Which casino games can be beaten
New casino sites to play real money
Graham kendall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Casinos are businesses and operate by building in a margin – often referred to as the house edge. If you play roulette and bet on a single number you will be paid at odds of 35-1 when the true odds are 36-1 in europe and 37-1 in the US. The fact that you are receiving less than the true odds is the house edge and explains why casinos make money in the long term. Of course, some people have to win, otherwise casinos would cease to exist.
How to beat the casino – legally
Author
Professor of operations research and vice-provost, university of nottingham
Disclosure statement
Graham kendall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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University of nottingham provides funding as a founding partner of the conversation UK.
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If there’s one thing everybody knows about gambling it’s that the house always wins. And while it is true that casinos always make a profit, there are a number of ways to cheat the system – some of which are actually perfectly legal.
Half a century ago, mathematician edward thorp published a groundbreaking book outlining how a player could use “card counting” to get an advantage in the game blackjack by keeping track of the cards left in a deck. Ever since, casinos have been trying to eradicate card counting while card counters are getting increasingly skilled at not getting caught. So is it possible to outplay casinos today? And what will it be like in the future?
Casinos are businesses and operate by building in a margin – often referred to as the house edge. If you play roulette and bet on a single number you will be paid at odds of 35-1 when the true odds are 36-1 in europe and 37-1 in the US. The fact that you are receiving less than the true odds is the house edge and explains why casinos make money in the long term. Of course, some people have to win, otherwise casinos would cease to exist.
Advantage players
What casinos don’t like are “advantage players” – people seeking to have an edge over the house. Sometimes this involves cheating and/or illegal activities ranging from past posting (making a bet after the time when no more bets are to be taken) to collaborating at the poker table and using a computer to help make decisions.
Card counting, however, is legal. In blackjack, the aim of the player is to achieve a hand of cards whose points add up nearer to 21 than the dealer’s hand, but without exceeding 21. Many hands are played from the same deck of cards, so what happens in one hand will influence what happens in future hands. As an example, if a ten has been played from the pack then it cannot appear in the next hand. This is different from other games, such as roulette, where the outcome of one spin has no effect on the next spin.
Professor thorp and his contribution to card counting.
Card counting is based on the fact that a large proportion of high cards (such as tens, jacks, queens and kings, which are all worth ten points) left in the unplayed deck statistically improves the player’s chances. This is because a player can decide not to draw a new card to a hand such as 16, but the casino is forced to, as it follows strict rules. If there are a high proportion of high cards left in the unplayed deck of cards, the dealer has more chance of busting (going over 21). This can be combined with “basic strategy” – developed from computer simulations of millions of blackjack hands – which tells the player the best action to take for each possible card combination.
Combining card counting and basic strategy can help a player convert the (long term) house edge from 2.7%, in favour of the casino, to about a 1% advantage to the player. Of course, once you have this advantage you can increase your bet.
To give a simple example, if you were playing basic strategy and were dealt a ten and a six, and the dealer had a three showing (one of the dealers cards is visible to the player), you would stand (not take another card) as you hope that the dealer would draw a ten and bust. If you were card counting, and you knew that more low cards had been played, you might decide to increase your stake at this point.
Evolving battle
Casinos have introduced a number of measures to deter card counting. These include spotting those doing it and simply banning them from playing, or even from entering the casino. Another approach is to increase the number of decks from one to (typically) six, or even eight. Some casinos also shuffle the cards after only about 75% have been played or shuffle them constantly using automatic shufflers.
You might wonder why casinos don’t simply withdraw blackjack. Well, it remains a popular game, and one that is still profitable. There are also many would-be card counters who are not actually that good at it, and they provide income to the casinos.
Many blackjack players have fought back against such measures, arguing that casinos should allow gamblers to use skill when playing the game. As a card counter operating on their own is relatively easy to spot (intense concentration, increasing bets and so on), a team of students from MIT showed it could successfully be done in teams. The idea is that somebody else counts the cards – they may not even be sitting at the table. When the count reaches an agreed value, they signal to another player, who joins the table to start betting. This is a lot more difficult to detect but casinos may stop players joining the game until after a shuffle to combat such a strategy.
Breaking vegas: the true story of the MIT blackjack team.
Other players have used shuffle tracking, where blocks of cards are tracked so that you have some idea when they will appear. If you are given the option to cut the pack, you try and cut the pack near where you think the block of cards you are tracking is so that you can bet accordingly. A variant on this is to track aces as, if you know when one is likely to appear, you have a distinct advantage over the casino.
It’s been 50 years since thorp’s book, and it is unlikely that the war of wills between blackjack players and casinos will end any time soon. Some of our work has investigated how artificial neural networks (simple models of the human brain) could help evolve blackjack strategies. This was done by playing thousands of blackjack hands and the computer learning what to do in any given situation, getting better each time. There is a lot of scope to see if automated computer programs could learn even more sophisticated strategies.
6 games you can win at the casino
- During seminars and general interactions I am constantly being asked how to win at the casino what are the casino games that can be beaten.
- Believe it or not, the answer is that every game can be vulnerable to a skilled practitioner of advantage play.
- Here we are going to take a look at 6 games and how you can attack them in a way that will give you the best chance to acctually win at the casino. They are:
The casino games that any player can beat are:
- Blackjack
- Craps
- Roulette
- Big six wheel
- Carnival card table games
- Slots
In order to win at the casino, I am going to take the games one at a time and give a big picture overview on the governing principle that each method of advantage play adheres too for the given game.
Note: though the ideas presented here are easy to understand the execution is complex and takes several months of intense training to implement them correctly. Reading just one article won't make you a winning player. Some of the tips are also applied for online casino games.
BLACKJACK
Why will you want to play blackjack? Because this is the first and most widely publicized game you beat the casino with, and for that matter you should learn how to play it in order to understand how to win it.
Card counting was introduced by professor edward thorp in 1962 in his classic book "beat the dealer". Card counting keeps track of the low to high card ratio of cards that remain in the deck and subsequently determines the advantage the player has over the house or vice versa. It’s a reliable method but also easily detectable by casino personal.
There are additional methods that have been used by players in the past and some are still applicable in today’s gaming environment while others have become sparse in their relevance. Shuffle tracking was popular in the mid 1990s but has countered by casinos with increasingly complex shuffles. Key card sequencing was a method used to predict when an ace would come out. This opportunity has also been reduced because of complexity of shuffles.
