Best Casino Games For A Low House Advantage
The only thing I don’t like about gambling is that every casino game in the world has a built-in house advantage. This advantage is not very big (usually less than 5%), but it’s enough to keep all those fancy casinos in Vegas in business. You can look at the house advantage as the price of an evening of entertainment.
Fortunately, the house advantage is small enough that you can walk away a winner on any given night. That is why we all still gamble even though we know the casino wins in the long run. I can’t think of many businesses where you can walk in with a few dollars in your pocket and potentially leave a millionaire.
If you want to have the best chances of winning money, your best bet is to stick with casino games that have a low house advantage. The following casino games are known for having a lower-than-average house advantage.
Blackjack
House Advantage: 0.46% to 0.66%
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Blackjack is the most popular table game in the world because it is widely known for having a low house advantage. This is one of the few casino games in which your decisions can have an effect on the outcome of the game. With a little strategy, it is possible to reduce the house advantage of blackjack almost to zero.
Blackjack strategy is fairly easy to implement at the table. It may appear complicated at first, but that’s just because it takes a little getting used to. One of the best ways to learn blackjack strategy is to find a printable blackjack strategy card and use it to help you get the hang of the game.
Craps
House Advantage: 0.02% to 0.85%
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Craps has a few bets that are among the best in the casino. The best craps bet of them all is called the “odds” bet. This is a wager that you place after placing a pass/don’t pass bet. This wager has such a low house advantage that it’s not even listed on the craps layout – you just have to know about it.
You can place the odds bet by first placing a pass or don’t pass bet. After the first roll of the dice, you can place the odds bet by placing chips behind the “pass line” zone. The maximum size of the odds bet is limited to a multiple of your original pass line bet. The house advantage of this bet is determined by that multiple (each casino is a little different):
- Pass with 1x Odds: 0.85%
- Pass with 2x Odds: 0.61%
- Pass with 5x Odds: 0.32%
- Pass with 100x Odds: 0.02%
Video Poker
House Advantage: 0% to 0.5%
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Video poker is probably the most underrated casino game of them all. The exact house advantage varies based on the video poker variant, the payout table, special promotions and your strategy. One thing they all have in common is a low house advantage.
Every once in a while, you can even find video poker machines that produce a positive return when the casino is running special promotions. The key to extracting the maximum out of video poker is to learn perfect video poker strategy and take advantage of online casino bonuses.
But you have to remember that not all online casino bonuses are allowed to be used in conjunction with video poker. Only some online casinos offer video poker –friendly bonuses.
And one last tip: always bet the maximum number of coins when you play video poker. Video poker machines offer special payouts for royal flushes when the maximum number of coins is wagered. Royal flushes don’t happen often, but the bonus payout is big enough that it has a significant effect on the long term house advantage.
Baccarat
House Advantage: 1.06%
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Baccarat is a simple game with a low house advantage. The game may appear complicated at first, but it’s actually pretty simple. All you have to do in baccarat is choose whether you wish to wager on the player, banker or tie. The best bet of the three is the “banker” wager, with a house advantage just over 1%.
There is no real strategy that can be used in baccarat. The game is played on auto-pilot after you make your initial wager. Just wager on the banker every time and you’ll do pretty well over the long term.