What Are the Best and Worst Bets in the Casino?

My son is about to turn 21 and we have a trip to Las Vegas planned to celebrate the occasion. He asked me a question good enough to pass along to the experts. He'll be tickled to see that you answered it, if you do, and I'm sure he'll take it to heart. His question: What are the best and worst bets in the casino?

Yes, it's a good question that we're happy to answer and we hope that your son becomes an informed casino customer now that he's legal. It certainly sounds like he's off to a fine start.

As for the answer, as usual when it comes to gambling, it depends. First, we have to define "best" and "worst."

For example, while a game like video poker may offer the best odds when played perfectly, the average player might not be able to implement perfect strategy. Additionally, the money-earning potential of a game can be impacted by the imposition of low limits or a slow rate of play.

When it comes to gauging the worst, you can rate bets by their house edge alone or add in considerations of speed and minimum-bet size. The following looks at the question from the standpoint of a single bet only.

Under the single-bet criterion, keno is the worst. Though rare keno games surface with a house advantage of less than 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 as bad. Keno gets the nod. (Note that video keno odds are in line with regular slot machines.)

The best bets for skilled players are found, like we mentioned earlier, at video poker machines, as well as at the blackjack tables. Note the "skilled" qualification; these games require study to master their strategies.

Of the bets that anyone can make, the best is the banker bet at 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 factors mentioned at the top of this answer. Jean Scott does this via an incredible chart on p. 33 of her book More Frugal Gambling. In ranking 40 bets in terms of their "dollar-per-hour cost to play," she identifies the true best and worst wagers. 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 believe it or not, landing in the fourth-best position, at $2 per hour, is $1-per-game live keno, which was also named as our worst single bet above. This demonstrates the powerful effect that speed of play and amount wagered has on how much it costs to gamble.

And if you son is inspired to check the odds on all casino games, he can take a look at our book Gambling 102 by Michael "The Wizard of Odds" Shackleford.

No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.

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Bob Jun-06-2024

Life Lessons

My dear old Dad Loved his Dice! From his time heading into WWII on a Liberty Ship, till the day he died.  I came "Of Age" in the late 70's. Dad was in Reno for a trade show, so we drove over from Ca. to hang out with him for the weekend. I asked him to show me how to play Craps.  he walked me over to a table had me hand the nice man my $100 and I got a hand full of chips. he proceeded to tell me put 2 here, one there etc. it was all kind of a blur, and over in about 5 minutes! "There you go Son, that's Craps. Let's go get a beer!"  Wait...  Where's my $100?  Sly Old Bastard made sure I wouldn't Piss away all my money at the rail of a craps table, like he did!

Brent Peterson Jun-06-2024

Where to Start

I would suggest to the new gambler that he focus on video poker, sports bets, blackjack, poker, and horse racing. And probably in that order. Those games CAN be beaten and losing at them is a great motivator to learn more about how to beat them.

jay Jun-06-2024

Flyers, Comps and clubs

I would suggest signing up for players clubs. Most have some form of sign up bonus. It might be free play on a slot or a match bet on blackjack but something is better than nothing.

You will start to get flyers by mail or email that offer more player club points for play at certain days, and certain times of the day and/on certain games. 

Video Poker can be a good bet because you can read the pay table on screen and figure out your pay back percentage. This cannot be done on slots. When you are playing at that certain time of day even though you might not win or lose alot of money - you might earn enough points to pay for a family meal at the steak house. You could consider that a $170 win.

If your playing table games. I would suggest playing downtown or off strip. First off the table minimums are a lot less. So even if you play poorly you lose less. Unless your betting a lot - on strip - the house will be using an automatic shuffling machine. This speeds up play.

jay Jun-06-2024

continued....

For blackjack - many of the gift shops - have basic strategy cards. you look at your two cards and what the dealer has up, and it tells you to stand, draw or surrender. 

To the latter point of surrender many of the strip casinos have taken this away, and introduced other unfriendly rules for the player - such as only being able to split Aces once or no double down after a split. If your at the four queens or the Eldorado you are not impaired by these clear attempts at gouging. 

You can also get free gaming lessons in the mornings at many of the casinos. As you walk around you will see signs up for this. 

Speaking of mornings - table limits tend to be lower in the mornings and with no crowds you can often find a friendly dealer who will help you play well and take the time to explain why to play a certain way. Dealers get paid by the hour and in tips. They know when your winning you tip better and when your losing you don't. They want to help you win.

steve crouse Jun-07-2024

Black Jack

If you practice playing perfect strategy (it's never perfectly perfect), blackjack can be a very enjoyable way to gamble, have a few drinks, and meet people from all over the world. A couple of weeks before a trip to Vegas I brush up on strategy by practicing at any number of free training games for a few minutes every day.Blacjackinfo.com is the one I use. The old Silver City dollar BJ games are long gone, but there are still low stakes games if you like them.

O2bnVegas Jun-07-2024

late reply

The best thing the birthday boy should do is establish his daily budget, maybe in envelops, and don't exceed it.

Another good thing is have someone show him how to play VP or slots betting as low as possible and not worry about trying to come out a winner.

Example: Dragon Link slots can be played 0.50 (fifty cents) at a pull (or one dollar, or a dollar-fifty, and so on), and have his money last longer, yet he would still be eligible for a good bonus hit.  I saw an older gentleman hit the top jackpot playing fifty cents a pull.  Same for VP...look for nickle games or more, play low.  This is his first trip...don't try to be an expert.  Just have fun.  JMHO.

Candy

Question of the Day - 06 June 2024

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