House edge

Do you know how casinos make money? You may be thinking it is due to players losing their bets right? Actually, the answer is not quite that. Casino games all come with a built-in advantage working to the casino’s favour: The House Edge. In this guide, you will learn everything about it and how you can beat it. The house edge refers to the mathematical advantage, expressed as a percentage, in favour of the gambling establishment. In games of chance, everything is possible in the short term but players can find out about the house advantage to calculate their chances of winning. This casino advantage is not calculated in the same way when it comes to games of pure chance and skill games. Pure games of chance are games where bets are completely independent and random, like roulette, bingo, lotteries and slot machines. In skill games, however, the player’s knowledge, decisions and strategies play a major role. For instance, skill games include blackjack and poker. The house edge online casino and the percentage of earnings are concepts that have always been calculated in the long term since everything remains possible in the short term.

How does the House Edge Work?

Depending on the game and especially the rules of the game, the house advantage varies greatly. The game with the lowest house advantage is indeed blackjack, as it is not based solely on luck. It can even go down to 0.5%. On the other hand, the house edge for slots varies from 2 to 15% depending on the type of slots being played. When placing a bet, you’ll often hear of “good odds” to evaluate a particular game. Contrary to popular belief, the odds are not that important when it comes to determining whether a bet is “good” or “bad”. For example, if a player places a bet on each of the 37 boxes on a European roulette table, he would have a 100% chance of winning. However, the player would only win 36 NZD. He would, therefore, lose 1 NZD on all of his bets. The lost dollar here represents the advantage of the house. In American roulette, the player would lose 2 NZD. The house edge would, therefore, be 2 NZD on this bet of 38 NZD, a total advantage of 5.3%.

House Edge in Roulette

The casino advantage in roulette remains quite simple. A standard roulette table is made up of 36 numbered boxes, black or red, and one or two green boxes (zero and double-zero depending on the roulette variant). The board, therefore, consists of 37 or 38 boxes. It is the game of chance which offers the most distribution of gains to the players. The objective is to determine what will be the colour or the number of the box in which the ball will fall. If the ball lands on your guess, you will earn winnings depending on the type of your bet. For European roulette, which uses only one zero, the player has a 1 in 37 chance of winning. If he wins his bet, the house will only pay him 36 chips. The green box, therefore, represents the house advantage margin for each bet. In the long run, this means that the house is slightly more likely to win than the player. Roulette results are very often unpredictable and random so the winnings of players and the house can vary significantly.

Why Should You Play if House Edge exists?

You may be wondering, “why should I play if casinos always have the advantage?” and it’s a relatively good question. You have to keep in mind that even with the odds being against you, multiple wins are still possible. Otherwise, people would have stopped playing long ago and casinos would be old news. In the short term, anything could happen. The probability of getting faces twice in a row after two coin tosses is quite low, but it could happen. If you’ve played slots or roulette every day for a year, there is a high chance that your budget was seriously impacted. But how about 2 or 3 spins during your lunchtime? You could certainly win. Moreover, if you know what you’re doing, applying basic strategies with a predefined budget, consider it as cheap entertainment. Let’s take for example a blackjack player who uses a basic strategy at a 5 NZD table. He is expected to lose only 2.50 NZD every hour. Therefore, if he only tips 15 NZD per hour, he would only lose 7.50 NZD. It’s not much money and is still cheaper than other forms of entertainment like movie theatres. The only difference here is that you can make money!

How to Beat the House Edge?

Surely, the casino will never completely lose its advantage, but there are some tips and tricks to increase your chances of beating the house edge. But beware, none guarantees you to win! Blackjack is definitely the best game if you are serious about making money. Card counting is the key to turning the casino advantage in your favour. When combined with a good basic strategy, a precise card counting method can give the player an edge over the casino from 0.5% to 1.00%. It doesn’t seem like much but it is enough to make you a blackjack winner. In roulette, it is strongly advised to use martingales. The classic and safest way is to double the bet each time you lose and start the cycle again when you win. Regarding slot machines, the main tip is simply to choose the machines having the best RTP. Choose the machines that offer the best earnings reports, taking into account their RTP, the number of coins requested, and the maximum possible gain.