Casino maths
Every casino bet has a price. We compute it exactly.
On a European roulette wheel the casino keeps 2.70% of every stake on average; on an American wheel, 5.26%. The baccarat banker bet costs 1.06%, the tie bet 14.36%. We enumerate every pocket, every roll and every deal, so you can see the real price of each bet, and how we got it.
- Exact odds, not estimates
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The cheapest bets in the casino
| Bet | Game | House edge | Average loss per 100 staked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackjack, basic strategy (3:2, dealer stands on soft 17) | Blackjack | 0.57% | 0.57 |
| Baccarat, banker bet (5% commission) | Baccarat | 1.06% | 1.06 |
| Baccarat, player bet | Baccarat | 1.24% | 1.24 |
| Roulette, French even-money bet with la partage | Roulette | 1.35% | 1.35 |
| Craps, don't pass (12 is a push) | Craps | 1.36% | 1.36 |
Blackjack
The basic strategy chart, the dealer's bust odds and what each rule costs you.
Roulette
Every bet on European, French, American and triple-zero wheels.
Baccarat
Banker, player and tie, from every deal of an eight-deck shoe.
Craps
From the pass line and free odds to the one-roll bets.
Keno
The odds of every catch, and a calculator for any pay table.
Sic Bo
All 216 rolls of three dice: from big and small to the triples.
Big Six wheel
The money wheel's 54 segments and the price of each bet.
What the house edge means
The house edge is the share of each stake that a casino keeps on average over many bets. A bet with a house edge of one per cent loses one unit per hundred staked in the long run, not on every bet: over a short session you can be well ahead or well behind. No betting system changes that average, because every bet in the sequence carries the same edge. What you can choose is the price: the gap between the cheapest and the dearest bets in the same casino is wide.
We do not host games or take bets. If gambling is causing you problems, free help is available.
Latest guides
All guidesNo double after split: what the blackjack rule costs
Learn how restricting doubling after splits increases the house edge and alters basic strategy charts for blackjack.
Keno odds: how fast the chance to catch every spot falls
Keno odds drop sharply as spot counts rise because each additional spot multiplies by a smaller fraction of remaining drawn numbers.
The Big Six money wheel: even its cheapest bet costs four times a roulette bet
The Big Six wheel carries a high house edge on every segment, far exceeding the cost of bets on European roulette.
Blackjack without basic strategy: stopping at 17 costs about ten times as much
Basic strategy reduces the house edge significantly compared to a simple stop-at-seventeen rule, though the advantage remains.
Sic Bo odds: big and small cost least, triples cost the most
Sic Bo odds vary by bet type, with big and small offering the lowest house edge while specific triples cost significantly more.
Pass or don't pass: the difference a 12 makes
Compare the house edge of pass and don't pass bets, understand the odds bet, and see how short-term results vary from long-term averages.
Know the price before you play
Enter your stake, the number of bets and the game: the calculator shows what you should expect to lose, and how far one session can swing.
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