What Are the Best and Worst Bets in a Casino? 

Under the single-bet criterion, keno is the worst. Though rare games surface with house advantages below 10%, the average edge is 25%-30% and the worst cards routinely exceed a 30% player disadvantage. What's more, these are fixed percentages that don't improve.

 

The casino advantage on certain table-game side bets, such as Let It Ride and Caribbean Stud, may exceed that of keno, but they usually include progressive payoffs that improve their returns rapidly.

 

Sports-betting parlay cards (especially "ties-win" varieties) can have holds up there with keno, but not all cards are this way. Keno gets the nod.

 

The best bets for skilled players are found in blackjack and video poker. However, these games require study to master their strategies.

 

Of the bets that anyone can make, the best is the banker bet in baccarat, which carries a low 1.06% house edge. Arguments will come in for craps' pass and don't pass with odds, but the line bet and odds bet are two separate (albeit linked) wagers.

 

The real determinant of the best and worst bets, however, should take into account the imposition of low limits or a slow rate of play. In a chart in our book The Frugal Gambler Guide to Casinos, Jean Scott ranks nearly 40 bets in terms of their "dollar-per-hour cost to play."

 

At the bottom of the list is dollar slots, at a cost of $54 per hour.

 

At the top is sports betting, with a cost of just 25¢ per hour.

 

And landing in the fourth-best position, at $2 per hour, is $1-per-game keno, which was named worst single bet above. This demonstrates the powerful effect that speed of play and amount wagered has on how much it costs to gamble.