The last opportunity in blackjack is the rarest form and is hole carding. This is the technical art of determining of what the dealers down card is. I say this is a rare because it’s only found in approximately 1 in 80 dealers. And it’s not something that card cannot be determined every hand. Further complicating things is that you are not determining exactly what the card is. Often times you only get a glance at the pips of the cards. You then have to determine a strategy that is optimal by the narrowing of the card. Is the card a 10 value or not is a popular strategy. Is the card an 8 or a 9 are a few more examples. The strategy determination often requires computer simulations.
CRAPS
Craps is another game that can be attacked for profit. But as in blackjack, it requires a substantial time investment as well as a large financial investment in a full size craps table, and for that matter you have to learn how to play craps and practice.
What the aspiring craps AP practices is floating the dice to bank the back wall, and land how you want them to. This is most often in a way that limits the number of times a combination of dice that adds up to 7. Another way is to throw a dice in a way that the spins the dice on the horizontally that takes 5 numbers out of play on one dice. The player then bets accordingly. Steve fortes video series on gambling does a great job of showing how this is done, but like blackjack it takes substantial practice to pull off.
Another way to win at the casino at craps is to have a partner at the table and you bet pass line and your confederate bets the don’t pass line. The bets will offset each other 35 out of 36 rolls (on average). The betting portion is a negative expectation game but you more than make up for the loss with comp points.
ROULETTE
A player can beat roulette in a couple of different ways. The simplest way is similar to the offsetting bets that we discussed in craps. We will lose on average 2 of 36 spins, assuming the 2 players bet opposite one another in a red and black or 1-18 and 19-36 fashion. The proposition is a losing bet but similar to the craps bet we will make up for the losses in acquired comps.
Roulette prediction is another way to beat the wheel. It is tough, and like craps, you have to make a heavy investment in a roulette wheel. There are many intricacies that the successful player is going to have to account for but when you perfect the approach and you know what the roulette odds are, it is a very profitable game. The how to method is way beyond the scope of this article, but the best methodology found in the two book series by laurence scott.
BIG SIX WHEEL
The big six wheel is the large wheel where a pretty girl usually stands there and spins the wheel. The player hopes that the wheel of fortune like wheel lands on their bet to get the payout. To beat this game the player times the average spin of the wheel and then bets whatever of the two 40 to 1 long shots that the wheel is expected to stop closest too.
CARNIVAL CARD GAMES
To gain an advantage in these games you have to apply hole carding techniques. And similar to blackjack hole carding these are rare opportunities. And again like blackjack you have to develop a particular strategy. The best resource for finding determining the strategies is james grosjean’s book beyond counting exhibit CAA.
SLOT MACHINES
So, how can you win at slots? These are called the one arm bandits for a reason. It is because in almost all cases they take your money without apology. These games are high variance games, this means that 99% of the people lose and only 1% of the players will win money. But there are a couple ways to play that gives the player an advantage over the casino, and also this great article about slot tips.
The first is to play slots on triple point days. This is where the casino gives the player 3X the points that they would normally give. This will triples the comp value the player would earn.
The second method is to play with the casinos money. Every so often a casino will send a player $20, $50 or even $100 dollars in free play. The player then uses this money to play with and any money won during these free spins the player keeps.
To maximize the chance to win a player can log on to the gaming regulatory boards website of the jurisdiction and see what denomination slot machine has the loosest hold percentage, and play that machine.
SUMMARY
It is not an easy task to get the level where a player can be proficient enough to risk real dollars in order to win at the casino, but when the aspiring player puts forth the effort the rewards can be substantial. These broad brush strokes are meant to be a starting point for the aspiring player. A lot of hard work lies ahead. But be patient and work on your game and before you know it you will be there.
Finding beatable games in casino
Not easy, but they are there
By henry tamburin
It amazes me that most casino players believe their fate in the casino rests solely on luck. Their mantra goes something like this: the casino has the advantage and we are going to lose, but let’s just have fun playing.
Their gloom-and-doom attitude might be fitting for most casino games, but not all of them. The fact-of-the-matter is that there are beatable games in a casino and you ought to know which ones they are.
Video poker
this is a relatively easy game to beat but you must have sufficient funds to weather the roller coaster ride your bankroll will take in the short run. To win at video poker you must know the pay schedules for full pay machines, find out where they are located, learn the correct playing strategies for them, and take advantage of the casino’s cashback and comps.
“whoa now, that all sounds complicated,” you might be thinking. Then let me introduce you to pete, my 87-year old father-in-law. You might remember him because I’ve written about his exploits in video poker in previous columns. Since pete learned video poker two years ago, his bankroll has doubled. Think his winning is a fluke? This past week he hit two royal flushes in vegas in three days (I was there for both) and he left town a winner. If he can win at video poker, so can you. Here’s a list of resources to help.
Pay schedules: for a complete listing of pay schedules and their expected value (how much the machines return in the long run) go to http://videopoker.Fws1.Com/index.Html.
Location of full pay machines: you’ll find which casinos have them at: http://groups.Yahoo.Com/group/vpfree/ and also at www.Vpinsider.Com.
Strategy cards: you can purchase inexpensive video poker strategy cards from experts dancer/daily, skip hughes, or dan paymar. If you have them handy when you play you’ll never make a playing mistake.
Blackjack
just about everyone knows blackjack can be beaten with card counting. But most recreational players find traditional card counting too laborious and difficult to master. But that all changed in 2003 when dan pronovost discovered speed count, a new and easy technique that average players can learn in 10 minutes and after a few days of practice have the skills to beat the casino. You can read about speed count in frank scoblete’s new book, golden touch blackjack revolution!.
pick up the dice and fling them down the table and you don’t stand a prayer to beat the casino no matter what betting or playing system you use. The reason is that the outcome of your throw is completely random. However, if you learn to influence the results of your throw ever so slightly, then you can beat the casino at craps. “hogwash,” you say, “because the dice have to hit the back wall.”
If you still believe dice control is a fantasy, you need to read frank scoblete’s and dominator’s book, golden touch dice control revolution!. The book tells you in words and pictures (95 of them) how dice control works and how to learn it. Is it easy to master? No, because you are learning a physical skill which requires lots of practice. But if you have the discipline you will be rewarded because good dice controllers often have a greater edge over the casino than good blackjack card counters.
Still skeptical about dice control? So was I until I started playing with some of the best dice controllers around. And guess what? They consistently won and so did I by only betting when they threw the dice. They made me a believer. I’ve since attended a golden touch dice control class and now I hold the all-time student record in their no-sevens contest with my new dice control skill (I rolled 45 consecutive times without a 7 showing… read about my feat on www.Goldentouchcraps.Com). If I can do it, so can you.
you can get a tiny edge in this game and it’s not all that difficult to do so. The trick is to be the banker as much as possible and when you have to be a player, bet as small as possible (i.E., bank big, play small). But you’ll need a sizeable bankroll to cover player’s bet when you are the banker. The playing and betting strategies you need to beat pai gow poker are readily available in stanford wong’s book, optimal strategies for pai gow poker and on the pai gow poker page at www.Wizardofodds.Com.
