Blackjack, like other games offered by the gambling house, gives the casino a significant advantage over the gamer. This is expressed as a percentage and is documented by the House Edge/House Vigorish provision.
The Casino Advantage makes it possible to calculate how profitable a particular betting position is for the gambling house. For example, the NolimitWay site helps to quickly calculate the advantage, to a casino advantage of 3.5%, the payout to the player will be approximately 96.5%. In simpler terms, every $100 from betting is divided as follows: $3.5 goes to the gambling house and $96.5 goes to pay users’ winnings.
These are averages! There are also situations where the casino has to pay extra money to the player. Let’s say two players wagered $100 each, one of them lost and the other won $300.
Blackjack, craps and roulette are considered “games against the bank”. Despite the casino’s promises, the odds of winning are not at all equal. Whatever the outcome of a round, the casino will take a percentage of the wager, as stipulated by the rules.
In blackjack, the wager of each losing gamer goes to the dealer, so the results of the game are not that important. To make a profit, a player needs to defeat the dealer, who is not only interested in winning, but also in outbidding the player.
How does no blackjack strategy influence the casino’s blackjack advantage? The undisputed advantage for a gambling house is the unpredictable payout for any of the games. If you try to calculate your chances of winning and the payout offered by the institution, the difference will always be substantial. Therefore, gamers are forced to put up with casino odds.
The most accessible example that clearly shows the discrepancy between the odds and the real odds is a dice game. Everyone knows that it involves drawing a die with a number between one and six on it. Let’s try to determine the odds of rolling a number 2 on the player’s roll: 100:6 = 16.66%.
Don’t expect the casino to pay the winner 6 x 1 if they manage to guess the lucky number. Even 5 x 1 offers a small fraction of gambling houses: mainly 4 x 1. So, the casino is working to increase your own advantage, making payments to the player less than the amount he can lose.
Even with the notable advantage of the gambling establishment, blackjack is considered to be one of the most loyal games. By sticking to a basic strategy, a gambler is able to reduce their casino advantage to as little as 0.17% during a single-deck game. If eight decks are involved, the figure is around 0.66%. Consequently, choosing fewer decks minimizes the casino’s advantage. That’s why playing with one deck brings miserable profit to the gamer – it compensates for the low advantage of the gambling establishment.