Roulette wheel | Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
You'll be surprised which games have the worst and best odds in Vegas. The Las Vegas Game You Should Avoid At All Costs. Below is a table with the win percentage of slot machines on the Las.
Jan 20, 2017 Roulette is one of the easiest casino games to play, and the odds are also fairly good. Whether you choose to take a chance on the wheel of fortune or are a high-roller playing baccarat. Roulette Tip #10: Enjoy the Experience. Truth be told, Roulette is easily one of the most exhilarating games in the entire casino, but it is not the most player-friendly in terms of house edge and odds. Following the roulette tips above, you can increase your chances of winning at roulette, but most of all, consider it an evening of entertainment.
Spending a weekend gambling in Vegas may be fun, though you’ll probably have an even better time if you win big at the tables. If you’re hoping to beat the odds at the casino, the game you choose to play matters. You’re more likely to come home a little bit richer if you sit down at the blackjack table rather than settling in with the gray-haired set at the slots.
It all comes down to math. Amateur gamblers may hope luck is on their side when they walk through the doors of the Bellagio or Caesars Palace, but what they really need to think about are the odds of winning at different games. While the house always has an edge, it’s much bigger in some situations than in others. That’s why you never see smart gamblers wasting their time playing keno or wheel of fortune – games where you’re almost guaranteed to lose money.
Casino games with the best odds
Savvy gamblers are going to cluster around the blackjack tables, where the casino’s edge is usually between 0.5% to 1%, though the number varies depending on the number of decks and other rule variations. You can calculate the house edge on a particular game of blackjack using the Wizard of Odds online calculator. Those numbers also assume you’re playing with what’s known as basic strategy, or making the best possible decision based on the cards you’ve been dealt. For the average player who’s going to make some mistakes, the house’s edge increases to 2%, according to the University of Nevada’s Center for Gaming Research.
Blackjack table | Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
“Blackjack is one of our easiest games to play,” Jay Bean, a floor manager at Caesar’s, told Cleveland’s Newsnet5. “You’re just looking for a number that beats the dealer’s number without going over 21.”
“You are somewhere between 44% to 48% in every single hand of winning,” Michael Magazine, a professor of analytics at the University of Cincinnati, said of blackjack.
After blackjack, the games with the best odds are baccarat and craps. In baccarat, which is a game of chance rather than skill, the odds are close to 50/50, though your chances are slightly better if you bet on the banker rather than the player. At the craps table, the house edge on a pass line bet is 1.4%.
Roulette is one of the easiest casino games to play, and the odds are also fairly good. If you only bet on red or black or evens or odds (as opposed to a specific number) the house edge is 5.26%, assuming you’re playing in an American casino with double zeros on the wheel. Your odds of winning are better in a European casino with a single-zero wheel.
Video poker is another game with fairly good odds for players. “For video poker the statistical advantage varies depending on the particular machine, but generally this game can be very player friendly — house edge less than 3% is not uncommon and some are less than 1% — if played with expert strategy,” per the Center for Gaming Research.
Casino games with the worst odds
Slots may be less intimidating to novice gamblers than table games like blackjack, but the house is more likely to take you for a ride. Each slot machine is different, but the Wizard of Odds estimates the house edge for penny slots at between 6% and 15%. If you can’t resist the slots, chose a higher-denomination machine, since these tend to have a higher payout percentage than lower-denomination slots.
“The average slot machine is probably two, three times more costly to players than the table games,” Bill Zender, a former professional gambler, told Mental Floss.
Even worse than slots are “sucker games” like wheel of fortune and keno. The house advantage on keno averages 27%, according to the Center for Gaming. For wheel of fortune games (which also go by names like “big six” and “lucky wheel”), the house edge ranges from 11% to 24%, depending on your bet.
Whether you choose to take a chance on the wheel of fortune or are a high-roller playing baccarat, understanding how the game is played will put you ahead of most other players.
“Ninety percent of the people who walk into a casino have no idea of the odds stacked against them,” Zender said.
Also keep this in mind: The more you gamble, the likelier you are to lose. An analysis of online gamblers found that those who bet the least also had the highest winning percentage. But even then, the numbers weren’t great. Seventeen percent of the lightest gamblers ended up in the black over a two-year period. Only 5.4% of the heaviest gamblers came out ahead.
“[T]he average person doesn’t understand the math” of the multiplier effect, Jim Kilby, who has written books on casino management, told the Wall Street Journal. “Casino games are nibbling machines, and the more nibbles you have, the bigger your losses.”
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What are the best numbers to play in roulette? If you mean the odds of winning, see the below chart. The highlighted area show the odds of winning for each bet:
| Bet | Payout | European Roulette Odds (Chance of Winning) | European Roulette House Edge | American Roulette Odds (Chance of Winning) | American Roulette House Edge |
| Reds / Blacks (colour) | 1:1 | 48.65% | 2.7% | 47.37% | 5.26% |
| Evens / Odds | 1:1 | 48.65% | 2.7% | 47.37% | 5.26% |
| Lows / Highs (1-18 / 19-36) | 1:1 | 48.65% | 2.7% | 47.37% | 5.26% |
| Dozens | 2:1 | 32.43% | 2.7% | 31.58% | 5.26% |
| Columns | 2:1 | 32.43% | 2.7% | 31.58% | 5.26% |
| 6 Numbers (6 line) | 5:1 | 16.22% | 2.7% | 15.79% | 5.26% |
| 5 Numbers (top line) | 6:1 | – | – | 13.16% | 7.89% |
| 4 Numbers (square) | 8:1 | 10.81% | 2.7% | 10.53% | 5.26% |
| 3 Numbers (street) | 11:1 | 8.11% | 2.7% | 7.89% | 5.26% |
| 2 Numbers (split) | 17:1 | 5.41% | 2.7% | 5.26% | 5.26% |
| 1 Number (straight) | 35:1 | 2.70% | 2.7% | 2.63% | 5.26% |
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What’s the Best Bet to Make?