Roulette
you can beat roulette but it’s not easy and it’s not cheap. Betting systems don’t work but what does work are roulette prediction techniques. The expert on all this is laurance scott, author of the book, professional roulette prediction (vol. 2). His book costs $499 and that includes a great roulette analyzer software. Get all the details on the roulette page at www.Advantageplayer.Com.
What about playing the slots or let it ride or three card poker or any number of other table games? Do you have any chance to beat the casino? I’m sorry to say NO. But here are some tips on other ways that you get the edge when you play.
1. Play in tournaments. You are not playing against the house but against your fellow players. If the host casino returns all the entry fees in prizes and throws in a free or discounted room, free meals and a free gift, you are ahead of the game from the get-go.
2. Use gambling coupons when you play. You’ll have the edge every time you use them.
3. Play poker, or bet on sport games or the ponies. It’s possible to win more than you lose in all three, but it’s not easy and you are going to have to do a lot of studying to get good at it.
4. Play basic strategy in blackjack and get rated for comps. Often the latter is enough to give you an overall monetary edge.
5. Play video poker games that return just under 100 percent (like 9/6 jacks-or-better or NSU deuces wild) then take advantage of the players club promotions so that your return from cashback, bounceback, and comps added to the return on the game will give you an overall positive expectation.
So you see there is more than luck to winning. My friend and poker author bill burton says it best: luck comes and goes … knowledge stays forever.
Casino games that can be beaten
Most players view winning at casino games as pure luck. Casinos hold an obvious advantage when it comes to profit, and if you manage to win, it’s like a godsend, right? Well, while the house edge is a real factor to consider, the concept of “pure luck” may come as a result of applying some skill to gain an advantage over the casino.
The house edge in any casino game is the amount of built-in advantage the casino has over you, and it is always expressed as a percentage. The house edge is also affected by various factors such as the type of bets placed, the style of the game, the application of additional skill-related factors such as betting strategies, card counting systems, and so on.
Slots are often seen as the best game to play at online casinos based on how easy they are to get into. There is another myth floating around the internet that online slots are also the easiest games to beat and have the lowest house edge of any online casino game.
However, this is grossly inaccurate and misleading. The house edge in slots can vary by as much as 10%, depending on various built-in features such the number of reels and paylines, game volatility, minimum and maximum bet amount, requirements to hit a winning line, and other factors, too. Since slots require zero skill and are completely random, there really is no way to mitigate potential losses per spin; you either win or lose.
On the other hand, table games like roulette and blackjack (which are also based on random results) allow players to apply certain skills such as card counting or betting strategies to the game. Other in-game factors, such as the number of decks in play (blackjack) or betting options (inside/outside bets in roulette), can significantly affect the house edge in every round of betting, allowing you to control, at least to a certain extent, the house edge advantage against you.
With that said, there are many games well worth studying for a better chance at beating the casino’s house edge. Each game works differently and requires a unique set of rules. This won’t guarantee that you win all of the time, but it does provide an overall advantage.
Let’s take a look at some of them.
Roulette
Choosing your roulette game is a good place to start, as each version comes with its own specific house edge percentage.
European roulette is arguably the most common type of roulette found at online casinos and is the version most of us are already familiar with. European roulette is derived from the original french roulette and is essentially a trimmed-down version of it.
This includes the removal of certain traditional betting options such as la partage and en prison, which helps to push the house edge percentage up a bit to 2.70%. American roulette takes roulette a bit further along with the addition of another space of the wheel.
While the standard contains 37 spaces (36 numbers and a zero position), the american version adds an additional zero position, called the double zero, which effectively pushes the house edge up to 5.23%. Only madmen or those unaware of the odds play this version of roulette.
Of course, the original french version of roulette is the most desirable in terms of house edge advantage, with the aforementioned traditional betting options softening the house edge to a degree.
Some players hold to the notion that a betting strategy will allow you to at least take some of the house edge out of the game, while others argue that you either have a winning hand or a lucky spin or you don’t.
However, depending on the betting strategy in question, some players do find that betting strategies can help them organize their gameplay and help control their bankroll, betting patterns, and other essential tasks.
One of the most famous (or notorious, depending on your point of view) betting strategies is the martingale betting system. This is a popular strategy used by beginners and casual roulette players. However, it is important to keep in mind that these sorts of betting strategies only really work on outside or even-money bets.
How to beat roulette?
Land-based roulette isn’t the most recommended game to use strategies with, as betting limits tend to be much tighter. A typical low-bet roulette game offers low limits, while high-limit tables require much bigger starting bets. Live dealer online roulette provides the benefit of seeing the dealer, along with table limits that suit everyone’s needs at a single table. It is also accessible 24 hours a day.
Outside bets are known for providing an edge in the game when applying a strategy, especially with french roulette variations. However, instead of simply doubling a losing bet, aim to increase your bet by a chip in different stages as you progress.
After losing a bet with 1 chip, double it to 2 chips. If you lose again, double it 4 chips and add 1 for a total bet of 5 chips. This way, your winning chances increases parallel to that of the risks involved.
This strategy works best with online and live dealer roulette games, as they provide higher table limits with low starting bet values. Therefore, these will allow more room to apply strategies such as the martingale. Also, ensure your account balance has the sufficient amount to accommodate at least 10 losing hands, as well as room to increase your bets while progressing through the game.
Blackjack
Blackjack is a great game to play if you love the idea of applying betting strategies and systems to your game. Aside from a certain amount of skill (which can be enhanced through practice), applying strategies such as card counting or a basic blackjack strategy not only enhances your odds of beating the house, but they can also add a lot of interest to your overall game.
As with roulette, there are many strategy options, but to get the best out of the game, you’ll need to combine a system with a blackjack chart. These charts provide valuable mathematical information regarding the best move based on the dealer’s face-up card and your hand total. It also removes the biggest downfall of blackjack, which is making the wrong move.
In combination with a chart, it’s worth adding a progressive betting system, as it’s impossible to win each hand, even with charts. However, since charts tell you what the best move is, the progressive betting system will ensure you still gain a profit from losing hands.
So how do you beat blackjack?
Since blackjack charts play an important role, it’s best to play blackjack in an online environment so you can refer to it at any time while playing. Choose a table that has low starting bets and high table limits (live dealer blackjack is a good choice). The live dealer game at online casinos is accessible at any time, allowing you to enjoy its HD video stream and fairness 24 hours a day.
