House Edge by Casino Game: A Comparative Table
The house edge across casino games ranges from under 1% to well over 10%. Blackjack with basic strategy and some video poker are lowest at around 0.5%, European roulette sits at 2.7%, American roulette at 5.26%, and slots vary widely. The edge is a long-run average, not a per-session guarantee.
What the house edge actually is
The house edge is the built-in mathematical advantage the casino holds on a given game, expressed as a percentage of each bet. A 2.7% edge means that, over a very large number of bets, the game is designed to return about 97.3% of stakes to players and keep 2.7% for the house. It is the flip side of Return to Player, or RTP: a 97.3% RTP and a 2.7% house edge describe the same game from opposite directions.
The edge is what makes a casino a business rather than a charity. It is not cheating and it is not hidden; it is a structural feature of the odds and the payouts, and for licensed games it is fixed and known. Understanding it lets you compare games honestly and choose the ones that cost you least to play.
It helps to be precise about what the edge is charged on. In most cases it applies to each bet you place, so the more bets you make, the more times the edge is levied, even if the amount you brought to the table never changes. A player who makes a hundred small bets exposes far more total stake to the edge than one who makes ten larger bets of the same total size, because the money is recycled through the game again and again. This is why pace of play matters as much as the headline percentage, a point worth keeping in mind as you read the table below.
A comparative table of house edges
The figures below are standard, well-established mathematical values for common rule sets. Actual edges shift with specific rules, pay tables and, for slots, the individual game, so treat these as representative benchmarks rather than universal constants.
| Game | Typical house edge | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Blackjack (basic strategy) | ~0.5% | Assumes favourable rules and perfect play; rises with 6:5 payouts |
| Video poker (full-pay) | ~0.5% to 5% | Depends heavily on the pay table; full-pay Jacks or Better is near the low end |
| Baccarat (banker bet) | ~1.06% | Banker is the best bet; commission is already priced in |
| Baccarat (player bet) | ~1.24% | Slightly worse than banker |
| Baccarat (tie bet) | ~14% or more | A high-edge side bet to avoid |
| European roulette (single zero) | 2.70% | One zero pocket; the same edge applies to every bet type |
| American roulette (double zero) | 5.26% | The extra 00 pocket nearly doubles the edge |
| Slots | ~2% to 10%+ | Equivalent to an RTP of roughly 90% to 98%; varies by game |
| Baccarat tie and slot side bets | Often high | Long-shot bets usually carry the worst edges |
Why roulette has two very different edges
Roulette is the clearest illustration of how a single rule changes everything. On a European wheel there are 37 pockets: 1 to 36 plus a single zero. A single-number bet pays 35 to 1, but the true odds against winning are 36 to 1, and that gap is precisely the 2.7% house edge. The American wheel adds a second zero, the 00, making 38 pockets. The payout is still 35 to 1, but there are now two pockets working against you instead of one, which pushes the edge up to 5.26%, almost double. Same game, same-looking table, nearly twice the cost. Where you have the choice, the single-zero wheel is always the better bet.
Blackjack and video poker: the low-edge games
Blackjack with correct basic strategy is among the cheapest games to play, at roughly 0.5% under good rules, because your decisions influence the outcome. Full-pay video poker can be similarly low, but only on the right pay table: the same game with a reduced payout schedule can carry several times the edge. In both cases the low figure depends on you playing optimally. Play blackjack on instinct or pick a poor video poker pay table and the effective edge against you climbs well above the headline number.
Baccarat: simple and low, if you pick the right bet
Baccarat needs no decisions once you have bet, and its main wagers carry low edges: about 1.06% on banker and 1.24% on player. The banker bet is marginally better even after the commission usually charged on banker wins. The tie bet is the trap, with an edge often around 14% or higher, which is why it is best avoided entirely. The lesson generalises: within a single game, the long-shot, high-payout bets almost always carry the worst edges.
Slots: the widest range and the least visibility
Slots span the broadest range, roughly a 2% to over 10% edge, corresponding to RTPs from about 98% down to 90% or lower. Unlike table games, the exact figure is set by the individual game rather than a shared rule, and it is not always shown on the machine. Under UK rules the RTP information is available, often in the game’s help or information screen, so it is worth checking before you play. A lower-edge slot costs you less per spin over time, even though volatility means any single session can look nothing like the average.
What the edge means over time, not per bet
The most important thing to understand is that the house edge is a long-run average and says almost nothing about a single session. A 2.7% edge does not mean you lose 2.7% of each bet as you go; individual results are wins, losses and the occasional big swing. What the edge guarantees is the direction of travel: the more you play, the closer your results drift toward that average, and the average is always a loss for the player.
Two practical consequences follow. First, lower-edge games let your money last longer for the same entertainment, which is a sensible reason to prefer them. Second, no betting system changes the edge; systems only rearrange the pattern of wins and losses around the same fixed disadvantage. For how we factor game fairness and RTP transparency into our assessments, see how we review operators, and use the account limits in our responsible gambling guide to keep play within a budget.
What the edge costs you per hour
Turning the percentage into pounds makes the differences concrete. The rough cost of playing a game is the house edge multiplied by the total amount you stake, and the total you stake depends far more on how fast you bet than on how much you bring. Consider a player making £2 bets. At a brisk pace of around 300 decisions an hour, that is roughly £600 wagered in an hour.
- Blackjack at 0.5%: expected cost of about £3 per hour.
- European roulette at 2.7%: expected cost of about £16 per hour.
- American roulette at 5.26%: expected cost of about £32 per hour.
- A 6% slot: expected cost of about £36 per hour at the same stake and pace.
These are long-run averages, so any single hour can look very different, but the pattern is clear. Two things drive your cost: the edge of the game and the speed of play. Slowing down, betting smaller and choosing lower-edge games all stretch the same budget further. It is why the house edge is best understood not as a tax on each bet but as a rate of spend, one you can influence by how and what you choose to play. Framed that way, the edge stops being an abstract percentage and becomes a practical dial: turn down the stake or the speed and the hourly cost falls with it.
How the house edge adds up over a session
The house edge is small per bet but relentless over volume. Take European roulette at 2.7%: stake £2 a spin at roughly 40 spins an hour and you are betting £80 an hour, so the maths expects to cost you about £2.16 an hour on average — win or lose on any given spin. Blackjack with basic strategy (~0.5%) is far gentler on the same stakes, while a slot at 96% RTP (a 4% edge) is steeper. None of this predicts a single session, which variance dominates, but over many hours the edge is what the operator relies on. Choosing lower-edge games and setting time and deposit limits are the only levers that are genuinely in your control.
Frequently asked questions
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