The house advantage of any casino game does not stay static. It changes depending on how you play. I brought up before that American roulette has a 5.26% house advantage. This is true if you make any bet other than the basket. The basket, also called the top line or the top 5, covers the numbers 0, 00, 1, 2, and 3 with one chip, but the house advantage of the basket is 7.89%. A 6-number line bet pays 5:1. Plus your original stake, you will receive 6 times your bet. There are 6 ways to win out of 38 total spaces, and 6 x 6 = 36, so your 38-spin theoretical average will be 38 units spent and 36 units won for a net loss of 2 units. 2 out of 38 is 5.26%, thus we have a 5.26% disadvantage on the line bet. Now let’s do the math for the basket. The 5-number basket bet pays 6:1. Plus your original stake, you will receive 7 times your bet. There are 5 ways to win, and 5 x 7 = 35, so your 38-spin theoretical average will be 38 units spent and 35 units won for a net loss of 3 units. 3 out of 38 is 7.89%. Depending on how you bet, you can either play with a 5.26% disadvantage or a 7.89% disadvantage. To play with the lowest disadvantage, we must consider all bets available and analyze the math behind each bet.
House rules vary from casino to casino, and depending on the casino, you may be able to find a European roulette game with the rule known as “la partage.” With this rule, you receive half of your money back when a 0 is rolled if you are betting on a 1:1 payout. On any other wager, there is a 2.7% house advantage, but when betting on a 1:1 payout with the la partage rule, there is a 1.35% house advantage. Depending on how you bet, you can either play with a 2.7% disadvantage or a 1.35% disadvantage. There is no set house edge. It all depends on how you play.
In mini baccarat games with a 5% commission on the banker bet, there is a 1.24% house edge on the player bet, a 1.06% house edge on the banker bet, and a 14.36% house edge on a tie bet with an 8:1 payout. There are many different side bets that you might see on a baccarat game, and they all have their own house edges, but depending on how you bet, you can play with a 1.24% disadvantage, a 1.06% disadvantage, or a 14.36% disadvantage. You choose how you play, and you choose your own disadvantage.
Not only do different individual bets have different house edges, but so do different betting strategies. If you play blackjack the exact way that a basic strategy chart tells you to play, then you will play with about a 0.5% disadvantage depending on the house rules of the specific game, but many gamblers like to play with inferior strategies that have higher house edges. There is one popular strategy called the “Play Like The Dealer” strategy and another strategy called the “Never Bust” strategy. The theory behind the “Play Like The Dealer” strategy is that if the dealer’s rules give the house their advantage, then there should be a 0% house advantage if you play the exact way that the dealer plays. The dealer hits on totals of 16 or less and stands on totals of 17 or more, so players using this strategy will do the same. The flaw behind this strategy is that the player always acts first, and if you and the dealer both bust, then you lose – you do not tie. If you tied, then it would be a different story, but playing like the dealer will carry about a 6% disadvantage depending on the house rules. Another blackjack strategy that some players use is the “Never Bust” strategy. The theory behind the “Never Bust” strategy is that because the dealer busts on certain hands, then you should never hit on any total over 11, thus you will never bust, and you will win when the dealer busts. There are 2 ways to lose at blackjack – when your total is less than the dealer’s total and when you bust. People claim that you will win more often because you’re taking away 50% of the casino’s ways to beat you. The problem with this strategy is that the dealer has an average bust rate of about 28% – not 50% – leaving you potentially exposed for the majority of the time, and playing this strategy will carry about a 4% disadvantage depending on the house rules. Depending on your strategy, you can choose to play with a 0.5% disadvantage, a 4% disadvantage, or a 6% disadvantage.
Even when playing perfect strategy, changing the denomination of your bet can change the house edge of some games. In the full pay version of the video poker game Jacks or Better, there is a 0.46% house edge if you play with perfect strategy when betting full coins, but there is a 1.62% house edge when betting less than full coins because there is a 2750 extra coin bonus for getting a royal flush when betting full coins. Those are the percentages for “full pay” games, but depending on the pay schedule found on top of the game, you could be playing with even more of a disadvantage. Full pay Jacks or Better is also called 9/6 Jacks in gambling slang. 9/6 refers to how much the game pays for full houses and flushes. Full paying games pay 9 credits for a full house for every credit spent and 6 credits for a flush for every credit spent, but you may also see 9/5, 8/6, 8/5, 7/5, or 6/5 versions, and each of these games have even greater house edges. With all other payouts being equal, the 9/5 version has a house advantage of 1.55% when betting full coins and 2.78% when betting less than full coins, and the 6/5 version has a house advantage of 5% when betting full coins, and 6.24% when betting less than full coins.
Changing your strategy changes the house advantage of casino games. Most gambling strategies will not overcome the house advantage, but there are indeed plenty of strategies that do overcome the house advantage. Advantage playing overcomes the casino’s mathematical advantage because advantage playing and gambling are two completely different things. When you gamble, you have a mathematical negative expected value, but when you advantage play, you have a mathematical positive expected value. If you play basic strategy on a blackjack game without card counting, you are playing with a negative expected value, thus you are gambling because there is a 0.5% house advantage against you, but when combining basic strategy with card counting, you will be able to play with a positive expected value and a 0.5% player advantage instead of a 0.5% house advantage. Any time you have an expected value under 100%, you are gambling, and any time you have an expected value over 100%, you are advantage playing. In this website, I will explain methods of advantage playing that I call “loophole gambling.” Regular advantage playing takes advantage of statistics, but loophole gambling takes advantage of game flaws and house rules to have an expected value over 100%. If you would like to learn about loophole gambling, you can support the website with a membership. We’ll see you inside!