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Understanding The Casino House Edge and How It Works

There is nothing more electrifying for a novice player who has entered a casino for the first time. Seeing the big smiles on the winners’ faces, trading their chips to cash out, you’d quickly be wondering what are the things that they know and you don’t, what knowledge and skills can you gain in order to make long-term profits. Here, we aim to close the gap between a beginner and a seasoned player on some of the topics everyone should know prior to placing their bets in the form of our short Mega888 guides.

Any financial advisor would tell you to get a risk analysis done before putting your hard-earned money into any investment. The same goes for advanced players who often hone their skills in a specific game after calculating the house edge to ensure their decisions have the highest chance of winning in the long run.

Now, you may be wondering what’s a house edge. We’re here to explain exactly what it is in this article.

The House Edge

Also known as the casino advantage, the house edge is a measure of the advantage that the casino (“the house”) has over its player. It is always expressed as a percentage and it is something that exists in every table game or slot in a real or online casino. In other words, it determines how much you will need to give the casino for each bet you placed. For example, a roulette wheel has 37 numbers: 18 red, 18 black and 1 green. If you place your bet on black, you are statistically likely to win 18 out of 37 spins, or 48.65% (18/37 x 100%), and you are likely to lose 19 out of 37, or 51.35% (19/37*100%). Therefore, the house edge is 51.35% deducted by 48.65%, which is 2.70%. In monetary terms, that means for every $100 you bet, the chance of losing is $2.70.

If you’re a frequent slot game player, you may have heard a similar term called Return To Player (RTP). Instead of favouring the house, RTP represents the amount of money a player can expect to win from their bets in a casino slot. If you play a Starburst slot that has an RTP of 96%, for every $1 you bet you can expect to receive $0.95 back.

It is important to know that this measure is the product of the games themselves and not decided by the casinos.  So no matter where you choose to place your bet in any type of casino game, you are bounded to the house edge.  

House Edge Comparison of Online Casino Games

Every game has its own house edge, and you can to some extent pick the games with the best house edge to increase your chances of winning.

Here are a few examples of popular casino table games and their corresponding house edge:

Game

House Edge

Baccarat

1 – 16%

Blackjack

0.8%

European Roulette

2.7 – 5.4%

Keno

20 – 40%

Slots

2 – 16%

Notice that there is a range of values for some of the games. This isn’t down to the casino, but the ‘rules’ within the game itself.  

Conclusion

This may be a lot to handle for beginners trying their first hand in a casino. The best advice anyone could give you is to stick with the games that you enjoy the most and follow your own pace. Hence, Play88 is the perfect starting point for any beginner as they are offering a generous bonus for novice players to master their games. Register today and claim an instant bonus of up to 150% for your enjoyment!