The house edge is the casino profit in a game expressed as a percentage of the bet (or all bets) placed. In absolutely all gambling, the rules are drawn up so that the casino has a slight advantage. That is why people say that the casino always wins. At the same time, the share of the casino is quite small from 0.1% to 6% in different games without a jackpot. If the jackpot is at stake, the house edge can even reach 25%.
Note. In advantage games like poker, in which the result is influenced not only by luck but also by knowledge of the rules and skill, the house edge can be negative if the player is a professional. This explains the phenomenon of poker players who have earned millions by fair play. They just figured out the rules, and win more often than other players due to their skills. For such pros, the house edge is negative over the long haul, meaning it produces consistent wins.
Why do casino games have a house edge?
A casino is a business, like restaurants or nightclubs, and its purpose is to bring profit to the owner. To guarantee this profit, the rules of the games are drawn up with a slight bias towards the organizer.
In a restaurant, the owners offer to spend money on food, in clubs – on dancing and drinking, in a casino – on the pleasure of the game, the chance of a big win, and the gambling atmosphere. It is for a special atmosphere and a sense of victory that real casino fans return. But if you always have to pay in restaurants and clubs, then with due to luck, the casino pays you.
In general, as gambling organizers around the world have repeatedly said, casinos are an expensive pleasure for wealthy people, where you need to spend only free money.
In Europe and America, there is a whole culture of casino time. People come for pleasure. A group of friends or a couple of lovers plan a vacation with a gambling flair, allocate a certain budget for it, for example, $200 per person, and go on vacation. When the allocated money runs out, guests leave the casino and just continue to hang out elsewhere. However, the lucky ones often hit the jackpot, which cheers up the whole company.
The size of the casino advantage in different games
We have already mentioned that the house edge has a different size for different games. This applies to classic land-based casino games, slots, live dealer games, and lotteries. Everywhere there is a share of the house, which allows you to develop and maintain such a business.
In slots and simulation games, it is easiest to determine the house edge. Developers indicate the return to player rate, RTP. For slots, it ranges from 94% to 99% today. Accordingly, the share of the casino is from 6% to 1%.
In card games, the advantage of the casino is:
• Blackjack: 0.16% to 1.5%
• Baccarat: from 0.24% to 15.75%
• Craps: 1.41% to 16.9%
• Roulette: 1.35% to 5.26%
The exact percentage depends on the specific version of the games, the number of decks involved, the type of bets, and other parameters.
How to correctly understand the advantage of the house
So, the house edge is a percentage of all bets made. That is, if you play a game with a house edge of 3%, then with bets worth $ 100, leave $ 3 in the casino. But this is in an ideal mathematical model with more than 1000 bets.
Very often, players think they can come in with $100, play all night, and spend as little as $3-10. But it is not so. With $ 100 at the start, you can bet on $ 1,000, and even $ 100,000 with frequent wins and some luck. In almost all games, winnings and losses alternate, respectively, it is necessary to count the amount that was spent on bets.
If your starting bank was $100, but you won a lot and eventually made 1000 bets on $1000 with a house edge of 3%, then leave $30 in the casino. But practice shows that almost no one counts how many bets are made. Most often, players know how much money was in their pockets. And at the end, count how much is left.
In any case, the house edge is an official data that is set for each game and is easy to recognize. At Shangri La online casino, each slot and game with a live dealer has an information section where the RTP is indicated. So, if you want not just to play, but to understand all the rules and mechanics of game processes, the information is available.
