What the house edge actually means
The house edge is the casino's built-in mathematical advantage on a bet, written as a percentage of each wager the house expects to keep over the long run. If a game has a 1% house edge, then for every $100 you put into action you should expect to lose about $1 on average — no more, no less, once enough hands are played. The house edge is not a fee taken from a single hand; it is a long-run average that emerges from the probabilities and payouts baked into the rules. Any individual session can win or lose wildly, but the house edge is the gravity the results drift toward.
Understanding house edge starts with separating it from two things it is often confused with. It is not the same as the chance of losing a given hand, and it is not the same as how much you might lose in a session. The house edge is a rate: the average share of every dollar wagered that the house keeps. Its mirror image is the return to player, or RTP, which is simply 100% minus the house edge. A game with a 0.5% house edge returns 99.5% of all money bet over time.
House edge of every casino table game
Here is the house edge for the main casino games under correct or optimal play, ordered from the lowest house edge to the highest. The rows marked "our engine" are house edges our own game engines compute exactly; the rest are established published figures. This is the comparison table at the heart of the House Edge Lab:
| Game (optimal play) | House edge | RTP | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video Poker — NSU Deuces Wild | 0.27% | 99.73% | our engine ✓ |
| Spanish 21 (dealer stands soft 17) | 0.40% | 99.60% | published |
| Video Poker — 9/6 Jacks or Better | 0.46% | 99.54% | our engine ✓ |
| Blackjack — basic strategy (6-deck, S17) | 0.50% | 99.50% | published |
| Baccarat — Banker | 1.06% | 98.94% | published |
| Baccarat — Player | 1.24% | 98.76% | published |
| Craps — Pass / Come | 1.41% | 98.59% | published |
| Ultimate Texas Hold'em (Ante) | 2.19% | 97.81% | published |
| Pai Gow Poker (house way) | 2.50% | 97.50% | published |
| Roulette — European (single zero) | 2.70% | 97.30% | published |
| Three Card Poker (Ante-Play) | 3.37% | 96.63% | published |
| Let It Ride | 3.51% | 96.49% | published |
| Caribbean Stud Poker | 5.22% | 94.78% | published |
| Roulette — American (double zero) | 5.26% | 94.74% | published |
| Slots (typical) | ~6% | ~94% | published |
| Baccarat — Tie | 14.36% | 85.64% | published |
| Keno (typical) | ~25% | ~75% | published |
Want your expected cost in dollars for any of these? Run the numbers in our house edge calculator — enter a game, your bet and hands per hour and it returns your expected loss.
The lowest house edges — and why
The lowest house edge games share one feature: skill matters, and the pay tables are generous. Full-pay video poker leads the field because a perfect strategy exists and the top pay tables were designed to return over 99% — our engine puts 9/6 Jacks or Better at a 0.46% house edge and NSU Deuces Wild at just 0.27%. Blackjack and Spanish 21 follow closely when you play accurate basic strategy, landing around a 0.40–0.50% house edge. Baccarat's banker bet reaches a low house edge of 1.06% with no strategy at all, simply because of how the fixed drawing rules and commission balance out. These are the games where a knowledgeable player gives up the least.
At the other end, games with a high house edge tend to punish either luck-only formats or tempting side bets. American roulette's double zero doubles its edge to 5.26% versus the European wheel's 2.70%. Caribbean Stud sits above 5% because the dealer's qualification rule quietly caps your winning hands. And the baccarat tie bet, at over 14%, is a classic example of a payout that looks exciting but hides an enormous built-in edge. Knowing the house edge before you sit down is the difference between a game that costs a little and one that costs a lot.
How the house edge is calculated
At its core the house edge is a weighted average: take every possible outcome of a bet, multiply each outcome's probability by its net payoff, add them up, and express the total as a fraction of the amount wagered. The result is the average amount the house keeps per unit bet. For a simple wager like a single roulette number the arithmetic is short; for a game like video poker, where the optimal play of each hand changes the outcome distribution, it takes real computation.
