In life, there’s always an element of risk. You could get hit by a car when you cross a street. You could slip and fall in a bathroom. You could even get struck by lightning by just walking outside of your house.
But you can take steps to minimize these risks.
To avoid getting hit by a car, look both ways before crossing. Make sure that you install non-slip strips on the bathroom floor to avoid falling. You could watch the weather report and make sure that you don’t wear anything that will attract lightning before going outside.
The same is true in casino gambling. There’s risk. The entire concept of gambling is built on risk. You risk money in the hand to win more money the casino owns.
The odds in a lottery are worse than other forms of gambling. But those other forms are also slanted toward the people running the games. Casinos have something called the vig (short for vigorish. Most bets on the table have an edge of 5.26%, which, when compared to many other bets in the casino, is mediocre in and of itself. However, there is one special bet that earns the coveted place as #5 on the worst casino bets: the top line.
But you can minimize the risks.
You can make sure that you know how to play the games. You can study odds. You can observe how opponents play in a game like poker. You can develop strategies for better play.
In lots of casino games, the risks can boil down to mathematics and odds. By studying these odds you get a better picture of which games or even bets within a game will be more profitable.
But no matter how you slice it, some wagers are just sucker bets and you should avoid them at all costs.
Casinos make a profit by paying off bets at lower odds than the odds of winning. For example, in roulette, the payoff for hitting a single number is 35 to 1.
But the odds of winning that bet are only 37 to 1.
This difference gives the house an edge over the player. On average, a player who plays long enough will lose more money than she’ll win.
The house edge is represented as a percentage of the money you bet. If you bet $5000 in a session of roulette, even if it’s 50 bets of $100 each, you’ll lose an average of 5.26% of that amount wagered. In this case, it’s $263.
Generally, the higher the house edge, the worse the game is for the player.
The Worst Bets
I’ve been researching odds and games for a long time. I’ve played a lot of games, I’ve won some money, and I’ve lost some money. There are bets that after learning the strategies that I will never make again. They are just too risky.
I’m all about minimizing my risks.
At first, baccarat can be an intimidating game. There are lots of rules to learn before you can get comfortable with it. For instance, there’s a banker, but the banker isn’t the house per se, it’s another player or can be you.
It’s played in a separate room, much like poker and is slow paced. (There’s a version of baccarat called mini-baccarat that’s played at a faster pace, but it doesn’t make any of the odds better or worse.)
Baccarat allows you to bet on the player or the banker or you can bet on the two getting a tie.
A quick look at the house edge lets you know what not to bet on:
- Player – 1.36% House Edge
- Banker – 1.17% House Edge
- Tie – 14.4% House Edge
As you can see, with the 14.4% house edge, a tie bet is among the worst bets you can make in a casino.
2 – Big 6 Wheel (a. k. a. Wheel of Fortune)
The big 6 wheel can be one of the more popular attractions in a casino. The wheel consists of slots marked with $1, $2, $5, $10, and $20 sections along with a joker and the casino logo.
The payouts on the wheel are:
- $1 – 1 to 1
- $2 – 2 to 1
- $5 – 5 to 1
- $10 – 10 to 1
- $20 – 20 to 1
- Joker – 45 to 1
- Logo – 45 to 1
This game heavily favors the house. The house edge for the $1 is over 11%. For the Joker or the logo, it’s just over 25%, making it one of the worse games in the casino to wager on.
3 – Sic bo (a. k. a. Tai Sai, Dai Siu, Big and Small, or Hi-Lo)
In the 1800s many Chinese immigrants sought fortune when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, California. While many did not find gold, these immigrants set up businesses and worked as laborers in industrial jobs or building railroads.
These immigrants would stick with other Chinese immigrants and share a little bit of their culture and traditions.
Among these were games. One game, in particular, became a popular casino game, Sic bo.
Sic bo (which is Chinese for “precious dice) is a game consisting of 3 dice. Players then bet on the results of the roll.
Some options for betting include:
- Big – Total will be 11 – 17 excluding a triple.
- Small – Total will be 4 to 10 excluding a triple
- Odd – Total will be an odd number excluding a triple
- Even – Total will be an even number excluding a triple
- Trips – All the dice will have the same number
- Specific Doubles – A specific number will appear on 2 of the 3 dice
Unlike craps, where there may be multiple rolls to determine a winner, Sic bo is won or lost with each roll.
While popular, betting on Sic bo isn’t a great way to win in a casino. The lowest house edge is 2.78% on bets like big or small and odd or even, but some of the more complex bets can have a house edge of over 45% depending on the casino. From top to bottom, Sic bo is a wager to avoid.
Keno is another popular game at casinos. Although there are some variations, players will usually choose 20 numbers from a total of 80. Winning numbers are determined by a ball machine or random number generator and are called out like bingo.
