What Are The Odds for Your Favourite Online Casino Table Games?

Today's online casino games are considered among the most transparent when it comes to fairness and payouts.  A number of the software providers are publicly traded and must undergo intensive scrutiny.  In this sense, the virtual casino is just as fair as the brick and mortar venue.  There are actual instances where web casinos pay out even more than their land-based counterparts.

Below we look at the average payout odds for each of your favorite table games.

Blackjack

Blackjack is among the most popular of the table games online. There are many different variants, each with its own payout odds.

Classic Blackjack

Classic blackjack is the most commonly found variant of the game in casinos, both retail and online. The object of the game is to create a hand with a value that is equal to or closer to 21 than the dealer’s hand.

The payout percentage or probability for classic blackjack sits at 42.22%, while the chance of getting 21 is 4.75%. The house edge is typically around 0.61%, which simply means that a $100 bet on a game results in the casino receiving $0.61.

Spanish 21

Spanish 21 utilizes six or eight Spanish decks with each of the decks consisting of 48 cards (the regular 52 cards less the four tens).  There are no 10's in the deck with Spanish 21.

With Spanish 21, blackjacks are paid at 3:2 odds for 5 cards.  This is also true of 21 with seven or more cards.  A 21 composed of 6-7-8 or 7-7-7 of mixed suits also pays out 3:2 odds.

No Draw to Split Aces results in a house edge of 0.29%.  Ace and 10 after splitting aces pays 3 to 2.

It should be noted that a 6 card 21 pays out at 2:1 odds while a 7 card 21 pays out at 3:1.

Perfect Pairs Blackjack

The chances of a 30/1 payout are good but the house edge is tremendous with Perfect Pairs blackjack. In an eight-deck blackjack game, you have 415 cards remaining upon being dealt your first.

Pontoon

“Pontoon” is when the Player or the Dealer draws a picture card and an Ace in their first two cards.

With Pontoon, the probability of hitting the Super Bonus is 1 in 668,382, with six decks, and 1 in 549,188, with eight decks.

Poker

Poker is among the most popular online casino games but a wide pool of players is required in order to make the game work. 

Today's top online poker sites feature regular tournaments.  A good tournament pays approximately 20% of the prize pool to the first place winner.

Odds of the following happening in the game of poker are:

Four-of-a-Kind    40 to 1
Full House    30 to 1
Flush    20 to 1
Pair of Aces / Three-of-a-Kind / Straight    7 to 1

Pai Gow

With pai gow poker, players will want to create a five-card poker hand and a two-card poker hand from seven cards that beat both of the bank's hands.

Pai Gow Poker has a standard house edge of 2.84%.

Roulette

European Roulette vs. American Roulette

The European roulette wheel is comprised of 37 pockets, numbered from 0 to 36.  The American roulette wheel has one additional pocket labeled as double zero (00).

One Number (Straight Bet)     35:1     2.70% (European odds)  2.63% (American odds)
Two Numbers     17:1     5.40% (European odds)  5.26% (American odds)
Three Numbers     11:1     8.10% (European odds)   7.89% (American odds)
Four Numbers     8:1     10.81% (European odds)   10.52% (American odds)
Five Numbers     6:1     13.51% (European odds)  13.15% (American odds)
Six Numbers     5:1     16.21% (European odds)   15.79% (American odds)
12 Numbers (Column/Dozen)     2:1     32.43% (European odds)   31.58% (American odds)
18 Numbers (Red/Black/Odd/Even/High/Low)     1:1     48.65% (European odds)  47.37% (American odds)

Lightning Roulette

Lightning Roulette is a game found on the BetMGM website in US states where online casinos are legal.  The objective in First Person Lightning Roulette is to predict the number on which the ball will land by placing one or more bets that cover that particular number.

Each game round features between 1 and 5 lucky numbers, each of which will pay out from 50X your wager, up to 500X!

Craps

There are numerous variations of the popular British dice game of craps. which first originated in 1788 and referred to as "Krabs" before a name change to "Hazard", then eventual to craps.

High Point Craps, Simplified, Die Rich Craps and New York Craps are just some of the variations found in both retail and online casinos.

True odds on craps 2:1.  In other words, you can expect to lose twice in between each win.

The house edge can be as high as 16.9% for some bets (Any 7).

Baccarat

Baccarat is a card game of 2- or 3-card hands, with the winner having the hands that gives the highest remainder when its face value is divided by 10.

In Baccarat, the Banker's hand will win 45.8% of the time, slightly higher than the Player's hand at 44.6%.  This means the Bankers hand wins 51% of the time.

Baccarat expert Prof. Eliot Jacobson revealed to Casino.com which of the Baccarat variants he likes the most.

"The best variant by far is the EZ Baccarat, where a banker winning three card 7 is a push. Normally the player bet has a 1.24% house edge; on the banker bet you’ll get an edge of anywhere from 1.02% to 1.43%, depending on the variant. On the EZ Baccarat variant, that’s the 1.02% edge on the banker side, so if you can find that and avoid the side bets, which is the lure of that variant, that would be the best to play."

Sic Bo

Sic Bo is another popular casino game that employs dice.

Gameplay involves betting that a certain condition will be satisfied by a roll of the dice.  An example would be all three dice rolling the same.

The probability of winning with Sic Bo is 48.61%.  Odds pay 1 to 1 typically.  The house edge is 2.78%.

A Trend Towards Lower Payout Odds in Vegas Means More Bets Online

Blackjack does have the best odds with the right strategy having the potential to reduce the house edge down to 0.50%.

There is a trend that's been occurring in Las Vegas of late whereby players claim they are not getting the same winnings as in the past. 

Blackjack and casino experts, like Mike Aponte of the MIT card-counting team fame, have all but confirmed the changes in table game odds payouts.

"(But) last year, according to data from the Nevada Gaming Commission, blackjack players lost more money than they have in nearly two decades. That’s not just because there are more people playing. In part, it’s because the odds have changed."

He added: "To simply lower that payout to 6-to-5 [odds], now the house edge goes up to 1.9%. I mean, it nearly quadruples."

According to a recent Wall Street News report, Payouts are lower for winning blackjack hands. Bets on some roulette wheels are riskier. And some table games require more cash in which to play.

Should the trend continue, likely beneficiaries will be the online casinos by default.

- B.E. Delmer, Gambling911.com