Start small and refer to the chart’s recommendation before making any moves. If your hand results in a loss, double your bet and once again use the chart for the best results. Double up on each losing hand until you win a round, which provides a profit equal to the first betting value and includes all the bets you’ve lost up to that point. Once you win, return to the initial betting value and again apply the same strategy.
Slots
There’s a lot that comes into play with slots. Thinking about winning big usually brings up the idea of winning a progressive jackpot. However, progressive jackpot games tend to have the lowest payout percentages in both land-based and online casinos. You might have the opportunity to win big, but the rest of the time, you’ll end up losing more.
Again, when one considers the house edge, slots are much harder to pin down due to factors mentioned a little earlier in this article. However, setting aside the house edge and concentrating more on the RTP, or return to player percentages, can give you a better indication as to which slots to play and which to avoid.
It obviously makes more sense to look at the RTP percentages before putting your money into a slot and only go for the games with a higher RTP. This should then at least help mitigate the effects of rngs and fluctuating house edge percentages to a degree.
Every online casino slot will provide you with all the information that you need pertaining to that specific game. Simply click on the game, find the information icon for that game, and open the info page. You should be able to see the game’s RTP info, along with average payout percentages, jackpot info, and so on. Reading reviews on slots will also give you more information regarding that slot’s variance or volatility, aka, how often you can expect that machine to pay out.
Can slots be beaten?
Unlike casino table games like roulette, blackjack, baccarat, and craps, slots really are down to the luck of each spin. Of course, there are a few basic things you can do to improve your chances of winning more often. These can include applying a basic bankroll management strategy, which can assist you to reduce the house edge percentage curve over a longer session. You can also pay attention to slots’ volatility stats, which are a good indicator of what sort of slot machine you are dealing with. RTP percentages can assist you in selecting the right sort of slot for your specific gaming objectives.
Picking slots based on volatility and RTP percentages is a great way to find the games that will satisfy your needs quickly and efficiently.
If you are the type of slots player that enjoys a nice steady win over the long game, picking slots with a high RTP and a medium or low volatility equates to more frequent payouts but in much smaller amounts per win. However, picking slots with higher volatility characteristics means much higher payouts, but less often.
Bankroll management strategies will allow you to control your game more accurately over longer sessions and help reduce the effects of the built-in house edge. For instance, setting a stop limit per session is a great way to avoid losses over a series of negative spins. Your stop limit will kick in by not allowing you to dip below your threshold, avoiding any potentially devastating losses which are always possible in a game where results over a series of even just 5 spins can vary drastically.
Final thoughts
Regardless of the type of casino game you play, you will always be going up against certain built-in factors such as the house edge, random results, and in-game features that do not count in your favor. This is the nature of the beast and is something that has been associated with gambling since time immemorial. However, while you may not actually be able to “beat” casino games, you can implement some of the strategies and systems that we touched upon in this article to help you enjoy more long-term profitability and a more stress-free gambling experience as a whole.
10 tips to beat the odds at the casino
Bill zender is the ultimate gambling insider. The former professional card counter, dealer, and casino floor manager shares his secrets—and explains why the best paying machine is always the ATM.
1. Identify the clumsiest dealers.
Zender estimates there are fewer than 100 professional blackjack card counters in the world. If you happen to be one of them, you might nab a 1.5 percent advantage. So save your energy, zender advises; instead keep an eye out for the sloppy blackjack dealer who will accidentally flash the face-down card. Zender once made a living exploiting this, keeping a notebook of 35 weak dealers from 16 different casinos. The strategy is called “card holing,” and it can give you a 6 to 9 percent edge over the house. (that’s like standing in front of an ATM that spits out twenties!) the best part? “it’s totally legal,” zender says. “they may throw me out of the casino, but they’re not going to arrest me.”
2. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Lately, casinos have sexed up their table games with bikini-clad dealers and resident pole dancers. These places are called party pits, and on the surface, they look like vegas being vegas—booze, sin, skin. But look closer. While all those twirling legs keep you distracted, you’ll probably fail to notice that the casino trimmed the payouts at these tables from 3/2 to 6/5. Meaning that a $100 bet wins only $120, compared to the traditional $150. This essentially doubles the house’s edge.
3. Know when to say when.
The house always enjoys a 5 percent edge at roulette. You have a decent chance of winning that first spin. And the second. And the third. But if you were to play roulette forever, the house would take away all your chips. Every casino has calculated the point at which they are guaranteed victory, and that magic number is 30,000 hands. (this is why they lure us back with lobster and luxury suites.) so if you’re winning, stop.
4. Exploit the laws of nature.
The roulette wheel is a mechanical instrument. Over time, the wheel may become unbalanced or the frets separating the numbers may suffer wear and tear. The more a wheel is used, the more worn down it gets—and the more it may privilege certain numbers. In 1873, joseph jagger found a wonky wheel at monte carlo and bet on the biased numbers. He came away with $400,000—that’s $7.8 million in today’s dough!
5. Go big or go broke.
“the average slot machine is probably two, three times more costly to players than the table games,” says zender. Avoid them. If you insist on cranking a handle, focus on slots that cost $5 or more and play the max bet. On penny slots, the odds are jacked up in the house’s favor by 15 to 20 percent. You might as well toss those coins in a fountain. Don’t forget to make a wish.
6. Don’t play keno.
Really, just don’t. Your chances are terrible. At some casinos, the house has a 35 percent edge. No gambler has ever matched all 20 numbers on a 20-spot ticket. The odds of it ever happening are 1 in 3,535,316,142,212,174,336. (that’s 3.5 quintillion!)
7. Practice makes perfect.
If there’s an exception to the adage that the house always wins, it’s in video poker. Typically, the house has only a 0.46 percent advantage (while some versions lean in the gambler’s favor). The pay table is posted right on the machine, and the payoff is high. The catch? To cash out, you need to play at an expert level. Casinos make profits on video poker because most players simply aren’t skilled enough. So study up.
8. Stay away from the light.
“ninety percent of the people who walk into a casino have no idea of the odds stacked against them,” zender says. But if you know what you’re looking for, it’s easy to see where the odds are the worst. Casinos make the games with the lousiest odds the most attractive by amping them up with flashing lights and bright colors. At craps, for instance, the craziest bets—“the field,” “any 7”—are the most colorful. So as a general rule, to better your odds, stick to the drab side of the room.
