Blackjack house edge

What the blackjack house edge means

A house edge is the casino’s average profit as a percentage of the money you stake. If a blackjack game has a 0.5% edge, the casino expects to keep 50p of every £100 bet over a very long run. It is not a fee taken from each hand, and it says nothing about one session: you can win or lose several hundred pounds in an evening at a game whose edge is a fraction of a percent. The general idea is set out in our house edge explainer.

Blackjack is unusual because the edge depends on you. The figures on this page assume perfect basic strategy. Play by hunch and the real edge is higher, sometimes much higher. That is why blackjack can be one of the lowest house edge games in the casino for one player and an expensive game for another. Our blackjack hub links every rule and variant page.

Where does the edge come from if the payouts look fair? From the order of play. You act first, and if you bust you lose immediately, even when the dealer busts afterwards. Blackjack’s 3 to 2 bonus, doubling and splitting hand some of that back, but not all of it.

Blackjack house edge by rule set

Wizard of Odds publishes house edges for complete rule sets. These are the ones in our checked data, each with its own rules; two different games happen to share the 0.62% figure, so keep each number with its game.

Sources: the liberal and Atlantic City figures are from Wizard of Odds’ house edge list (opens in a new tab); the single-deck and six-deck figures from its Ask the Wizard house edge answers (opens in a new tab); and the European figure from its European strategy page (opens in a new tab). Our European blackjack and Atlantic City blackjack pages cover those formats.

How each rule changes the house edge

Single rule changes are measured too, by the same source, against a baseline of eight decks, dealer standing on soft 17, with doubling and splitting allowed, after adjusting strategy for each rule. A minus sign means worse for you.

The full list is on Wizard of Odds’ rule-variation page (opens in a new tab). The pattern is clear: the payout on a blackjack outweighs everything else. Deck count matters less than most players think, while the soft 17 rule and surrender are worth checking but are small next to the payout.

Rule effects are close approximations that roughly add together. Add them only to the baseline they were measured against, and treat any combined figure as an estimate. For an exact figure on a specific rule set, use a calculator such as the Wizard of Odds house edge calculator (opens in a new tab).

Why 6 to 5 is the rule that costs most

Cutting the blackjack payout from 3 to 2 to 6 to 5 sounds minor: on a £10 hand the bonus drops from £15 to £12. But a natural turns up in roughly 4.75% of hands from a six- or eight-deck shoe (2 × 4/52 × 16/51 for one deck, a touch less for more decks), about once every 21 hands. Losing £3 that often, after allowing for the hands where the dealer also has blackjack and you push, comes out at roughly 14p per £10 hand, which matches the 1.39% in the table.

One published example makes the point: a single-deck table at 0.05% becomes 1.44% when blackjack pays 6 to 5. The single deck looks like a bargain, and the payout quietly takes it away. Our 3:2 against 6:5 page compares the two side by side, and the payouts guide lists every result.

Decks, shuffles and the edge

Fewer decks help the player a little: a single deck is worth +0.48% against eight decks, two decks +0.19%, four decks +0.06% and six decks just +0.02%. The reason is that removing cards from a small deck shifts the odds of the next card more, which slightly favours the hands that need specific cards, such as blackjack and doubles. Our number of decks page goes further.

Shuffling affects things too. Reshuffling after every hand, as RNG blackjack does, lowers the house edge slightly, by 0.02% in a six-deck game and by 0.11% in a one-deck game, according to Wizard of Odds’ online blackjack answers (opens in a new tab). Live tables use a physical shoe, but a reshuffled shoe or a continuous shuffling machine does not raise the edge for a basic strategy player.

Turning the blackjack house edge into pounds

The useful number is your expected cost per hour. Multiply your stake by the number of hands you play and by the house edge. The steps below work for any game, and the house edge calculator does the sums for you.

1. Find the house edge for your table’s rules (for example 0.62% for six-deck European rules with basic strategy).
2. Decide your average stake per hand, say £10.
3. Estimate how many hands you play per hour; a quiet live table is far slower than a digital one.
4. Multiply: £10 × 60 hands × 0.62% = £3.72 expected cost per hour.
5. Add any side bets separately at their own, much higher edge.
6. Remember this is an average. Your actual result in any hour can be well above or below it.

For comparison, single-zero roulette has a 2.70% edge, so £10 spins at 60 an hour cost about £16.20 an hour on average. A well-ruled blackjack table played correctly costs a fraction of that; a 6 to 5 table played by hunch can cost more. Read more about cost per hour and theoretical loss.

Insurance and side bets: where the edge jumps

The main game’s edge is low, but the extras on the felt are not. Insurance pays 2 to 1 if the dealer has a 10-value card under an ace. With an eight-deck shoe, 128 of the 415 unseen cards are 10-value (ignoring your own cards), so insurance has an edge of 31/415, about 7.47%; with one deck it is 3/51, about 5.88%. Our insurance page shows the working.

Side bets are worse again on many paytables. Perfect Pairs ranges between about 2.17% and 9.97% depending on paytable and decks on Wizard of Odds’ figures, and Evolution’s Bust It style paytable at 6.18% with eight decks. One £1 side bet a hand at 6% costs as much on average as about £10 on the main game at 0.62%. See blackjack side bets and are side bets worth it.

House edge in popular blackjack variants

Variants rewrite rules, so their edges differ from the classic game. A few that Wizard of Odds has analysed: Blackjack Switch at 0.58% under standard six-deck rules, Spanish 21 at 0.40% when the dealer stands on soft 17, and Free Bet Blackjack at 1.04%. Free Bet’s free doubles and splits look generous, but the dealer’s 22 pushing against your unbusted hands pays for them. Our page on the best blackjack variant compares them.

Myths about the blackjack house edge

• “Fewer decks always mean better odds.” Only if everything else matches. A 6 to 5 single-deck game is far worse than a 3 to 2 six-deck game.
• “The house edge is the same for everyone.” It assumes perfect play. Mistakes raise it.
• “A betting system lowers the edge.” Staking patterns change how much you bet, not the edge on each bet. Martingale-style doubling just risks a big loss to win a small amount, and table limits stop it. See gambler’s ruin.
• “RNG tables are rigged to a higher edge.” Licensed games are tested; the edge comes from the rules. Read is blackjack rigged online.

How to check a table’s house edge before you play

Online games list their rules in the help or information screen. Look for the blackjack payout, the soft 17 rule, the number of decks, whether the dealer peeks, and whether surrender and doubling after splitting are allowed. Some games also state a theoretical return (RTP); the house edge is 100% minus that figure. If a game states no RTP, the rules let you estimate it from the tables above. Our RTP against house edge page explains the link, and our guide to UK RTP display rules covers what operators have to show.

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18+. Every casino game has a built-in house edge, so over time you should expect to lose what you stake. Set a budget before you play and stop when it’s gone: safer gambling tools and support. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.