Each casino’s payouts are different, and the winnings vary according to how many numbers are matched.
The pace of the game is slow, and it’s a favorite among older players.
Much like the payouts, the house edge on the game will vary by casino, but it’s commonly above 25%, making it a bad choice to bet on if you want to win consistently.
5- Caribbean Stud Poker
Caribbean Stud Poker is based on 5-card stud, but in this game, you’re playing against the dealer instead of each other. There’s also a progressive jackpot element of the game, which is attractive because of the amounts you can win.
The difference in this game is that after all the players get their cards and bet, the dealer must have at least an ace, king, or a higher ranked hand to play.
Also, you have the option of placing a $1 bet to qualify for the progressive jackpot.
If the players beat the dealer’s cards, the player gets even money on the ante, and the following on his bet (with a maximum payout of $5,000 per hand on each bet):
- Royal flush – 100 to 1
- Straight flush – 50 to 1
- Four of a kind – 20 to 1
- Full house – 7 to 1
- Flush – 5 to 1
- Straight – 4 to 1
- Three of a kind – 3 to 1
- Two pair – 2 to 1
- One pair or less – 1 to 1
The progressive jackpot payouts are:
- Royal Flush – 100% of Progressive Meter
- Straight Flush – 10% of Progressive Meter
- Four-of-a-Kind – $500
- Full House – $100
- Flush – $50
The house edge on this game can range between just over 5% to over 16%. With the house edge this high, it’s best to avoid altogether, especially if you are a novice.
As kids, we all played the game war. One card is dealt to each player and then the dealer, highest card wins. If there’s a tie, the cards that tied are dealt 3 burn cards and the 4th card determines the tiebreaker.
The casino variation involves placing a bet before the cards are dealt and the high card takes the pot. If there’s a tie, special betting rules apply:
- You can surrender, in which case you lose half the bet.
- You can go to war, in which case you must double your stake.
- If your card is higher than the dealer’s, then you win the amount of your original wager only.
- If the dealer’s card is higher than yours, you lose your doubled wager.
- If you tie again, then you win the amount of the doubled wager.
- Also when a tie occurs, a side bet is offered which you can bet on ties. If you bet on the tie, and your card matches the dealer’s, then you win 10 to 1 on your original wager on the tie bet.
In this game, betting on the tie is a sucker bet. The house has an edge of 18.65%. It’s best to not chance it on a tie.
Worst Odds At A Casino
7 – Let it Ride: Side Bets
Let It Ride is a 5-card poker game where your hand is formed by your own 3 cards and 2 community cards.
This game gives you 2 opportunities to withdraw 1/3 of your initial wager. The first chance occurs after you look at your hand but before the first community card is shown. The second chance occurs after the first community card is shown, but before the second is shown. You can reduce your bet on either of these chances, on both, or neither.
The game gets its name from when you don’t reduce the wager because you are going to “let it ride”.
There’s a side bet element to Let It Ride. When the initial bet is placed, you can place an extra $1 bet on the 3 cards you are dealt. If they match the casino’s paytable, you win the bet. There’s no opportunity to withdraw the side bet during the game.
The main game of Let It Ride has a house edge of about 3.5%, which is high, but not excessive.
But the side bet has a whopping 25.6% house edge, so it’s not a great bet.
Penny and nickel slots typically have high house edges.
This makes sense from the casino’s standpoint, because they aren’t going to make a bundle of money on someone dropping pennies into a machine all day.
These type of machines have a house edge in the 10%-15% range.
Blackjack
Blackjack is a popular game. The goal is to get 21 without going over. Since it’s so popular, most people know the rules, so I won’t rehash all of them here. Suffice to say that you can make quite a few different types of bets when playing blackjack.
But there are a few bad choices to make when wagering on blackjack.
Blackjack is a game of strategy. You need to know when to hit, when to stand, when to double down, and when to split. In addition, you need to know when a dealer is required to hit.
Most of the time a new player will walk in blind to the strategies of blackjack and wind up losing big. I call this hunch play, because all of their movements are based on hunches or gut feelings.
Odds Of Winning At Casino
Hunch play can give make the house edge upwards of 25%. Learn the game before you pony up to the table.
10 – Insurance
If the dealer has an ace showing, there’s a possibility that next card may be a 10, jack, queen, or king, which would give him a natural blackjack. Although the insurance bet pays 2 to 1, the dealer will have it less than 1/3rd of the time. The house edge on the insurance bet is 12.5%.
The roulette table gives players lots of betting options, and many of them can be confusing. When there’s confusion concerning how to bet, there’s the possibility for bad decisions.
Much like blackjack, most people understand the basics of roulette. You pick a number or a color, place your bet, and the ball is dropped on the wheel. The number and color the ball stops on is the winner.