In the above table we see the more numbers we bet on, the better the odds of winning. But does better odds mean you are more likely to profit? No, and this is a common mistake players make.
EXAMPLE 1: Consider betting $100 on red for a European wheel. You know you have around a 50% chance of winning, which sounds like good odds. But on closer inspection, you have a 48.65% chance of winning, and a 51.35% chance of losing. So there’s a slightly higher chance you will lose. Specifically, 48.65% of the time you’ll profit $100. And 51.35% of the time you’ll lose $100. This slight difference is called the “house edge”.
EXAMPLE 2: Now consider betting on all 37 numbers. Your odds of wining are 100%, which sounds great. But the payout for a single number bet is an unfair 35-1. So even when you win, you still lose money.
Understanding Why No Bet Is Better Than Another
The “house edge” basically means “unfair payouts”. And you get an unfair payout for every roulette bet. See the red columns below and you’ll notice the house edge is the same for every type of bet:
| Bet | Payout | European Roulette Odds (Chance of Winning) | European Roulette House Edge | American Roulette Odds (Chance of Winning) | American Roulette House Edge |
| Reds / Blacks (colour) | 1:1 | 48.65% | 2.7% | 47.37% | 5.26% |
| Evens / Odds | 1:1 | 48.65% | 2.7% | 47.37% | 5.26% |
| Lows / Highs (1-18 / 19-36) | 1:1 | 48.65% | 2.7% | 47.37% | 5.26% |
| Dozens | 2:1 | 32.43% | 2.7% | 31.58% | 5.26% |
| Columns | 2:1 | 32.43% | 2.7% | 31.58% | 5.26% |
| 6 Numbers (6 line) | 5:1 | 16.22% | 2.7% | 15.79% | 5.26% |
| 5 Numbers (top line) | 6:1 | – | – | 13.16% | 7.89% |
| 4 Numbers (square) | 8:1 | 10.81% | 2.7% | 10.53% | 5.26% |
| 3 Numbers (street) | 11:1 | 8.11% | 2.7% | 7.89% | 5.26% |
| 2 Numbers (split) | 17:1 | 5.41% | 2.7% | 5.26% | 5.26% |
| 1 Number (straight) | 35:1 | 2.70% | 2.7% | 2.63% | 5.26% |
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So it doesn’t make any difference what you bet. All bets are affected by the same amount.
Putting this into perspective, let’s say we had two players betting on a European table. One player bets on a green zero for 37 spins. And the player bets on black for 37 spins. Statistically, both players will lose exactly the same amount of money after the 37 spins. Let’s look at the math:
Player 1 (bets $10 on green zero for 37 spins)
Loses 36 times, wins 1 time
Winnings: 1 x 35 = 35 units PROFIT
Losings: 36 x 1 = 36 units LOST
So the result is -1 unit in 37 spins. As a ratio, this is -1/37 = -0.027. This is the -2.7% house edge.
Player 2 (bets $10 on black for 37 spins)
Winnings: 48.65% of 37 = 18.0005 wins = 18.0005 x 1 unit = 18.0005 PROFIT
Losings: 51.35% of 37 = 18.9995 losses = 18.9995 x 1 unit = 18.9995 LOSS
So the result is 18.0005 – 18.9995 = -1 unit
-1 unit in 37 spins. As a ratio, this is -1/37 = -0.027. This is the -2.7% house edge.
Conclusion: It doesn’t matter what you bet. Statistically you are still going to lose the same proportion of what you bet.
The Difference Between The Odds and Payouts
Often the odds and payout are considered the same thing. But they are very different. If you understand my explanations so far, you’d know that:
The Odds are how often you expect to win.
The Payouts are how much you will be paid for a win.
They are very different things and must be understood.
Another example is consider a horse race, where a horse has 5-1 odds. Does this mean there’s a 1 in 5 chance the horse will win? No, it just means the payout is 5-1.
Odds Of Winning At Roulette
The Exception: The Best Roulette Bet
There is one type of roulette bet that is better than others. It is the only exception.
Roulette Winning Payout
If you’ve read the page about how to win at roulette, you’d know the only systems with consistently winning bets use physics to predict the winning number. And while you can’t predict the exact winning number on every spin, you can at least predict the right wheel sector on most spins. So by increasing the accuracy of predictions, the player has increased their odds of winning although the payouts remain the same. The house edge would still exist, but it wouldn’t matter because the player has shifted the odds in their favor.
So the best roulette bet is betting on areas of the wheel. In fact it’s the only way to change the odds of winning at the table. But there’s a catch.
If your roulette system was accurately predicting the winning number (or winning area of the wheel), you will have increased your odds of winning, and would be profiting. But if particular physical factors of the wheel changed, this could make the ball land in a different area to what you predict. So instead of hitting the winning number, you would be avoiding it. So instead of increasing your odds of winning, you will be decreasing the odds. In fact your odds of winning will be worse than random bet selection.
Chances Winning Numbers Roulette
For this reason, inexperienced players trying to use professional betting systems can have a good streak of wins. But if the wheel’s physical conditions have changed and the player’s system hasn’t adjusted, then the player will hit a bad losing streak. Again that’s because they’d unwittingly be avoiding the winning numbers instead of targeting them. So while the best roulette bet is wheel sectors, the system must be advanced enough to deal with ever-changing physical variables that determine the winning number. One example is air pressure, because air pressure can change the deceleration rate of the ball.