It’s All About Mathematics

We’re in fact talking about the law of probability. If you flip a coin, there are two possible outcomes – either heads or tails, each with 50% chance. When flipping 2 coins simultaneously, there are 4 potential outcomes – they either both land on heads (1), or they both land on tails (2), or first lands on heads & the other on tails (3) and the other way around (4). Each outcome is equally likely, so there’s a 25% chance for any of the above happening.

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When tossing a dice, you’ve got 1 in 6 chance (16.7%) to guess the number correctly. If you’re looking to get one of two numbers, let’s say either 3 or 4, the probability is a sum of each of the individual ones, namely 1/6 + 1/6 = 2/6 (33.3%). How about throwing 2 dice at the same time? In this case, and always when different outcomes can happen as the result of different actions , the probability is the number of ways to get the targeted outcome divided by the total number of possible combinations. For example, two dice can produce the result of 2 in only one way (1+1), so probability is 1/36 = 2.78%, and the same goes for a total of 12. A total of 7, however, can be achieved in 6 different ways, meaning it has a much higher probability of happening.

Now, when a casino game developer creates a game, they will set up bet payouts at odds which are lower than your odds of winning. In the example with our game of double dice roll, result of 2 could come with 2.5% payout, and a total of 7 with 15% payout (vs 16.7% odds of actually getting this outcome). This difference is, simply put, the house edge.

House Edge in Casino Games

House edge is casino’s way to cover their costs and create profit. If a game has 10% edge, the house expects it will pay 90% of the money wagered by players over longer period of time, meaning it will earn the house 10% profit. It does not mean that every player will lose 10% of their cash on each occasion. If that was the case, given that there’s no game with zero or negative house edge, nobody would be interested in playing. It’s simply a long-term average. Obviously, casino goers can and do win, both online and offline, while playing slots, poker, blackjack, and basically any other casino game under the sun. However, not all games were created equal and some offer much better winning chances than others. What’s more, skillful players applying correct strategy can further improve odds in their favor.

Blackjack is a casino game with many different variants featuring below 1% edge, and is considered to be your best bet. For example, Single Deck Classic Blackjack from Microgaming comes with a house edge as low as 0.13%, and Playtech’s Blackjack Switch with only 0.16%. NetEnt’s Jacks or Better video poker features a high payout percentage of 99.56%, while All Aces from Microgaming come with a huge 99.92% payout. The don’t pass/don’t come bets in Craps have a house edge of around 1.4%, and in Baccarat, edge is 1.06% on Banker bets and 1.24% on Player bets. Roulette games with a single zero start at 2.7% edge. Slot machines normally feature a wide range of 2% to 8% house edge, though they tend to go higher when playing in land-based casinos.

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