Understanding What The House Edge Is And How It Will Affect You

If you haven't heard of house edge before, that's a concept that you should become very familiar with, because it's one of the most important things for a gambler to know about. The house edge, is essentially the amount of gambled money the casino is going to get from you over time for the specific game you're playing. If the house edge for the slot machine you're playing is 4% then every £100 that you gamble there will result in approximately £4 in profit for the casino. Of course this is not going to be how it works out every time that you play, but if you were to average hundreds of thousands of gameplay sessions together that's about the figure you would see for that game at that casino.

House Edge Varies By Game

If you don't take anything else away from this article, I want you to understand that the house edge is different with each and every game at a casino. Some slot machines will generate more profit than others. This is so important because when you know the house edge of many different games you can pick the ones that are going to give you the best odds of actually winning some money. Sure every game will come with a house edge, but some like blackjack are very minimal when you play with perfect strategy.

For Some Games Your Strategy Determines The Edge But Not All

When you're playing certain table games like Baccarat or blackjack you can determine what the house edge is based on how you play. For instance, choosing to bet on a tie in baccarat will leave you to deal with a much higher house edge than betting on the dealer's hand. When you play Blackjack with perfect strategy you could see a house edge of as little as 0.5% while it climbs higher than 4% when you make mistakes.

For other games like most slots, and even roulette, the decisions that you make don't affect that edge at all. You can play any way that you like and you'll have the same house edge. That means you don't have to worry about strategy as much and instead just have to hope to get lucky and keep playing the game for as long as you can to improve your chances of having a win.

The House Edge Is Based On Bets Not Your Bankroll

If you've ever sat down at a roulette table and burned through all your money in a few hours you might be wondering how the game could possibly have a house edge of just 5.26% for American roulette or half that for European. It doesn't make sense at first glance until you realize that the edge goes off of your bets, not the money that you came with. So even though you might only have £1,000. You might place £20,000 in bets over those few hours and that would equate to an estimated £1,052 in losses over that period.

Knowing the house edge of a game before you ever sit down to play it will help you prepare. Games with better odds can be played with more confidence and with a higher bankroll, but games with a higher house edge should be played with great caution or you'll burn through your bankroll very quickly.