9. Invest in a nice watch.
There’s a reason you probably won’t see any clocks or windows on the house floor. Casinos want you to lose track of time so you play for as long as possible. Some casinos prohibit dealers from wearing watches for that reason. Once you’re up a bit, it might be a good time to leave the floor and go treat yourself to a new timepiece.
10. Buy your own drinks.
The truth is, nothing is free—and that includes the free booze. Each casino has something they call a “player reinvestment” fund. It predicts the amount of money you’ll lose and then returns a cut of that in the form of comps, which, to the casual floor visitor, means watery well cocktails. The worse your odds, the better your chances of landing a free drink. Cheers!
This story originally appeared in an issue of mental_floss magazine.
DON’T THINK YOU CAN BEAT THE HOUSE EDGE IN CRAPS
For some reason, there’s no shortage of gamblers in complete denial about the cold, hard math that circumscribes anything that happens in the casino. They put their faith in ‘luck’, in ‘urban legends’ like using cold coins in slot machines (assuming you can find one that still uses actual coins) and crackpot systems claiming to turn a game with a significant house edge into their personal ATM machine. The really sad thing about this type of gambler isn’t just that they believe this nonsense–the sad part is that they show no interest in learning the truth.
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THE COLD HARD REALITY OF GAMBLING MATH
I’ve spent a good portion of my adult life trying to grind out a living in las vegas at the few casino games that *can* be beat in the longterm. Sports betting, horse racing, video poker, blackjack and poker can–in some form or another–become ‘positive EV’. It’s hard work involving long hours of research and crunching numbers to give yourself a fractional advantage over the casino. Professional gamblers don’t use ‘systems’ and don’t believe in ‘luck’. They believe in math and probability. Unfortunately, when you do make an effort to teach someone the ‘math of gambling’ there’s a good chance they’ll look at you like you just insulted their mother.
With the exception of the games listed above you simply cannot beat casino games in the long term. This is especially true with craps but no different for slot machines or the roulette wheel. There’s not a strategy or system that can overcome the house edge. You can play in such a way as to minimize the house edge and try to ‘grind out a profit’ but there’s not any way possible to put the odds in your favor at the craps table.
THE HOUSE EDGE EXPLAINED
Here’s why the house edge is so powerful and why it’s impossible to overcome at most casino games. The casino pays out at less than ‘true odds’ in most games and for most bets. The best way to explain this is to imagine that there’s a casino that offers betting on coin flips. In fact, you can bet on coin flips for NFL games at some sportsbooks so there’s some basis in reality. It’s commonly accepted that the ‘true odds’ of a coin flip are 50% heads and 50% tails. That’s why they flip a coin at the start of football games in the first place. We can express this 50% probability in different forms such as:
50% probability = 1/1 fractional odds = 2.00 decimal odds = +100 moneyline odds
In other words, to reflect the true odds of a coin flip a betting establishment would have to post the following line:
HEADS +100
TAILS +100
There’s one problem with that–the casino can’t turn a profit in the long term that way. So let’s say the casino in question posts the following lines:
HEADS -120
TAILS -120
At -120 the implied probability is 54.55% for a 50/50 proposition. In other words, you have to hit 54.55% in order to break even. But in the long term by definition (it’s a coin flip after all) you’ll hit 50%. In this case you’re being ‘charged’ more for the bet than the bet is worth. It’s just like being charged $5.00 for a coke at the airport.
OTHER APPLICATIONS OF HOUSE EDGE
In the previous example you paid a ‘premium’ to place a bet. The other application of the house edge is how it works in craps. In this case, the casino pays winning bets at less than true odds. For example–let’s say that the ‘true odds’ of a particular outcome occurring is 5-1. The casino might pay off that bet at 4-1 or less. The recreational player and/or the mathematically ignorant won’t notice a difference. He’ll be pleased that he won a 4-1 bet. The problem is that he *should* have been paid at 5-1 assuming ‘true odds’. In the long run, he can’t win and the casino can’t lose.
Here’s a few examples from the craps table–the ‘any craps’ bet pays 7-1 at most casinos. The ‘true odds’ of ‘any craps’ are 8-1. The ‘any 7’ bet pays off at 4-1 when the true odds are 5-1. The ‘hard 8’ pays off at 9-1 when the ‘true odds’ are 10-1. If your response to this is ‘so what?’ you’ll be very popular at the casino. The house edge on these bets are 11.1%, 16.9%, and 9.09% respectively. As was the case in the previous example over the long term you can’t win and the casino can’t lose.
G aming G uru
How to beat the casinos at their own game
It amazes me that most casino players believe their fate in the casino rests solely on luck. Their mantra goes something like this: the casino has the advantage and we are going to lose, so let's just have fun playing.
Their gloom-and-doom attitude might be fitting for most casino games, but not all of them. The fact of the matter is that there are beatable games in a casino and you ought to know which ones they are.
Video poker
This is a relatively easy game to beat, but you must have sufficient funds to weather the roller coaster ride your bankroll will take in the short run. To win at video poker you must know the pay schedules for full-pay machines, find out where they are located, learn the correct playing strategies for them and take advantage of the casino's cashback and comps.
Whoa now, that all sounds complicated, you might be thinking. In fact, my late father-in-law pete, at age 87, said the same thing. But he learned how to become an advantage player and quadrupled his playing bankroll (winnings plus cashback) in just four years. If he can win at video poker, so can you. Here's a list of resources to help.
Pay schedules: for a complete listing of pay schedules and their expected value (how much the machines return in the long run) go to www.Vpfree2.Com. You'll also find which casinos offer the higher paying video poker machines on this site.
Training software: you can't go wrong with either video poker for winners or frugal video poker. This is the software my father-in-law used to learn the playing strategies in a relatively short period of time.
Strategy cards: you can purchase inexpensive video poker strategy cards and bring them with you when you play. If you have them handy you'll never make a playing mistake. (go to my web store at smartgaming.Com for information on these strategy cards.)
Just about everyone knows blackjack can be beaten with card counting. But most recreational players find traditional card counting too laborious and difficult to master. But that all changed when dan pronovost discovered speed count, a new and easy technique that average players can learn in less than an hour and after a few days of practice have the skills to beat the casino. You can read about speed count in frank scoblete's new book, best blackjack now.
Pick up the dice and fling them down the table and you don't stand a prayer to beat the casino no matter what betting or playing system you use. The reason is that the outcome of your throw is completely random. However, if you learn to influence the results of your throw ever so slightly, then you can beat the casino at craps.
"hogwash," you say, "because the dice have to hit the back wall."
