Casino games with the best odds

Online Casino Odds

It’s a universal truth that the house always wins - but do you know what the odds are against you? If you’re looking to spend some time relaxing, playing games and hopefully making some money at a quality site, such as Betfair online casino then it’s important you know which games will give you the best chance of making your money back. There is a curve here, of course. The better the odds, the lower the pay-out percentage. Additionally, the exact scale of pay-out will vary considerably depending on what version of a game you’re playing, but if you’re looking for some general odds, these should be about right.

Slots

Starting with the long odds, slots will undoubtedly be the game in any given casino with the worst odds of a certain outcome. To work through the maths, find out how many symbols you’re dealing with - it can be anywhere between 5 and 20 but let’s use 20 for the sake of argument. Because the Random Number Generator (RNG) means each result is random, you need three separate results, all of which are going to be 1/20. If you’re playing with a three-reel slot then it’s 1/20 x 1/20 x 1/20, or a 1/8000 chance of getting three of the same symbols on the reel. If you need it to be a specific set of three then your odds get longer and if your slot has five reels, as is quickly becoming standard, the odds of any one result can become 1:3,200,000. Despite this, slots aren’t exactly a terrible choice for a quick game as they compensate for the low odds by giving multiple ways to win. You won’t win them all, but you could get lucky and win back what you started with. It’s also got the biggest jackpot, often paying in the millions, provided you manage to get lucky!

Roulette

Moving down into the more reasonable odds, roulette has a flexible betting system that makes it easy to set your own difficulty in terms of probability. The exact odds will vary depending on where you’re playing, in most non-American casinos you’ll be playing single zero roulette which means the odds of any given number coming up is 1/37. If you’re playing in an American casino, however, the odds become 1/38 as the wheel has two zeroes. The relative odds/pay-out ratio will be the same, but be aware that in American roulette the odds are ever so slightly more against you. When you place a bet on roulette you can go for a variety of options - the simplest is red or black which offers an approximately 50:50 chance (the 0/00 tiles bringing the actual odds down to 48.6%/47.4%) and, as a result, the pay-out is around 2:1. As you pick bets with longer and longer odds, the better will be your pay-out. The longest odds are for a single number but the pay-out if you get lucky will be more than 30x your stake!

Baccarat

Debatably, this is actually the most player-friendly game in the casino with the lowest house edge out there. When you’re playing baccarat, you’re essentially betting on a coin toss. You can bet either on the player or the banker to win. Or, if you’re feeling really daring, a draw. Baccarat tends to use a large shoe of cards and while counting is technically possible in the casino, online there’s very little point as they’ll most likely be using an RNG. If you’re feeling bold, betting on a draw will get you 8:1, but the odds of it happening are very, very slim which is why most people bet either on the player or the banker but, if you’re not sure, the better bet is the banker. The banker’s hand will win (statistically) 51% of the time, which is only slightly better than a coin toss! Of course, this is all dependant on luck, and there’s still one game that most would argue has the best odds in the casino.

Blackjack

Hardly a surprise, blackjack has long been hailed as the king of advantage play and mathematically it’s still the best odds you can get in the casino. Well, that’s not exactly true, if you just play blackjack then the odds are worse than baccarat but the secret lies in utilising strategy. The basic strategy for blackjack gives you a complete checklist of the optimum play for any given hand with exactly what the right move should be, in terms of probability. This doesn’t exactly guarantee you’ll win every hand, but it brings the house edge down below 1% and means the odds are (technically) better than you’ll find in baccarat. But which pays out best? Well, that’s a little tricky. Blackjack lacks a ‘tie’ bet but does feature a special returns feature where you get 3:2 if you land a blackjack. But the odds of that are also quite slim.

Realistically, your best bet is to just play the game you enjoy the most. Slots may not have great odds but they can be great fun, blackjack may be the most likely to win but maybe you want something a little more exhilarating? Whatever your game, keep in mind the odds and your chance of victory will go way up!