Whether you like playing real money slots, online blackjack or live dealer roulette – or any one of the many other available online casino games – you should always be aware of the house edge of whatever game you choose to play.
The house edge is, quite simply, the house’s (casino’s) advantage over the player. A house edge of 1%, not uncommon, means that for every $1,000 you wager on a given game, you would expect to lose just $10. Whether you are working your way through a casino welcome bonus, trying to profit from a reload or other promotion, or just playing for fun – or indeed to make money – knowing roughly what sort of advantage the casino holds over you is central to your choices, strategy, enjoyment and odds of success.
Video Poker
Video poker is one of the very best games to play at a real money online casino because under the most favorable rules, and allowing for loyalty schemes, the house edge can actually be negative. That is to say, in the long term, the player can expect to make a profit, not a loss. Finding such rules is almost impossible these days but even with more common video poker rules and variants you can expect a very low house edge of between 0.5% and 2% and a great chance of winning with just a little slice of luck.
Blackjack
As with video poker, blackjack has a very low house edge, with 0.28% widely accepted as lowest but again, 0.5% to around 1% more common. As with video poker, in order to achieve the lowest possible house edge you need to play to optimum strategy, in the case of online blackjack using basic strategy.
Craps
The house edge in craps varies according to what you bet on, with certain bets actually having zero house edge, others an edge of almost 17% and most bets coming in around the 1.3% to 3% mark.
Roulette
Always play single zero versions of roulette. This has a very reasonable house edge of 2.7%, whilst double zero almost doubles the edge, up to 5.26%, or even higher if you bet on the top line, 0, 00, 1, 2 or 3.
Slots
Slots usually have the highest house edge going, with 3% to 10% quite normal and an edge of as much as 15% not unheard of. On the upside though, slots, especially progressive slots, offer the chance of huge wins from tiny stakes and also some exciting and hugely involving gameplay.