If you still believe dice control is a fantasy, you need to read frank scoblete's and dominator's new book, casino craps: shoot to win. The book tells you in words and pictures how dice control works and how to learn it. Is it easy to master? No, because you are learning a physical skill that requires lots of practice. But if you have the discipline you will be rewarded because good dice controllers often have a greater edge over the casino than good blackjack card counters.
Still skeptical about dice control? Read more about it on www.Goldentouchcraps.Com and how I managed to beat the all-time student record in their no-sevens contest with my new dice control skill. I rolled 45 consecutive times without a 7 showing. If I can do it, so can you.
Pai gow poker
You can get a tiny edge in this game and it's not all that difficult to do. The trick is to be the banker as often as possible and when you have to be a player, bet as small as possible (i.E., bank big, play small). But you'll need a sizeable bankroll to cover players' bets when you are the banker. The playing and betting strategies you need to beat pai gow poker are readily available in stanford wong's book, optimal strategies for pai gow poker and on the pai gow poker page at wizardofodds.Com.
You can beat roulette but it's not easy and it's not cheap. Betting systems don't work, but what does work are roulette prediction techniques. The expert on all this is laurance scott, author of the book, professional roulette prediction (vol. 2). His book costs $499 and that includes great roulette analyzer software. Get all the details on the roulette page at www.Advantageplayer.Com.
What about playing the slots or let it ride or three card poker or any number of other table games? Do you have any chance to beat the casino? I'm sorry to say NO. But here are some tips on other ways that you get the edge when you play.
- Play in tournaments. You are not playing against the house but against your fellow players. If the host casino returns all the entry fees in prizes and throws in a free or discounted room, free meals and a free gift, you are ahead of the game from the get go.
- Use gambling coupons when you play. You'll have the edge every time you use them.
- Play poker, or bet on sport games or the ponies. It's possible to win more than you lose in all three, but it's not easy and you are going to have to do a lot of studying to get good at it.
- Play basic strategy in blackjack and get rated for comps. Often the latter is enough to give you an overall monetary edge.
- Play video poker games that return just under 100 percent (like 9/6 jacks-or-better or NSU deuces wild) then take advantage of the players club promotions so that your return from cashback, bounceback and comps added to the return on the game will give you an overall positive expectation.
So, you see there is more than luck to winning. My friend and poker author bill burton says it best: luck comes and goes … knowledge stays forever.
Casino games that can be beat: review
Casinos make a lot of money, there is no denying that, and they do so by making sure that all of the games they offer are weighted in their favor. But, there are games that can give the player the edge when played right, and this is why many people make a living from gambling at casinos.
Although there are those that will tell you otherwise, there are games at the casino that simply can’t be beaten. These are the games of chance, the ones that rely entirely on luck, and the ones where your odds of winning are always significantly higher than your odds of losing. These include games such as slot machines and roulette. There are those that will tell you there are ways to beat roulette and even slot machines, but unless you can manipulate the mechanics of the game, and thereby break the law, then it is impossible.
When it comes to games that can be beaten, poker is at the top of the list. This isn’t played against the casino as such (in the case of video poker, which is played against the casino, it is still heavily weighted in the casino’s favor) and is played against other players, with the casino taking a cut. Simply put, poker requires skill, knowledge, and a lot of patience and psychology. If done right, this is a career that can earn millions. There is a little luck involved, but you can negate most bad luck with solid play, and when you play in prolonged cash games or extended tournaments, moments of luck (whether good or bad) even out in the long run.
One game that is played against the casino and can also be beaten, is blackjack. By using what is known as “basic blackjack strategy” players can negate the small house edge that the casino has over them. This is simple to learn and relies on the statistical probability of each outcome, meaning that the player effectively plays for the most likely outcome. There is still a very slight house edge even with basic strategy, but the way to flip the tables completely on the casino is to count cards.
Contrary to popular belief, this does not require rain-main levels of thought, and can be undertaken by anyone with a basic memory and the ability to add and subtract small digits. Also contrary to belief, card counting is not illegal and although it might get you “removed” from tables in las vegas, reno and elsewhere, you will not be breaking the law, and in atlantic city the casinos are not even allowed to ask you to leave the premises if they suspect you of counting cards.
If you want to learn a few simple methods that will push the odds in your favor, then blackjack is the way to go. If you want to spend a little longer learning the ins and outs of a very complex game, but one that can lead to a great fortune, then poker is probably a better fit for you. Whatever you choose though, bear in mind that as high and mighty as the casinos are, they can be beaten.
Alternatively, our personal favorite is royal vegas casino. The online casino offers a multitude of games that are easy to be beat and are fair and square with their deposits, withdraws. Players can also obtain real money and expect high-quality, safe playing standards.
Best canadian friendly brand w/ easy deposits
10 tips to beat the odds at the casino
Bill zender is the ultimate gambling insider. The former professional card counter, dealer, and casino floor manager shares his secrets—and explains why the best paying machine is always the ATM.
1. Identify the clumsiest dealers.
Zender estimates there are fewer than 100 professional blackjack card counters in the world. If you happen to be one of them, you might nab a 1.5 percent advantage. So save your energy, zender advises; instead keep an eye out for the sloppy blackjack dealer who will accidentally flash the face-down card. Zender once made a living exploiting this, keeping a notebook of 35 weak dealers from 16 different casinos. The strategy is called “card holing,” and it can give you a 6 to 9 percent edge over the house. (that’s like standing in front of an ATM that spits out twenties!) the best part? “it’s totally legal,” zender says. “they may throw me out of the casino, but they’re not going to arrest me.”
2. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Lately, casinos have sexed up their table games with bikini-clad dealers and resident pole dancers. These places are called party pits, and on the surface, they look like vegas being vegas—booze, sin, skin. But look closer. While all those twirling legs keep you distracted, you’ll probably fail to notice that the casino trimmed the payouts at these tables from 3/2 to 6/5. Meaning that a $100 bet wins only $120, compared to the traditional $150. This essentially doubles the house’s edge.
3. Know when to say when.
The house always enjoys a 5 percent edge at roulette. You have a decent chance of winning that first spin. And the second. And the third. But if you were to play roulette forever, the house would take away all your chips. Every casino has calculated the point at which they are guaranteed victory, and that magic number is 30,000 hands. (this is why they lure us back with lobster and luxury suites.) so if you’re winning, stop.
4. Exploit the laws of nature.
The roulette wheel is a mechanical instrument. Over time, the wheel may become unbalanced or the frets separating the numbers may suffer wear and tear. The more a wheel is used, the more worn down it gets—and the more it may privilege certain numbers. In 1873, joseph jagger found a wonky wheel at monte carlo and bet on the biased numbers. He came away with $400,000—that’s $7.8 million in today’s dough!
