House edge by casino game

What the house edge by casino game table shows

Every figure below answers one question: for each pound you put on this bet, how much does the casino expect to keep over a very long run of play? Wizard of Odds defines the house edge as the ratio of the average loss to the starting bet, and that is the measure used throughout this page. A 2.70% edge means an average loss of 2.7p per £1 staked, or 27p per £10.

Two things make a table like this useful. First, it lets you compare games that look nothing alike, such as a roulette spin, a baccarat coup and a hand of Three Card Poker, on the same scale. Second, it shows how much difference the bet makes inside a game. Pick the wrong box on a sic bo table and you can pay more than ten times what the right box costs.

Keep one limit in mind. A house edge is a long-run average. Over an evening your result can be far above or below it, which is the job of variance. The edge tells you the direction of travel and the average cost of the ride, not where any single session ends.

All figures here are standard game maths from published analyses, mainly Wizard of Odds and the Casino Math textbook by Hannum and Cabot (opens in a new tab). Online games can use different paytables, so check the help screen of the exact table you play.

House edge by casino game: the full comparison table

The table sorts popular bets from cheapest to dearest. The cost column is simple arithmetic: £10 × house edge. The return to player column is 100% minus the edge, because RTP and house edge are two sides of the same number.

A few entries need a footnote. The craps odds bet can only be placed on top of a Pass or Come bet, so you never get 0% on your whole stake. The video poker and blackjack figures assume you play the correct strategy for that exact paytable or rule set; mistakes push the edge up. Casino poker figures are quoted per Ante, while the money you actually risk includes later raises, which is why Wizard of Odds also gives an "element of risk" (covered further down).

Source for most rows: the Wizard of Odds house edge summary (opens in a new tab) and its individual game pages.

Blackjack house edge by rule: why one game has many figures

Blackjack does not have a single house edge. It has a starting point, then each rule adds or removes a slice. The comparison used here, from Wizard of Odds, measures rule changes against a baseline of eight decks with the dealer standing on soft 17, and the effects below are taken from that comparison. Positive numbers help you; negative numbers cost you.

The headline lesson is that the payout on a natural matters far more than the deck count. Swapping 3:2 for 6:5 costs almost three times as much as every deck-count change on the list combined. For full detail on the base figures, see our page on the blackjack house edge, and for the decisions that get you close to the quoted numbers, our basic strategy guide.

For a six-deck European game the published figure is 0.62% (no peek, dealer stands on soft 17, doubling on 9 to 11, doubling after splits allowed). The often-quoted 0.28% is for liberal Las Vegas rules, so don't assume it applies to the online table in front of you. No single "typical" edge for UK online blackjack has been published.

Roulette and baccarat odds: small rule changes, big differences

Roulette is the clearest example of a rule doubling the price. On a single-zero wheel every bet pays as though there were 36 numbers when there are 37, so each bet has a 1/37 edge, or 2.70%. Add a second zero and the gap becomes 2/38, or 5.26%. The American top line is worse again: it pays 6 to 1 on 5 numbers out of 38, giving (5 × 6 − 33) / 38 = −3/38, a 7.89% edge.

French rules pull the other way. Under La Partage an even-money bet that loses to zero gives back half the stake, which halves the edge on those bets to 1.35%. Inside bets, dozens and columns keep the full 2.70%. That makes the choice of wheel the biggest single decision at the roulette table.

In baccarat the main bets are already cheap, so the danger is the Tie. With eight decks the Tie paying 8 to 1 carries a 14.36% edge. At 9 to 1 it falls to 4.844%. Commission-free tables usually change the Banker payout instead; in the common Super 6 style rule, where a Banker win on 6 pays 1 to 2, the Banker edge rises to 1.46% with eight decks.

Craps and sic bo: the widest house edge spread

Dice games pack the cheapest and the dearest bets onto one layout. Two dice have 36 equally likely combinations, and three dice have 216, so every figure can be checked by counting. In craps, the Pass line costs 1.41% and Don't Pass 1.36%, while Any Seven pays 4 to 1 on a 6-in-36 chance. Fair odds would be 5 to 1, so the bet carries a 16.67% edge, the highest of the standard craps bets.

Place bets show how the edge creeps up away from the centre. Placing the 6 or 8 at 7 to 6 costs 1.52% per bet resolved, the 5 or 9 at 7 to 5 costs 4.00%, and the 4 or 10 at 9 to 5 costs 6.67%. Per-roll figures are also published and look smaller, but this page uses the per-bet-resolved version throughout so the numbers compare fairly.

Sic bo is similar. Big and Small lose to any triple; 6 of the 216 outcomes are triples, so each wins 48.61% of the time at even money, a 2.78% edge. A specific triple paying 150 to 1 under Macau-style rules carries 30.09%, and a specific double at 8 to 1 carries 33.33%. Online paytables vary, so read the payout table before you bet.

Casino poker and video poker house edge

Casino poker games have a quoted house edge per Ante plus an element of risk, which divides the average loss by the total money bet, raises included. For Caribbean Stud that is 5.22% per Ante but 2.56% of everything wagered, and Three Card Poker is 3.37% against 2.01%. Use the house edge to estimate cost per hand and the element of risk to compare value per pound risked.

