Playing online casinos and real life land based casinos all have something in common with each other-the house edge, and it is definitely something that you need to understand if you want to have a successful standing within the world of casino gaming. Making sure you know how to play around the house edge and develop a strategy for it, will really help you build your success around each game that you decide to play on.
What is the House Edge?
The house edge is a statistical measure of how the game works in the casinos favour. Obviously, the higher the value, the less favour you have when playing. So, ideally you will want to get the house edge as the lowest value possible in the process. The higher the percentage, the more profit an online casino will make from each game that is played in the process. It runs as a guaranteed profit return, so as a player you will be losing more money per game if you do not manage to decrease the house edge.
Examples are always great to consider when introducing the concept of a house edge. So, by using the game of roulette as the primary example, you will find that the initial house edge is at 5% when starting the game. This value is considerably large, as essentially it would mean that from any wagers that you do make, the casino will take 5% of it.
Therefore from every £1, 5p will be taken from your amount and kept permanently. 95p of the wager will of course be kept for yourself to win and progress forward with.
We all know how casinos are actually made to win in the long approach of the game. The house edge is a key factor in aiding this approach and really helping casinos make a great amount of money in the long term approach. Of course the casino will not need to win every single time, however that 5% really does contribute to that extra push now and again-as it is a guaranteed contribution from every single player in the game.
Players will always continue playing despite the house edge as they hope for the odds to be kinder to them than the casino. Obviously by incorporating a strategy into your gameplay, you will definitely have better luck than most players out there no?
The Game Edges at Casinos
The edges within different games will differ from one another as most games follow their own percentage standards. Below is an overview of the different casino game percentages that you can expect on average.
- Craps house edge can appear as low as 1.4% or as much as 4.9%.
- Blackjack is usually around 8% (with slight difference depending on the game variants).
- Baccarat can go as low as 1.06% for the house edge.
- Keno is at a much higher rate in terms of house edge, with the percentage ranging from 25% to 29% respectively.
- Sic Bo has a very large range for its games with house edge starting from as little as 2.78% all the way up to 34%.
If you are a new player starting out with much caution, we would suggest that you try out the smaller edge games first, rather than leaping head first into the higher house edge games such as Keno and Sic Bo. Craps is definitely a great game to start with, as its opportunities for reducing the house edge further than its standard level is very openly known and easy to achieve than other classical casino games.
How to Reduce the Edge
To reduce the edge, there will never be a way to avoid it completely, that is for sure. However there are always areas of improvement that can be developed upon, areas that will be helpful when you play and want to maximise what you make from the games themselves.
Blackjack
The game of blackjack of course will require skill and understanding of how the game flows and runs. Therefore we highly suggest that you engage with the game's free play availability, as this will allow you to really seize the true essence of the game and understand how to play the game properly! In addition to this, knowing the different rules involved such as, the soft 17 hand, which ultimately will shift the odds more to your favour in the middle of the game.
The reason being is that it requires the dealer to hit or stand and usually most of the time, the card dealt by the dealer will always go above the value of 21. Whenever the dealer's hand falls below yours, the house edge will automatically decrease each time. Something to bear in mind however, when the house deck has more decks to its game, you will find out that the house edge will also be subsequently higher too.
Craps
Another game that is highly rated within the gambling community, you will soon come to find that the edge in craps is much lower than anywhere else. Therefore use this to your advantage when you are first starting out with classical casino games.
The house edge in the game will vary due to the many different ways to place a bet. Therefore, pick your bets accordingly. For bets placed on 6 and 8, the house edge will be as low as 1.51%, whereas the bet of any 7, will be higher at 16.7%. So to ensure that your betting goes good moving forward, know the house edges associated with each betting option. For every successful bet you make, you will obviously reduce the house edge by an increment each time!
Summary
The house edge will always depend on the amount you bet/ the bet type and the amount you start with, never has any relevance to the status of the house edge. Some rounds will be a great success, with a lowering of the house edge, where others will have you betting with your winnings just to keep a float and not increase any of your net losses overall. The house edge will always cut into your money, yet the exact amount will differ depending on how well you make your bets moving forward.
The effect of the house edge moving into your winnings is called the grind. To reduce the effect of the grind, you will need to play the game for shorter periods and maximise a lower house edge in the process of your betting.