Best Odds In Gambling
Sounds straightforward, but the betting options make it more complicated. I won’t talk about all the options for betting, as that would be an entire subject on its own. Let’s just talk about the worst choices.
11- The 5-Number Wager
The 5-number wager in roulette is when you place a bet that the ball will land on the 00, 0, 1, 2, or 3. It sounds good because you have a 5 out of 38 chance of hitting a number. The house odds are 6 to 1 on this bet.
But it’s the worst bet on the table. The house has a 7.89% edge on this bet.
Other bets on a double zero wheel don’t have good odds, either. There’s a 5.26% house edge on any bet on the wheel other than the 5 number bet. If you stick to the European single zero roulette wheel, the chances are much better as the house edge is only 2.70%, almost half of the double zero.
Craps
Craps is the most exciting game in the casino.
Craps has so many different ways to bet and with these options come several that should be avoided. It has so many, in fact, that this section will round out the list of 20.
This is an attractive bet because there are 5 totals that you can make. But they have the lowest number of combinations.
Betting the whirl is a bet that the shooter will roll a 2, 3, 7, 11, or 12 in one roll. This bet has a house edge of 13.33%.
14 – The Horn
Only slightly better than the whirl is the horn. The horn is almost like the whirl except the 7. You are betting that the shooter will roll a 2, 3, 11, or 12 in one roll. This bet has a house edge of 12.5%.
This bet is simply betting that a 6 or an 8 will be rolled before a 7 is rolled by the shooter. The house edge on this bet is 9.1%.
16 – Any 7
This is a bet that the shooter will roll a 7. The house edge on any 7 is 16.1%
A hard 6 is 2 threes. A hard 8 is 2 fours. If you place a bet on either of these options, the house has an edge of 9.09%.
18 – 4 or 10 the Hard Way
A hard 4 is 2 twos. A hard 10 is 2 fives. A bet placed on either of these rolls has a house edge of 11.11%.
Betting on numbers that are contained in the Horn are also bad bets. In this case, a 3 or 11 has a house edge equal to that of a 4 or 10 the hard way, 11.11%.
20 – 2 and 12
Rounding out the top 20 is the 2 and 12 in craps. Either one of these will have a house edge of 13.9%.
Life involves minimizing risks. The best way to minimize risking your bankroll is to know what you are betting on. Learn the odds. Learn the house edges. Make sure that you aren’t playing a variant of a game that changes all the numbers.
Walking in blindly to play these games are the best way to walk out with lighter pockets. Along with learning the rules, odds, and house edges to any game, I’ll observe the games I play for a while. Sometimes I’ll just watch for an hour to get the rhythm of the gameplay and a feel for the people that I am about to play around.
With the exception of poker, I try not to play at tables with inexperienced players. They can be distracting. Distractions can lead to bad decisions when betting.
But you have to make your own choices.
Lots of the bets mentioned here have high house edges, but some of them have high payouts. It’s more than likely you won’t win the high payout, but there’s no reward without risk.
These 20 bets aren’t even worth the risk.
Related
Just as it is important to know about the casino games that give you the best house odds, it is equally important to know and understand which games, as well as different bets, that are the worst when it comes to house odds. House odds, or house edge is the average profit from each bet. Casino games that have house odds of 5% or higher tend to be very hard for players to beat, however, this also sometimes means you have the biggest chance to hit huge (but unlikely) jackpots. There are always players that have won the big jackpot prize or were able to make it big on the penny slots, but those are rare occurrences that are taken into account by the casinos, including online casinos, when offering these games.
What is the house advantage?
First, it should be clear that the house odds or advantage do not refer to the probability of winning a single bet. It refers to the relationship or ratio between the probability and the actual payout. To visualize this, let’s look at roulette first. For example, the house has an edge because it pays out 35 to 1 on inside bets (betting on single numbers), but the odds of hitting an inside bet in European Roulette are 1 and 37. So the payout does not match the actual probability. If they actually paid 37 to 1, there would be no house edge or advantage, because every 37 times you should hit a number and get all your money back for the times you did not. This assumes that you run enough trials, in other words, if you play enough times. The more times you play, the more this will hold true.
However, since they only pay 35 to 1, over time, you will only recoup a portion of your total losses, giving the house the advantage.
Casino games and bets that have the worst odds:
• American Roulette
• Blackjack Insurance
• Live Keno
• Caribbean Stud Side Bet
• Craps Proposition Wagers
• Wagers based on hunches
These games, as well as certain wagers offer you some of the worst odds among casino games. Allow me to explain why.
