Gambling has always been a treacherous endeavor, and one that can have just as tragedy as it can fortune.
However, there are certain casino games that can sway the balance of luck in your favor – ensuring that, every once in a while, the house doesn’t always win.
But which casino game has the best odds?
Which Casino Game Has The Best Odds?
When it comes to casino games, there are two notable games that have dramatically greater odds of winning – making them firm favorites amongst fair weather gamblers, and would be first timers alike.
Roulette
The roulette wheel is an iconic game, and one that offers roughly a 50% chance of winning.
This is because there are 38 slots on a roulette wheel – consisting of alternating numbers separated into black and red. This is also accompanied by ‘0’ and ‘00’ at either end, meaning there are 36 possible colored numbers to choose from.
If the player chooses to opt on solely a color – red or black – then the odds of their color being chosen is 18/38 either way.
This means that, when gambling just on your specific color being chosen, there is a 47.3% chance of your color being chosen at random – which in gambling terms are not bad odds at all.
Of course, when numbers start being added into the bets, then the percentage of success can vary wildly.
Craps
Craps might be one of the lesser known casino games – at least to fair weather or new gamblers – but it remains incredibly popular within the casino industry.
Craps also has some of the best and fairest odds of all the casino games, offering the player odds of around 50%.
Craps is a table game played with dice, with one player acting as the ‘shooter’ (who rolls the dice), and the others betting on the outcome of the roll.
You can either place a bet on the specific outcome of the roll – i.e. what value the total will be – or you can bet on whether the shooter will win or lose, granting the gambler a 50/50 chance of being right.
Blackjack
Blackjack is a common and much loved casino game – if only for its simplicity and limited rules.
Many of you might know that the aim of Blackjack is to make ‘21’ from the cards that are dealt to you – with the object of the game to get closer than the dealer without getting ‘bust’ – that is, going over the value of 21.
Generally speaking, the odds of the player winning in a game of Blackjack are roughly 49%, making it one of the games with the best odds. This is because, by and large, the dealer relies just as much on their own luck as the player does.
All the player needs to do is know the value of each of the cards they have been dealt – although this figure will be stated – and know the basics of probability of their next move being a win or a loss.
For example, if the player had a score of 18, and the dealer asked them what they wanted to do next, then the best choice would be to ‘stick’ at 18 – as the chance of them getting a card with a low enough denomination to make 21 (i.e. an Ace, a 2, or a 3) are incredibly slim.
There are 52 cards in a deck (without the jokers), and these are separated into four suits or houses (diamonds, spades, clubs, and hearts), and then once again separated into their individual denominations – Ace (1 or 11), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, as well as Kings, Queens, and Jacks for each suit, which in turn are worth 10 each.
Which Games Have The Worst Odds?
There are also, of course, some games that have the worst odds of all casino games. These are generally due to the complexity of the game itself, or because the application of skill is near impossible.
Slot Machines
Slot machines have some of the worst odds of all the casino games, namely because the outcome is generally quite random, and there is no chance or possibility of the player being able to use skills to aid them.
Generally speaking, the odds of winning on a slot machine are 1 in 49,836,032 – which translates roughly to 0.0000020066%.
Wheel Of Fortune
These are often used as gimmicks at casinos, where people can win ‘free spins’ – usually with a chance of winning high ticket items like new cars, vacation packages, or indeed large sums of money.
However, these are purely based on chance, and the outcome depends on how fast the wheel is spun, how much resistance the wheel has, and how many options are available for the needle to land on.
This puts the odds of winning at around 26-39%, roughly speaking.
Poker
Poker had bad odds, but for a different reason as the above games. Poker is heavily based on skill, not to mention a little bit of luck and randomness, meaning that players need to be savvy of the rules, and have good instincts to succeed.
This adds a lot of variables into the game, making the odds somewhat more unpredictable – or at least, open to variation based on the skills of the individual.
Final Thoughts
And there we have it, everything you need to know about casino games, and which one has the best odds!
It’s true that gambling is, in fact, just that – a gamble – and there can be numerous things that can go wrong (or right) in the space of a few seconds.
Luckily, there are various games you can play where the odds are stacked somewhat more in your favor – allowing you to
potentially strike it lucky and reap the rewards.