I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but many (if not most) of the casinos in Las Vegas are opulent. The buildings are exquisite, the decorations are lavish, and even the smallest of details scream luxury.
When it comes to casinos, the house always wins. It may not always win in the short term, and there are hundreds of multi-million dollar casino winners to prove that, but over the long term, the casino does have the upper hand. It is after all, a business and has to be profitable. May 29, 2020 ‘The casinos always wins’ is a general concept that blankets an entire casino and encompasses all the games and players that ever played there. Somewhere in this world is a person who unwittingly ended up at a casino, or played at a casino online real money, hit a jackpot and never returned. When it comes to casinos, the house always wins. It may not always win in the short term, and there are hundreds of multi-million dollar casino winners to prove that, but over the long term, the casino does have the upper hand. It is after all, a business and has to be profitable.
They can only afford that kind of opulence because you always lose when you’re gambling there. But how and why do you keep losing?
My dad would tell you that it’s because the casinos cheat, but that’s misleading.
This post explains the real reasons why casinos always win.
1 – Losing Is the Price You Pay for Playing Casino Games
Of course it’s disappointing to lose money during a gambling session. What’s worse is sometimes you lose all your money faster than you expected to. It’s hard to not spend time at the bar, throwing down drinks, imagining what you could have spent that money on if you hadn’t lost it.
But everyone who gambles in casinos experiences this. If you’re realistic, you’ll understand that this is how it’s going to happen most of the time for most gamblers. Even if you’re a seasoned stock market or real estate investor, you face the risk of losing money.
In fact, any time you risk money with the hope of a reward, you face the possibility of losing that money. You only have three possibilities in these situations:
- You break even.
- You lose money.
- You make money.
Even if you put your money in a sock under your mattress, you’re going to lose money. Inflation will make sure that such money is worthless when you get it back out than it was worth when you squirreled it away.
Your job is to make sure you don’t risk money you can’t afford to lose. My advice is to set aside a gambling bankroll that you don’t need for any other purposes.
Scared money always loses, and if you’re losing a lot at the casinos, you’re probably gambling with money you can’t afford to lose (“scared money”).
I have friends who take their grocery money to the roulette table with the goal of doubling or tripling it. They usually come to me for a loan, a meal, or some groceries.
2 – Casino Gambling Is an Entertainment Expense
It’s normal to get mad or frustrated when you’ve lost a lot of money at the casino. If losing were fun, the casinos would have ALL the money instead of just a lot of it.
If you win, great, but always prepare yourself for the possibility of losing.
That’s the good news about casino games, too. Even though it’s entertainment, in the long run, you’ll lose your money. Sometimes, in the short run, you can come out ahead and win money. If that never happened, no one would ever gamble, and the casinos would go out of business.
If you only gamble with money you can afford to lose, you’ll limit the amount of frustration and guilt you feel after a losing session.
On the occasions when you win, you’ll feel even better because you won’t be thinking about how much money you’ve lost up until this point.
3 – Casinos Don’t Cheat, but the Odds Are Stacked Against You
Remember earlier when I mentioned that my dad thinks casinos cheat? He’s wrong, but he’s not that far off.
Casinos don’t cheat in the respect that they control which playing card you get next in blackjack. They’re unable to affect the outcome of a roll of the dice. They can’t decide which number comes up on the next spin of the roulette wheel.
The hypothetical casino has a game where you bet on a coin toss. You’re required to bet a minimum of $5, but you’re also required to post a 14 cent “ante.” When you win, you get $5. When you lose, you lose the $5. In either case, you lose the 25-cent ante.
In the long run, it’s impossible to win this game. Look at what happens to your bankroll after 100 statistically perfect coin tosses.
You win 50 times for winnings of $250. You lose 50 times for losses of $250. But you also paid a 25-cent ante on all 100 of those hands, for another $25 in losses.
You wagered $500 total, but you lose $25, or 5% of your wagers. This 5% figure is the house edge, and it’s built into every casino game you play. It doesn’t always take this form, although an ante is a popular type of fee charged by Oklahoma casinos.
4 – Most Casino Games Don’t Pay off at the Same Odds You Have of Winning
Roulette is one of my favorite games to illustrate how the house edge works because the math behind the game is so simple. Most people know that you can place a bet on red or black at the roulette table and win almost half the time.
But do you know how to calculate the actual probability of winning and what effect that has on the long-term house edge for the casino?
Again, you can just look at a statistically perfect set of results. A roulette wheel has 38 possible outcomes, so that’s your starting point.
For illustrative purposes, I’ll just assume that you’re betting $100 per spin. On a roulette wheel with 38 numbers, 18 of those numbers are red, 18 of them are black, and two of them are green.
So, a bet on black (or a bet on red) would win 18 out of 38 spins. That’s $1800 in winnings. But this also means you’ll lose on 20 of those spins. That’s $2000 in losses.
When you subtract the amount you won from the amount you lost, you’ve seen a net loss of $200 over 38 spins or an average of $5.26 per spin.
Since that’s 5.26% of your $100 bet on each spin, you can think of the 5.26% as the house edge for the game.
5 – All Casino Games Have an Edge and There’s No Way to Overcome It
Most of my readers know that some people gamble professionally. This doesn’t mean that a professional gambler can get an edge in every game in the casino. For the most part, most casino games don’t offer you any opportunity to get a mathematical edge.
Roulette is a good example. No matter what you do, it’s impossible to change the number of possible outcomes on the roulette wheel or predict where the ball is going to land.
