Most casino games have odds based on hard mathematics. Roulette, for example, is a fairly easy game to work out in terms of the house edge for each specific bet. If you were betting straight up (on a specific number), you would simply compare the payout (35 to 1 typically) and the number of segments (37 on a European wheel) to arrive at a house edge of 2.70%. It means in essence, that theoretically, the casino earns $2.70 in profit for every $100 spent when calculated over a long period of time.
Roulette is also typical of casino games in that it is purely a game of chance, i.e., there is not action you can take to change the odds. With blackjack, though, things are a little different. For a start, the house edge is one of the lowest of any casino games, placed at somewhere around 0.5%. That figure of 0.5% is very loose, however, and it is universally accepted that it is only achievable when a superior strategy is employed.
A huge variety of blackjack variants
Moreover, there are numerous blackjack variants with different rules and payout structures. You can click here to see the wide variety of live and virtual blackjack offered by DraftKings, for instance, with each varying in terms of house edge/player return rates.
As a quick aside, we should point out how there is a house edge in blackjack at all. After all, it is just you versus the dealer. Well, the underlying reason is that the player plays first. Thus, if the player goes bust, the dealer wins without needing to play out their hand.
There are other elements that offset that, including the fact that the dealer is confined to rigid rules, e.g., drawing to 17, whereas the player is flexible to make their own decisions on their hand. If you are a skilled player, the latter is beneficial. If not, it can make the house edge worse.
Good strategy must be employed
Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that the target house edge of 0.5% (some argue it ranges from 0.3% to 0.7%) is achievable with a strong strategy. It does not need to be counting cards per se, but obviously keeping track of what has come out of the deck can help, but knowing when to employ tactics like double down and splits, and so on.
There are other factors at play. One typical sticking point is the payout for a winning blackjack hand, i.e., an Ace and a King, Queen, Jack or 10. Typically, the payout for this is 3:2 compared to 1:1 for a ‘normal’ winning hand. That payout rate factors into the house edge. But guess what? Many offline casinos have cut the blackjack payout from 3:2 to 6:5, swinging the odds back in favor of the house.
Not every land-based casino cut the odds in this way, but Forbes reported on it a few years back, pointing out that it was driving players from casino hotspots like Las Vegas. Online, the superior 3:2 payment is retained for traditional blackjack games.
In the end, it’s up to the player to do two things: research the conditions of the game – payouts, rules, how many decks, etc., – and then adapt their strategy to those conditions if choosing to play. If employed correctly, the house edge can be minimized in a way no other casino game can.
