Blackjack Casino House Edge
- House Edge Casino Games
- House Money Blackjack
- Casino Edge In Blackjack
- Odds Of Winning Blackjack At Casino
- Double Deck Blackjack House Edge
- Counting Cards Blackjack Edge
- Free Bet Blackjack House Edge
I’ve heard it described many ways. Some people say it’s “A place to have fun” others say its “Disneyland for adults”. No matter what you think a casino is, keep this in mind. A casino is a business. BIG BUSINESS!! Bob Stupak, the former owner of Vegas World Casino, told US and World Report, “Its our duty to extract as much money from the customer as we can and send them home with a smile on their face.”
So, how does the casino go about extracting money from you? Do they Cheat you?
NO!
By adding the value of the casino comps to your expected return when you play blackjack, you can, at a minimum, virtually eliminate the house edge against you. It’s also possible to gain the monetary edge over the casino. By playing perfect basic strategy, your expected return is 99.5% (assuming a 0.5% casino edge). The term 'house edge' is known well to most casino gamblers.The house edge is, in other words, the advantage that a casino has over its players and is measured in percentages. For example, in a game with a house edge of 5% the casino will retain 5% of all money that is bet on that game. If $100,000 is bet on the game over the course of a night the casino will hold on to $5,000.
They don’t have to cheat because except for Blackjack and Video Poker, every Casino game has a built-in profit on every bet. This is known as the House Edge or Casino Advantage.
Every bet you make has a certain probability of winning or losing. If you bet on the flip of a coin, the probability of heads or tails is 50-50. This would be an even money bet. If you bet a dollar and was paid a dollar when you won, you would be paid TRUE ODDS. However, if the casino only paid you 95 cents every time you won instead of a dollar the House edge would be 2.5%. Simply put, The house edge is the difference between the true odds and the odds that the casino pays you when you win.
Look at this It shows the Casino’s advantage for different casino games. All are fixed except for Blackjack and Video Poker. These two games actually can have a positive payback depending on the skill of the player and the rules or payback table.
Look at the game of Roulette. You will see that the house edge is 5.26% for the double zero game. This is how we figure the edge. In the game, there are 36 numbers plus the 0 and 00. The odds of you winning is one in 38 or 37 to 1. If you win the casino pays you 35 for your dollar bet. You keep your original dollar and are paid an additional $35 returning $36. The difference is two dollars (38 minus 36). Divide the $2 by 38 which is the true odds and you come up with the house edge of 5.26%. So you could actually cover all the numbers on the layout and still lose money. These are great odds for the house but not for you. Games like Roulette, Craps, Big Six a have a fixed percentage because one roll or spin will never change the outcome. There will always be 38 numbers on a roulette layout and 12 numbers on a pair of dice.
Blackjack is in a different category because every time a card comes out of the shoe, it changes the makeup of the cards remaining. The advantage can shift from player to house depending on which cards have been played and the Skill in which you play your cards. Video Poker also is based on skill. If you play the perfect strategy, there are actually some games that have a positive return based on their pay table.
From the above chart, you can see why a casino does not have to cheat to make money. Does that mean you will lose every time? No of course not. If you did you wouldn't keep coming back. However, in the long run, the casino will win on negative expectation games.
Until Next time remember:
Luck comes and goes.....Knowledge Stays Forever.
Most players understand that the casino holds an advantage in blackjack. This advantage is known as the house advantage or house edge, and is usually under 1% in most blackjack games, provided players play using the optimal basic strategy under the rules of the game they’re playing.
What does the house edge or advantage mean? It is an expression of how much of each unit wagered that the casino can expect to win on average. In other words, if the house advantage is 1% and you make bets of $100, you can expect the casino to win $1 for every bet you make over the long run. The results of doubling down, splits, blackjacks and everything else are included in that calculation.
Obviously, no bet in blackjack would cause you to lose exactly $1 on any given $100 bet. However, if you played tens of thousands of hands, or looked at the aggregated results of thousands of customers playing at the casino, you would see that the casino was coming out ahead by about that 1% margin. This assumes of course that everyone plays perfect basic strategy. The reality is that casinos make more than that because of players that don’t know about basic strategy or prefer to gamble and bet with their gut when they are feeling lucky.