That computation is exactly what our engines do. For our video poker house edges we do not estimate — we exhaustively enumerate all 2,598,960 possible five-card deals, apply the optimal hold to each, and average the exact return, which is how we can state a 0.46% house edge for 9/6 Jacks or Better to the fourth decimal. For the poker-based table games we combine the published combinatorial analysis of the rules with the optimal strategy the game allows. Every figure in the table above reflects correct play; make strategy mistakes and your personal house edge climbs above the number shown.
House edge vs element of risk
One subtlety trips up a lot of players: on games where you make a second bet after seeing your cards, the house edge can be quoted two ways. The plain house edge measures the expected loss against your original bet, while the element of risk measures it against the total amount you actually put at stake, including raises. Let It Ride, for example, has a 3.51% house edge on the base bet but a lower element of risk near 2.85%, because you pull two of your three bets so often. Neither number is wrong — they answer slightly different questions — but comparing games fairly means comparing like with like.
Why players lose more than the house edge suggests
The house edge tells you the cost per dollar wagered, not per dollar you bring to the table — and that distinction explains why real losses often exceed the headline number. The reason is volume: every time you rewager a winning, that new bet faces the edge again. Total expected loss depends on your average bet and how many hands you play, which is why a low house edge game played fast can still cost more than a higher-edge game played slowly. Our house edge calculator makes this concrete by turning any house edge into an expected hourly cost.
House advantage and the long run
The house advantage only reveals itself over the long run — and that gap between the short run and the long run is where most misunderstanding lives. In a single session the built-in edge is invisible: you can beat a 5% house advantage for an hour or lose to a 0.5% game all night. What the house edge guarantees is a direction, not a result. Play a hundred hands and luck dominates; play a hundred thousand and the house advantage grinds the outcome toward the expected value with near-certainty. Casinos are patient because the math is on their side over volume, not over any one hand.
This is why understanding house edge is really about understanding time. A low house edge does not make a game a winner; it makes it a slower loser, which for a recreational player is the whole point — more entertainment per dollar, more hands before the built-in edge catches up. When two games sit close together in the table above, the tie-breaker is rarely the edge alone. It is how fast the game is dealt, how large your average bet drifts, and whether tempting side bets with a much higher house advantage pull you off the low-edge main game. A 1% edge bet made twice as often costs twice as much, and a single side bet at a 10% edge can quietly outweigh a whole night of disciplined low-edge play.
Understanding house edge also reframes what "strategy" buys you. On a skill game the published house edge assumes flawless play, so every strategy mistake is a small, private tax added on top of the house advantage. That is the good news: on video poker and blackjack you control a real part of the number, and the correct chart shrinks it to the figure in our table. On pure-chance games there is no such lever — the house advantage is fixed the moment you place the bet, and your only decision is which bet, and how often, to make.
Use the edge to choose your game
Knowing the house edge turns casino games from a mystery into a menu with prices. If you want the lowest house edge and are willing to learn, video poker and blackjack reward the effort more than any other games on the floor. If you want a low house edge with no strategy, the baccarat banker bet is hard to beat. And if a bet's payout looks too generous, the house edge usually explains why. Explore the exact numbers and the correct strategy for each of our games through the casino table games hub, and price any of them with the house edge calculator.
Frequently asked questions
What is the house edge?
The house edge is the built-in mathematical advantage a casino has on a bet, expressed as the percentage of each wager the house expects to keep over the long run. A 1% house edge means you lose about $1 of every $100 wagered on average.
Which casino games have the lowest house edge?
The lowest house edges among common games belong to full-pay video poker (about 0.27–0.46%), Spanish 21 and blackjack with basic strategy (about 0.40–0.50%), and baccarat on the banker bet (1.06%). Video poker and blackjack reward correct strategy the most.
How is the house edge calculated?
The house edge is the sum of each outcome's probability multiplied by its net payoff, expressed as a fraction of the bet. For our video poker games we compute it by exhaustively enumerating every possible hand; for other games it comes from established combinatorial analysis of the rules and pay tables.
House edges reflect correct or optimal play under common US rules; specific pay tables and table rules shift the exact numbers. Educational content about probability, not gambling advice.