5. Go big or go broke.
“the average slot machine is probably two, three times more costly to players than the table games,” says zender. Avoid them. If you insist on cranking a handle, focus on slots that cost $5 or more and play the max bet. On penny slots, the odds are jacked up in the house’s favor by 15 to 20 percent. You might as well toss those coins in a fountain. Don’t forget to make a wish.
6. Don’t play keno.
Really, just don’t. Your chances are terrible. At some casinos, the house has a 35 percent edge. No gambler has ever matched all 20 numbers on a 20-spot ticket. The odds of it ever happening are 1 in 3,535,316,142,212,174,336. (that’s 3.5 quintillion!)
7. Practice makes perfect.
If there’s an exception to the adage that the house always wins, it’s in video poker. Typically, the house has only a 0.46 percent advantage (while some versions lean in the gambler’s favor). The pay table is posted right on the machine, and the payoff is high. The catch? To cash out, you need to play at an expert level. Casinos make profits on video poker because most players simply aren’t skilled enough. So study up.
8. Stay away from the light.
“ninety percent of the people who walk into a casino have no idea of the odds stacked against them,” zender says. But if you know what you’re looking for, it’s easy to see where the odds are the worst. Casinos make the games with the lousiest odds the most attractive by amping them up with flashing lights and bright colors. At craps, for instance, the craziest bets—“the field,” “any 7”—are the most colorful. So as a general rule, to better your odds, stick to the drab side of the room.
9. Invest in a nice watch.
There’s a reason you probably won’t see any clocks or windows on the house floor. Casinos want you to lose track of time so you play for as long as possible. Some casinos prohibit dealers from wearing watches for that reason. Once you’re up a bit, it might be a good time to leave the floor and go treat yourself to a new timepiece.
10. Buy your own drinks.
The truth is, nothing is free—and that includes the free booze. Each casino has something they call a “player reinvestment” fund. It predicts the amount of money you’ll lose and then returns a cut of that in the form of comps, which, to the casual floor visitor, means watery well cocktails. The worse your odds, the better your chances of landing a free drink. Cheers!
This story originally appeared in an issue of mental_floss magazine.
Why you can’t beat these casino games in the long run
I recently wrote a couple of blog posts about how to become a professional gambler. In those 2 posts, I listed several gambling activities where you could get a theoretical long-term mathematical edge. That’s what you’d need to be able to play those games for a living.
Those activities include blackjack, horse betting, poker, progressive slots, sports betting, and video poker. (and progressive slots are debatable—a serious professional gambler would probably avoid most of those games because of the high chance of never hitting the progressive at all.)
Most casino games, though, are completely impossible to beat in the long run. This post explains why in general in the section about probability and the house edge. I look at specific games and why they have an edge in separate sections devoted to each game.
To understand how the casino makes money, you need at least a rudimentary understanding of probability. Luckily, probability is pretty easy to understand. It’s just a mathematical way of expressing how likely an event is to occur.
The probability of something is just a number between 0 and 1. Something that’s impossible has a probability of 0. Something that’s a sure thing has a probability of 1. Anything else has a probability of between 0 and 1.
This number can be expressed as a fraction, as odds, a decimal, or as a percentage. To calculate the probability of something, divide the number of successful outcomes by the number of total possible outcomes. It’s that simple.
Let’s take another example—you’re rolling a 6-sided die and want to know the probability of rolling a 1. There are 6 possible outcomes, and only 1 of them constitutes a success. That’s a probability of 1/6, or 16.67%, or 0.167, or 5 to 1.
The house edge comes in when you compare the payoff for a winning bet to the probability of winning. Many casino game bets, like a bet on red or black in roulette, are even-money propositions. This means the payoff odds are 1 to 1. You risk a unit, and if you win, you win a single unit.
If the probability of winning were 50%, you’d have a theoretically break even game in the long run. You wouldn’t win, and neither would the casino.
But the probability of winning that bet on an american roulette wheel is only 47.37%, which means you’ll win a single unit 47.37% of the time, and the casino will win a single unit 52.63% of the time. The difference between the 2 is the house edge: 52.63% – 47.37% = 5.26%
Other games have different payoffs, but those payoffs are always lower than the odds of winning. For example, in craps, if you bet that the next roll of the dice will result in a 7, you have a 5 to 1 probability of winning. But that bet only pays off at 4 to 1 odds.
Of course, in the short run, you’ll rarely see results that mirror your long-term expectation. But in the long run, your results will get closer to the expectation. This is called the law of large numbers.
Now let’s look at betting systems, then I’ll follow that up with a discussion of some specific casino games.
Lots of people think you can beat a game with a house edge by using betting systems. In this context, a betting system is just a way of raising and lowering your bets based on what happened on the previous bet or bets. Depending on the system, you might raise the size of your bets when you’re winning. Or you might raise the size of your bets when you’re losing. It depends on the system.
Either way, it doesn’t matter. Every bet you place on a casino game is a separate event, independent of the previous bet. If the individual bet has you at a mathematical disadvantage, the sum of all those bets will also have a mathematical disadvantage. Think of it as adding up a series of negative numbers. No matter how you do it, if those numbers are all negative, the sum of those numbers will also be negative.
Here’s an example: you’re using a betting system where you raise the size of your bets when you’re losing. Your goal is to recover your losses from the previous bets. (the martingale system is a good example of this kind of system.)
The problem is that no matter what kind of casino game you’re playing, you’re eventually going to hit a big losing streak. That’s the nature of random chance. The longer you play, the likelier it is that you’ll hit that losing streak, too. When you do, it will wipe out any small winnings you gained from your betting system.
But no matter what anyone says, no one is winning at any of these negative expectation games using a betting system. There are no professional baccarat players, no professional craps players, and no professional roulette players.
You might find some people who claim to be able to affect the odds of a craps roll with controlled throwing, but I’m skeptical of that. And sure, you might be able to find a biased roulette wheel, but that’s unlikely and impractical. Neither of those techniques uses a betting system, either.
You should still understand how such negative expectation games work, though. For one thing, you might want to play them recreationally. If so, you should learn to minimize your losses. Also, sometimes casinos put together promotions where they give the player the best of it. You can’t recognize such opportunities unless you understand the math behind the games to begin with.
You can find some good bets at the craps table, as long as you define “good” as meaning bets with a house edge lower than average. If you define “good” as meaning you have an edge over the house, you won’t find any bets at the craps table that qualify.
You can also find a whole lot of bad bets at the craps table. These are bets where the house edge is so much higher than average that it’s scary. No matter which category of bet you choose at the craps table, you’ll eventually lose all your money if you keep playing.
