Casinos don't hide the house edge — they just print it in a language most people never learned. Here it is in plain English: how each game plays, what every bet on the layout actually costs, which bets are the sucker bets, the quirks the pit won't mention, and where a disciplined player can flip the edge — legally. Each game has its own page with a variance simulator that plays a thousand sessions from the real odds, and a grade, so you know what a night at each table is worth.
Sorted from the game I'd happily sit at to the one I'd walk past. "Best bet" is what a player who knows the layout pays; "typical" is what the average tourist pays. The difference is the whole point of this page.
| Game | Grade | Best bet edge | Typical edge | Skill matters? | Advantage play | One line |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blackjack | A | 0.3–0.5% | ~2% (and 1.4% more at 6:5) | Decisive | Yes — the classic | The best game on the floor, if you find a 3:2 table and play the chart. |
| Video Poker | A− | 0.46% (9/6 JoB) | 2.7–5% (short-pay) | Decisive | Yes — the quiet one | A slot machine that publishes its odds. Read the paytable or don't sit. |
| Craps | B+ | 0.37% (pass + 3-4-5x odds) | 5–17% (the middle of the table) | Bet selection only | Not really | Two great bets surrounded by forty terrible ones. Loudest fun per dollar in the building. |
| Baccarat | B | 1.06% (Banker) | 1.06–1.24% (14% on Tie) | None | Rarely | Zero decisions, low edge, fast. The house's favourite game for a reason. |
| Ultimate Texas Hold'em | B− | 0.53% of money bet | 2.19% of ante (more with Trips) | Significant | Occasionally | Poker's costume, house's rules. Fun, strategic, and priced fairly if you raise 4x when you should. |
| Three Card Poker | C+ | 2.01% of money bet | 3.37% ante / up to 7.28% Pair Plus | One rule | Occasionally | One decision (Q-6-4), one trap (Pair Plus), one pleasant hour. |
| Roulette | C− | 1.35% (single zero, la partage) | 5.26% (double zero) / 7.69% (triple) | Wheel selection only | Historically | Elegant, slow, and every bet on the felt costs the same — pick the wheel, not the bet. |
| Slots | D | 2–4% (high-limit, if you're lucky) | 6–15%, and you can't see it | None | Niche | The only game where the price is a secret. That's the tell. |
Where the numbers come from. House edges are the standard published figures for each game's rules and paytable (the Wizard of Odds compilations, which are the industry reference), quoted as the edge on the amount initially bet unless stated. Casinos vary their rules and paytables constantly; the edge on the table in front of you is whatever its rules say, and this page teaches you how to read them. Nothing here is advice to gamble — it's the price list.
Every page has the full analysis — how it plays, the house edge on every bet, best and worst bets, the quirks, advantage play and its legality — plus a simulator that runs a thousand sessions from the bet's real outcome table. Slots get an explanation of why there isn't one.
The best game on the floor, if you find a 3:2 table and play the chart.
ANALYSIS · VARIANTS · TRAINER →A slot machine that publishes its odds. Read the paytable or don't sit.
ANALYSIS + SIMULATOR →Two great bets surrounded by forty terrible ones. Loudest fun per dollar in the building.
ANALYSIS + SIMULATOR →Zero decisions, low edge, fast. The house's favourite game for a reason.
ANALYSIS + SIMULATOR →Poker's costume, house's rules. Fun, strategic, and priced fairly if you raise 4x when you should.
ANALYSIS + SIMULATOR →One decision (Q-6-4), one trap (Pair Plus), one pleasant hour.
ANALYSIS + SIMULATOR →Elegant, slow, and every bet on the felt costs the same — pick the wheel, not the bet.
ANALYSIS + SIMULATOR →The only game where the price is a secret. That's the tell.
READ THE ANALYSIS →A grade isn't just the house edge. A 1% game that drains $2,000 an hour is worse for you than a 3% game that drains $60. Here's the scorecard behind every letter.
What the best available bet costs, and how badly the typical player overpays it. Weighted heaviest — it's the rent.
Do your choices move the number? Blackjack: enormously. Baccarat: not at all. Skill you can learn is edge you can keep.
Edge × bet × decisions per hour = what the night costs. Slots resolve 600 times an hour; roulette, 40. Speed is a hidden multiplier.
How many bets on the layout exist purely to punish people who don't read? Craps and blackjack side bets are minefields around a good core.
Entertainment is a legitimate purchase. A game that's social, slow and cheap earns credit — you're paying for the evening, not the outcome.
Advantage play is noted separately for each game: what it is, whether it's legal, and how the house treats you if it notices. It never changes the grade — the grade is for the player the casino expects, not the one it fears.
Every game above has the same shape: a fair-ish core bet, surrounded by expensive bets that look more exciting, on a layout designed to make the expensive ones feel like the main event. Read the price before you play — and notice that the one game on this list that doesn't have a house edge is the one this whole site is built around.
Poker isn't on this list because the casino isn't your opponent — it takes a rake and the other players take everything else. There's no house edge to grade, only a skill edge to earn. That's a different curriculum, and the one twenty years at the table paid for. Coming to Pillar 02 next.
A 0.5% edge and a 5% edge both go to zero if you bet enough of your bankroll on one hand. Kelly, fractional Kelly, drawdown math and tilt control — the part nobody wants to study — live in Pillar 03: The Bankroll.
BACK TO THE CURRICULUM →