Slot machines are another good example. The game has payouts for various combinations, and each of those combinations has a probability of coming up. The payback percentage for the game is based on those two factors, and no amount of skill can help you affect either factor.
Blackjack is one of the few exceptions. Card counters can get an edge at blackjack by changing the size of their bets based on the composition of the deck.
But what if when the ball landed on a number, that number was removed from play? Over time, the probability of winning a bet on red or black might change based on previous results.
In blackjack, when a card is dealt, it’s gone from the deck until the next deal. This has implications about what’s going to happen next in the game.
A card counter keeps rough track of this and raises the size of his bets when the odds favor him. This tilts the odds back in his favor.
Conclusion
Why do you lose when gambling in a casino? The answer is simple. The games are designed mathematically in such a way that the house always has a mathematical edge over the player.
Any time there’s risk involved, you might lose. But with casino games, the odds are set up so that you’ll lose more often than you’ll win.
For most seasoned gamblers brutally honest with themselves, they’ve come to accept the supposed number 1 rule in gambling; ‘the house always wins!’
Well, there’s always the skeptical lot, but sooner or later, that is a rule they come to accept the hard way. It’s a lesson every gambler gets to learn on their gambling journey, and the earlier you understand this rule, the smoother your future gambling endeavors might get. Simply said, you can boost your odds against the house by understanding why they win most of the time.
Now to answer your question ‘why does the house always win?’ read on to learn more!
Human Emotions
Does Casino Always Win Publishers Clearing House
Part of being human means dealing with emotions. Unfortunately, not all these emotions play in our favor. If still unsure about that check out the ‘too emotional’ gamblers and see just how that works for them.
If you are the guy who is always chasing after your losses, without giving it much of thought simply because you are ‘too angry’, I don’t see how the casino won’t keep on winning.
Let’s say you’ve got a cool $1000 which you would want to start saving with your bank. For each year, the bank tells you will be earning 20%. This would translate to $200, and you obviously would be very happy about it. However, if you were to take a weekend trip to Vegas, entered a casino with $1000, and won $200 within less than an hour, you probably wouldn’t be satisfied.
For most players, they want more, and more. Before you realize it you make your first loss… But you are still ahead so you want to continue playing. The losses follow and before you realize it, you’ve lost it all in a matter of hours, sometimes, even minutes!
It does depend on why you were gambling in the first place. If it is for fun, well, and good because you are open to your game going either way. However, if you were hoping to make a reap off a casino, the advisable thing to do would be to walk away when you are still ahead.
Statistics show that up to 95% of players are ahead at some point in their game. But whenever one feels luck is on their side, we are tempted to push it a little further. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work out for most players.
The House Edge
The best way to understand a house edge would be by first acknowledging that a casino is a business. By that, it would mean that for them to remain operational, they have to ensure that they are running on a profit. For this, they design a small edge that will favor the house.
With the house edge, there’s nothing like a 50/50 chance. It ensures that the players’ probability of winning is slightly lower than those of the casino winning. Although the house edge might vary from game to game, it is still done with a lot of consideration to ensure that it is not set too high as it would discourage most gamblers from playing.
Examples of house edge are the number zero in roulette, or an early surrender when playing blackjack. Others examples include;
Blackjack: Casino 51% vs Player 49%
Roulette: Casino 52% vs Player 48%
Craps: Casino 50.5% vs Player 49.5%
In short, even if you made some good wins in the short run, the casino would still catch-up with you in the long-run –provided you continued playing.
The Law of Large Numbers and Gambler’s Ruin Concepts
The statistical law of large numbers may have slightly varying definitions depending on the area of use. However, in business, this law is used to show or express the relationship that exists between growth rate and scale.
In casinos, the house always wins because of the large number of bets placed. Without going too much into technical details, I will try to explain its application in casinos.
Taking roulette as an example, there are 37 numbers; 18 red, 18 black, and the number ‘0’. But even when the house has a rough edge ranging from 2-3%, it would not be a big surprise if a casino lost on some nights. However, since the edge is low, sometimes the players win and come back day 2 to keep on gambling.
In the long-run, the law of large numbers will ensure that the casino keeps on winning.
Does Casino Always Win No Deposit
Let’s explore the Gamblers’ ruin concept in simple terms too. Assume that the outcome of a casino game has a 50/50 chance, meaning that the house edge is 0%. A gambler walks into a casino with $100. There’s a 100% probability that the gamblers’ bankroll will run into $0 before that of the casino.
This is simply because the casino has an unlimited bankroll which will exhaust the player off their money if they stick around long enough. The chances of the gambler exhausting their bankroll are even higher when there’s an active house edge.
Different Casino Games have Varying House Edge
As aforementioned, the house edge is what ensures that the casinos have slightly added advantage against the player. However, it is important to note that this house edge varies with different games.
For slots and keno, they carry the highest house edge with up to 25% and 17%, respectively. This would explain why slots account for 80% of profits made in a casino. With Blackjack, the house could go as low as 0.5% if a player followed perfect betting.
Does Casino Always Win Lottery
Similarly, Craps and baccarat players could enjoy low house odds of up to 0.8% and 1.06% respectively provided they play the odds perfectly. As you have already guessed, only a few people can achieve this. Hence, the house edge increases whenever players are not playing expertly.
Does Casino Always Win Slots
Final Take
Does Casino Always Win Casino
It might be true that the house always wins in the long-run. However, this shouldn’t work to disappoint you as an avid gambler. Rather, this should help you understand the common pitfalls and how you can avoid them.