Most people visit casinos to have fun playing their favorite games. But if you want to better your odds of winning; find games designed to help you win. Likewise, avoid games with poor odds. The information about best and worst-paying casino games is freely available online, so you have no excuse to play high-paying games
Some online casinos also publish their games’ payout rates. But to help you save time, below is a list of the best and worst games to play at a casino. Intrigued? Let’s dive right in.
Best Odds
Blackjack—1% House Edge
Blackjack is a card game played between a player and a dealer. You can play online or at land-based casinos. The objective is similar: Form a hand whose value is closest to or equal to 21. If you exceed 21, you bust—a loss. The game comes in many variants, some that promise better payout rates and others with more inviting odds.
All the same, the way to win blackjack is to learn strategies that work. For example, experts advise that you split 8s always and hit 12 when a dealer’s exposed card is a 2-5. Another tip is to avoid side bets and insurance—most people lose.
Although blackjack comes with many systems, the most recommended cheat sheet is the Basic Blackjack Strategy. It lists moves you should make at different junctures of a blackjack game. Follow the strategy religiously and there’s a chance you could win blackjack consistently.
Video Poker—1% House Edge
Video Poker is a blend of slots and poker. It’s played on video screens—akin to slots—and uses the same cards used in poker. The game’s objective is to form a real poker hand: Two of a Kind, Straight, Flush, Full House, or Royal Flush.
Like blackjack, video poker comes in many variants. Some of them games have a 100% Return to Player (RTP) on theory. And that means they give you a pretty decent chance of winning. So, how do you play video poker?
You place a bet of one to five coins (or their multiples) and press play. The video machine deals you five poker cards. Then you choose cards you want to keep and discard the rest. The machine then deals you more cards. And if they form a poker hand, you win.
With Jacks or Better, the most popular video poker variant, you win 4000 coins if you wager five coins and form a royal flush. By comparison, you walk away with just 250 coins if you bet one coins and get the highest poker hand. Lesson: Maximize your bet when it’s possible.
Roulette—2.8% House Edge
Roulette is a simple game of chance involving a labeled wheel and a pay table. You place a bet to predict where a small ball lands after it’s thrown into a spinning wheel. It could be the specific number the ball lands on, the color of that pocket or where it’s located.
Like many casino games, roulette comes in many forms. And as a result, the odds of different predictions vary from one game to another. In many casinos, the most popular variants are European and American roulette. The latter is known for having an extra (00) pocket that lowers the odds of winning.
With that in mind, the 2.8% house edge we mentioned above applies to European roulette. If you play American roulette, keep in mind the house advantage is 5.2%. That said, 50/50 roulette bets like odds/even or blacks/reds give you the best odds of winning in roulette—48.6% chance in European and 47.4% chance in American roulette.
Craps—1%
Craps is purely based on luck but it attracts great odds. It’s a 50/50 game in that you can throw dice and get it right or lose. In the casino space, Craps can appear intimidating because of its somewhat complex rules. It’s not just a game of dice.
Craps is centered on a bet type called pass line. You can wager on whether the dice passes the line or not. With that in mind, someone (the shooter) rolls dice in a round called the comeout roll. If it’s a 7 or 11, all bets on passing the line win.
If it’s a 2, 3, or 12 and you had wagered on passing the line, you lose. If it’s a different number, it’s pushed into another round (the point). The shooter rolls the deice again. And if they roll the same number again, they win an even-money payoff. If they roll a 7, they lose.
Games with the Worst Odds
Classic Slots
Classic slots are games designed in the 1990s or early 2000s. Back then, the competition among casinos was low and developers would create games that highly favored the house. To provide some context, the average classic slot has an RTP of 80% to 90%.
By comparison, today’s video slots have RTP rates ranging from 92% to 99%. In fact, most people won’t play video slots with an RTP of below 95%. That’s because although the aim of playing slots is to have fun, there’s also the need to beat the house.
You can’t beat the house playing classic slots. What’s more, they are simplistic and lack a lot of the features found in video slots. For example, their graphics are often dated. Also, they lack in-game features like wilds, scatters and multipliers.
Keno
At one time, Keno was a popular casino game with exclusive lounges in Las Vegas and its own categories at online casinos. These days, most casinos relegate into the category for ‘Other Games. So, how did Keno lose its mojo?
People figured out it is a terrible game. It works out like a lottery—you choose 1 to 20 numbers from a pool of numbers 1 through 80. The objective is to have as many correct games from the pool. The computer then draws out 20 numbers at random: your numbers must be among the 20 picked for you to win.
Now comes the terrible part—the odds of getting one number correctly are 1 in 80. The odds of getting two numbers correctly are 1 in 6250. The odds of matching three numbers are 1 in 492961. Lesson: never play Keno.