American Roulette
Many don’t realize how slight variations in games can have a huge impact on the overall odds. A great example of this is with roulette, where a slight variation in the game creates a huge increase in the casinos favor. While American roulette are not the worst odds at a casino, they are worth mentioning given that there are other roulette varieties that offer much better odds. In short, if they are available, you should play them instead of the American variation.
With American roulette the entire house odds are double those of European roulette, and it is all due to the fact that they include an extra slot, the Double Zero (00) slot, or number.
The house odds for the different roulette games are as follows:
• French Roulette: 1.35%
• European Roulette: 2.70%
• American Roulette: 5.4%
The house odds for American roulette are double that of European, putting it over the 5% bench mark. As we said before, anything above 5% for house odds is not very good for any player, so if you get the chance to play either French or European, there is no reason to play American roulette unless you just like to throw money away.
So why are the odds different? American roulette has 38 numbers (1-36, 0 and 00) where the ball can land, but the payout is only 35 to 1, this is where the casino finds its advantage. Whereas, European and French Roulette both only have 37 total numbers, however, the payout is still the same of 35 to 1. The difference between French and European odds is for the surrender feature, where if you bet on a number and the green 0 hits, you can take back half your bet.
Keno
Keno is a variation of the lottery where you would simply pick different numbers in a specific order in order to win. If you know anything about lotteries, it is that the odds of winning are incredibly low. With Live Keno, the house odds are at 25%, which is a very large amount. Any game that relies purely on luck, with little or no skill, should be avoided when playing at a casino for the most part – however, they still are quite entertaining and do bring upon a huge opportunity to win big online.
It should be noted there are very few casino games that offer such large jackpots for a relatively low bet, but again, the odds are very bad. Slots are the only game that come close.
Blackjack Insurance Wager
Blackjack itself is a fun and exciting table card game, where you need to reach 21 or close to it in order to beat the dealer (adding the card values). There are many different wagering options, such as Hit, Stand, Double, and Split. However, there is one option that is considered to be the Chutia Wager or sucker bet, and that is the Insurance bet. It is one of the most well known sucker bets offered at casinos.
The insurance wager takes effect when the dealer is showing an Ace, which gives them a possible blackjack if their second card is a ten or value of a ten (like the J, Q, and/or K). Insurance is basically a bet on the chances that the dealer will have a blackjack. You would wager half of your initial wager, and that would give you 1 to 1 odds.
Here is how it works:
• If you “win” the insurance bet, meaning the dealer does have blackjack, you will lose your initial bet, but break even with your additional bet. You are essentially no better off, but you risk another 50% to be in this position.
• If you place an insurance wager and the dealer does not have blackjack, you lose that wager, along with further chances of losing the rest of your wager during that hand.
You can either come out even or you could end up losing anywhere from 50% to 150% of your initial wager. There is no way that you would end up winning any money with this wager. The house odds for the insurance wager are 8%, and you really are not insuring anything other than the chance to lose more money; a suckers bet at best. Unless you want to give the casino easy money, never take this bet.
Caribbean Stud Side Bet
The side bet for the Caribbean Stud card game is a horrible waste of money and Rupees. The side wager is supposed to create a jackpot where you could end up winning a large amount of money, but in this case, the jackpot never reaches a high enough amount to ever be worth placing the wager.
The reason that many players get frustrated with this side bet is thanks to the fact that the house odds for this wager are at 26%. They don’t realize what a disadvantage they are to the casino.
Craps Proposition Wager
Proposition wagers when playing craps are the worst choice you can make. From the many different proposition wagers available, they can get up to 16.7% house odds. The proposition bets that many players like to place thanks to the chance at the high pay-outs, along with the house odds, are:
• One Roll Bets:
– Any Seven: 16.7%
– Any Craps: 11.1%
– Craps 2: 13.9%
– Craps 3: 13.9%
-Craps 12: 11.1%
• Wager on Craps 11: 11.1%
• Hard Ways:
– Hard 4: 11.1%
– Hard 6: 9.1%
– Hard 8: 9.1%
– Hard 10: 11.1%
As you can notice, the lowest the house odds get to is 9.1% and the highest 16.7%, making these wagers highly unlikely to occur, but the odds don’t adequately match the payout, giving the house a big advantage over you and other players.
Wagers Based on Kubara
Kubara, or hunches, are the worst way to play any casino game. This usually refers to casino games that rely on a certain percentage of skill in order to win, like Blackjack. If you simply use hunches to place your wagers when playing Blackjack, or other skill games, you will certainly find yourself losing a great deal of the time.
The house odds for this kind of punting are not exact, but from experience they can go from 20% and higher. This makes playing off of kubara very dangerous and risky. Playing for the feel and trying to use intuition can be exciting and entertaining, but the truth of the matter is there is no way to predict the future of these games of chance. Learning proper strategy for each game is the best way to mathematically give you the best odds of winning.