Strategy moves these numbers. In Three Card Poker, playing Queen-6-4 or better gives 3.37%, copying the dealer's queen-high rule gives 3.45%, and playing every hand gives 7.65%. Side bets are dearer: the common Pairplus table is 7.28%, and the Caribbean Stud progressive averages 26.46%. Our casino poker house edge page has the rest.

Video poker is the one game where you can read the edge off the machine. Full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better returns 99.54% with perfect play, an edge of 0.46%. Cut the full house and flush to 8 and 5 and the return drops to 97.3%. The cards look the same; the paytable is the price tag.

Slots, keno and live game shows: house edge from RTP

Slots and game shows normally publish an RTP instead of a house edge, but you convert one into the other by taking it from 100%. Starburst's 96.09% RTP is a 3.91% edge; Blood Suckers' 98.00% is 2.00%; Big Bass Bonanza's 96.71% is 3.29%. The same slot can run at different RTP settings at different casinos, so check the game's help screen at the casino you use. For slots in general, Wizard of Odds gives 2% to 15%, a broad figure that isn't specific to the UK.

Live game shows quote a range because each bet spot has its own return. Evolution gives Crazy Time a theoretical RTP of 94.41% to 96.08% depending on the bet, an edge of 3.92% to 5.59%. See game show RTP compared for the rest of the field.

Keno sits at the far end of the table. Wizard of Odds' summary lists it at 25% to 29%, and US land-based surveys found live keno returning 50% to 80%. The draw is fair; the payout table is set well below what the true odds would justify. Online keno RTPs are set game by game, so look for the figure in the help file before you play.

Turning house edge into pounds per hour

A low edge is only half the story, because speed multiplies it. The formula is short: stake per bet × bets per hour × house edge = average cost per hour. The cost per hour is what your entertainment actually costs, and it is the figure worth comparing between games.

1. Find the house edge for the exact bet and rules you plan to play, using the table above or the game's help screen.
2. Estimate how many bets you make in an hour. Live tables publish round times; for slots, count your own spins.
3. Multiply your usual stake by the number of bets to get the total staked per hour.
4. Multiply the total staked by the house edge. That is your average hourly cost.
5. Compare that number with what you are happy to spend on an evening's entertainment, and set your budget from it.

Round times for baccarat come from Evolution's published figures for its standard and Speed tables; the other bet counts are round numbers chosen for the example. The Speed Baccarat row makes the point: the same 1.06% bet costs almost twice as much an hour simply because more rounds are dealt.

Side bets: where the table gets expensive

Side bets are where most of the double-digit numbers live. In blackjack, Perfect Pairs ranges from 2.17% to 9.97% depending on paytable and deck count, Lucky Ladies from 5.87% to 24.71% with six decks, and Free Bet Blackjack's Push 22 side bet carries 11.76%. Evolution's 21+3 paytable of 100/40/30/10/5 works out at 3.70% with eight decks.

Insurance belongs here too. It pays 2 to 1, but with an ace showing from a full eight-deck shoe only 128 of the remaining 415 cards are tens, which gives an edge of about 7.47%. Our side bets strategy page explains why the bigger the printed payout, the more you usually pay for it.

House edge myths the table puts right

• "A low-edge game means I'll win." It means you lose less on average. Even at 1.06% the expected result is still a loss.
• "Betting systems lower the edge." They change the size and order of bets, not the price of each one. Wizard of Odds' simulations of Martingale, Fibonacci and Labouchère all landed on the game's normal edge.
• "Long shots and safe bets cost different amounts on a roulette wheel." On a single-zero wheel a straight-up and a red bet both carry 2.70%. Only the swings differ.
• "Live games have a better edge than RNG games." The edge comes from the rules and paytable, not the delivery. A live table and an RNG table with the same rules carry the same edge.
• "A machine is due to pay." Results are independent events; there is no memory, and the edge applies to every bet the same way.

Where to play: offers and the house edge

None of our partner offers changes the house edge of a game. The spin offers are slot offers, and the matched bonuses carry game restrictions, with table and live games often excluded or counting for less towards wagering. If you want the low-edge bets in this table, look at a casino's table game lobby and its terms rather than the welcome bonus. 18+ and terms apply to every offer.

Casumo offers a 50% bonus up to £100 on a first deposit of at least £20 (new customers, opt-in required), with the bonus wagered 10x within 7 days and a £5 maximum bet while it is active. 10bet gives a 100% match up to £25 on the first deposit made within 7 days of choosing the casino welcome bonus, wagered 10x on slots within 3 days, with maximum bonus winnings of £1,000; Skrill and Neteller deposits are excluded. Coral gives 100 free spins at 10p each on selected slots when new players deposit and bet £10 on slots, with no wagering on free spin winnings; spins must be accepted within 48 hours and last 7 days.

The Gambling Commission's RTS 3 rules on the likelihood of winning (opens in a new tab) require casinos to make the house edge, RTP or probability of winning available before you play, so you can check any game's figure yourself. Find more on our casino maths hub.

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.