Casino Wagers to Avoid

It should come as no surprise that casino games are designed to give the casino a statistical advantage. By carefully developing games the casino can control the estimated pay-off on each game and each wager within the game. When a casino advertises their slot machines pay-out 98 percent, it should tell you just how much money the casino makes. What this advertisement is telling you is that the casino keeps 2 percent of every wager made in the slot machines. All the casino needs to make money are players, and lots of them.

While every casino game is designed to make money for the casino, there are certain wagers which carry a much higher casino advantage. While some of the best bets in the casino can have a casino advantage of 0.50 percent or even less. Other wagers in the casino can have a casino advantage of 25 percent of even higher. These are the wagers you want to avoid.

There are three wagers which you should avoid at all costs. Each of these will have a casino advantage of 24 percent or higher. These include live keno, which is basically a lottery ticket, Caribbean Stud Poker, which carries an average casino advantage of 26 percent. The last of the three is the Big Six Wheel. In this game the casino advantage will vary from 11 percent up to 24 percent. The potential payout and odds of winning do not offset the casino edge for any of these wagers.

The blackjack table can offer some of the best odds in the casino, if the player plays sound blackjack strategy. If the player can manage card counting without being spotted by the casino staff, the odds can actually turn in favor of the player. When a player goes away from sound strategy and begins playing on emotion or a feeling, this advantage disappears. In certain instances the casino edge can climb to as high as 20 percent. Play sound strategy, or be ready to surrender your money to the casino.

Another wager to avoid is also at the blackjack table. The casino edge is approximately 8 percent on the blackjack insurance wager. Baccarat has a high casino edge at 14.36 percent.

Certain bets at the craps table actually pay true odds, which is the only place in the casino where you will find this. There are also wagers on the craps table which you will want to avoid. The proposition bet will have a casino advantage as high as 16.7 percent. The roulette wheel offers few positive wagers as the game as a whole will have a casino edge of 5.26 percent. This is on a double zero machine which is used in nearly 100 percent of casinos in the United States. The European roulette wheel has only a single zero. The single zero wheel has a casino advantage of 2.7 percent.

The casino has an advantage on every game in the casino. With proper play you can reduce some of this advantage on a handful of games or wagers. You can also greatly increase the casino advantage by making poor wager selections or playing games which are best left to the people who do not mind funding casino expansions.