A mathematical edge of 13.89% is way higher than you’ll see at most casino games, or, in fact, most bets at the craps table. If you’re the kind of person who makes a bet when the house edge is that high, you’re probably never going to be a professional gambler.
What about an actual hardway bet? A hardway bet is one in which you get an even total by rolling doubles. For example, you can bet on “10 the hard way” or on a “hard 10.” this is a bet that a roll will come up with a 5 on each die, for a total of 10.
This is a multi-roll bet. It stays in action until you either win, or until the shooter rolls a 7, or until the shooter rolls a 10 the easy way–in either of the latter 2 cases, you lose. The payoff for this bet is 7 to 1. The odds of winning this bet are 8 to 1, though.
It’s easy to calculate the edge here, too. You’ll lose an average of $100 over the course of 9 bets, for an average loss of 11.11% per bet. That’s still a huge house edge. But even the best bets at the craps table have a house edge of over 1%. The pass line bet is the most basic bet at the craps table, and it has a house edge of 1.41%. The come bet also has that same edge.
Some people contend that you can get an edge at craps by influencing how the dice land through controlled shooting. I’m skeptical of this in the extreme. But I’ve seen better-known and better-respected gambling writers than myself who believe that it’s possible.
The idea is that the house edge in craps is low enough that you don’t need to be super-accurate with your controlled shooting to flip that edge. You only need to be able to change the odds enough to overcome the house edge and get the odds into your favor.
You can find any number of videos and books explaining how to set the dice. I can’t guarantee that you’ll succeed, but if you’re going to try it, prepare to spend a LOT of time practicing.
The house has an edge over the player in roulette because of the green 0 and the green 00 on the wheel. You might find a tournament or a promotion that will help tilt the odds in your favor, though.
Here’s why the zeroes make such a big difference:
It’s not because you always lose when the ball lands on a 0 or 00. It’s because those 0s increase the number of possible outcomes from 36 to 38. All the payouts at the roulette table would be break-even payouts if there were 36 numbers on the wheel.
For example, a single number bet has a payoff of 35 to 1. If you had a 35 to 1 probability of hitting a single number, that would be a break-even (or “fair”) bet. But the actual probability of hitting that single number is 37 to 1. If you bet on 2 numbers (a 2-number bet), the payoff is 17 to 1, but the probability of hitting one of those 2 numbers is 18 to 1.
Of course, a roulette wheel with a 0 and a 00 is only one kind of roulette wheel—an american roulette wheel. You can also find roulette wheels that have only a single zero. These are called european roulette wheels. This reduces the house edge from 5.26% to 2.70%. That’s a big difference, but it’s still a bet that the house will win on in the long run.
One way to think about such a game is that it has only half a zero instead of one or 2 zeroes. You still can’t win such a game in the long run, though. Your money should just last longer.
But let’s say you find a casino that offers you $100 in free chips just for showing up, but you can only bet those free chips on even-money bets. Let’s say that once you’ve wagered those chips, they’re taken away by the casino.
If you gambled those chips on an even-money bet in roulette, you’d have a positive expectation, because the $100 in free chips didn’t cost you anything. You should, on a standard roulette wheel, win an even-money bet 47.37% of the time, so the expected value of that promotion is positive: $47.37.
Or suppose you find a casino that’s holding a promotion where they’re paying 39 to 1 for single number bets on the roulette wheel between the hours of 7pm and 9pm. Since the probability of winning is 37 to 1, you now have a positive expectation situation.
Theoretically, there’s one other way to beat roulette—find a wheel that isn’t working entirely right. This is called a “biased wheel.” the idea is that a mechanical imperfection in the roulette wheel causes it to land on some numbers more often than others.
If a wheel is so biased that some numbers come up 1/34 of the time, for example, and you knew which numbers they were, you’d have an edge over the casino as long as you stuck with those numbers. You’d have an edge, because now you’d win $3500 once while losing $3300, for a net win of $200 over 35 spins. That’s an average win of $5.71 per spin, meaning YOU’D have an edge of 5.71%.
To succeed at this, you’d need to record how often each number comes up over a huge number of spins. You’d need a huge sample size, though, because with a small sample size, some numbers are naturally going to come up more often than others.
On top of that difficulty, not all wheels have a bias. You could spend hours clocking a wheel’s results only to find that it’s perfectly accurate or so close to accurate that you can’t get an edge.
This makes finding a biased roulette wheel as an advantage play impractical, to say the least. I’m not even going to get into the idea of using a laser pointer and a computer to predict where the ball is going to fall. This would be illegal anyway, but I mention it for the sake of completeness. Anyway, that’s why you can’t beat roulette.
Baccarat is fun, but it’s also absurd. You go through a lot of rigmarole for what is basically a coin toss with no skill involved. It’s a card game where you compare your score with the banker’s. You can bet on the banker or the player, but either way, the house has an edge of at least 1%. Card counting is of no help in baccarat, either.
Other casino card games, like casino holdem, let it ride, and three card poker sometimes involve a skill element and sometimes don’t. Either way, it doesn’t matter—you can’t get an edge at those games under normal conditions. If there’s a progressive jackpot attached to the game, it could theoretically get high enough to change your expectation, but it would have to be high indeed.
Keno is still popular, but not only is it impossible to beat, the house edge is crazy high. On average, the house edge in keno is 30% or so. It’s basically a casino-run lottery game. I’m not a fan of lotteries because the payback percentage is always too low.
Pai gow poker is worth playing, but it can’t really be beaten. You’ll have so many hands that push that it turns out to be a much slower game than most other casino games. With proper strategy, the house edge is lower than average, too, so you’ll lose less money gambling recreationally at pai gow poker than you would at most other casino card games.
Most slot machines are unbeatable. The only slot machines where you can sometimes get an edge are the ones with progressive jackpots and the ones that “bank” money as you play. The trouble is that you’re never sure about the odds involved. It’s impossible to know when the game switches from negative to positive expectation. And with slots that don’t have progressive jackpots or banking functionality, forget about it. They just have a high house edge, and that’s it.
Most casino games are impossible to beat regardless of your skill level. That doesn’t mean you should avoid playing them. If you enjoy shooting craps or betting on the roulette wheel, feel free to indulge. Just don’t convince yourself that you can ever beat these games in the long run.
Sometimes you’ll see an otherwise successful poker player or sports bettor waste a lot of money playing games where they can never get an edge. If you’re going to play these games that can’t be beaten, do so for fun, and don’t risk amounts of money that have any consequence.
So, let's see, what we have: computers could help blackjack players get much better at card counting in the future. At which casino games can be beaten
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