Blackjack Rules and the House Edge
Not surprisingly, different blackjack rules can have an impact on the size of the house edge. Some rules variations are beneficial to the player, while others increase the casino’s advantage.
The following is a rundown of how different rule changes can affect the house advantage. Credit to The Wizard of Odds for their excellent analysis of how rules affect the casino’s advantage. All rule changes and their effects are rated against a typical game with the following rules: a blackjack game with an eight deck shoe, where the dealer stands on all 17s, the player may double on any two cards, the player can double down after splitting, and the maximum number of hands the player may split to is four. This game would have a house edge of about 0.45%.
Remember, the lower the house edge the better. So negative values below are better for the player while positive values are better for the casino.
Promotional Rules
Many promotional rules are sometimes offered which can offer a lot of help to the player. For instance, if blackjacks pay 2-1, the house advantage is reduced by 2.27%. The following are some possible promotional rules variations that help the player, along with the amount by which they reduce the house edge:
- All blackjacks pay 2-1: -2.27%
- Triple down: -1.64%
- Five card Charlie: -1.46%
- 2-1 on suited blackjacks: -0.57%
- Six card Charlie: -0.16%
- Seven card Charlie: -0.01%
Using Fewer Decks
Most players have heard that blackjack games with fewer decks are friendly to players, but you might be surprised to find that the differences between these games are relatively small. In fact, the player will see almost no advantage unless only one or two decks are being used. Here’s how reducing the number of decks affects the house advantage:
- Six Decks: -0.02%
- Five Decks: -0.03%
- Four Decks: -0.06%
- Two Decks: -0.19%
- One Deck: -0.48%
Changing How the Dealer Plays
One of the biggest rules variations between various casino blackjack games is whether the dealer stands on all 17s, or hits on soft 17s (an Ace with another card or cards that total up to 17). The common rule of standing on all 17s is actually better for the player.
- Dealer hits on soft 17: +0.22%
Player Options
Changing the options available to the player can also have an impact on the house edge. For instance, allowing surrender, the option to hand in your cards and get half your money back before the hand is played, reduces the house edge. Allowing this before the dealer checks for blackjack is known as early surrender, while allowing it only after the dealer has checked for blackjack (and not received one) is known as late surrender. This is the effect of some common player-friendly rule variations:
- Early surrender against an Ace: -0.39%
- Late surrender against an Ace: 0%
- Early surrender against a Ten: -0.24%
- Late surrender against a Ten: -0.07%
- Hit after splitting Aces: -0.19%
- Drawing a Ten after splitting Aces counts as blackjack: -0.19%
However, in most cases, casinos are more likely to eliminate player options rather than give players a helping hand. Here are some rule changes that limit what the player can do, and their associated increases in the house advantage.
House Edge Casino Games
- Players can only split to three hands: +0.01%
- Players can only split to two hands: +0.10%
- Players may double down only on 9, 10 or 11: +0.09%
- Players may not double down after splitting: +0.14%
- Players may not split aces: +0.18%
House Money Blackjack
Blackjack Short Pays
Perhaps the worst rules variation that can be found at casinos these days is the short pay blackjack. Traditionally blackjacks will pay 3-2 on your wager, meaning our example $100 bet wins $150. However, some casinos, particularly in Las Vegas, are now dealing blackjack games that offer less than this. While it may seem like a minor change, even a small reduction in the odds paid for a blackjack can have a huge impact on the house edge, turning what looks like a good blackjack game into a poor one. You should be particularly wary of games advertising “player friendly” rules such as single deck blackjack that only pay 6-5 or worse on a blackjack. Here’s how short paying blackjacks increases the house edge:
Casino Edge In Blackjack
- Blackjack Pays 7-5: +0.45%
- Blackjack Pays 6-5: +1.39%
- Blackjack Pays 1-1: +2.27%
Casino House Advantage Infographic
Odds Of Winning Blackjack At Casino
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