CASINO GAMES

By Pam Eastlick

Casino games provide a venue for players to gamble casino chips on various possible random outcomes or combinations of outcomes in games of chance.  The tree major types of casino games are those played on a table, electronic games and random number games.  All of these can be found in their online variety.

Casino games, both traditional and their online cousins, provide for a predictable long-term advantage to the Casino or “house”.  Players accept this for the possibility of a large short-term payout.  While some games do involve an element of skill, it is extremely rare for a player to possess the skill (or luck) necessary to beat the house advantage.

Some popular casino game machines and online casino games are:  Video Poker, Video Lottery, Pachinko and the ever popular slot machine.  These will typically have a house edge or players disadvantage of 15 – 25 percent. 

The definition of the “players disadvantage” is the ratio of the average loss to the initial bet, not the ratio of money lost to total money wagered in a session.  This happens because the casino does not issue winning wagers according to the game’s "true odds" (payouts based on the exact odds of a wager either winning or losing). To illustrate, if a wager is made on the result that would come from the roll of one die, “true” odds would be 5 times the amount wagered since there six sides, however, the casino will likely pay some factor less than the amount wagered on the winning bet.

In some games such as in Caribbean stud poker, blackjack and let it ride, the wager is cumulative as the player may increase their bet when the odds favor doing so. Since the additional money wagered is not figured into the average loss to the initial bet which regulates the house advantage, the measure of risk is increased.  All of these factors should be considered when developing your strategy to “beat the house!”.