1 Up or 1 Down, What Is House Edge Anyway?

You have most likely heard the term “house edge” being thrown around by everyone from absolute beginners to grisly old gambling veterans. Have you ever asked yourself if you really know what that term means?

Let’s take a closer look. House Edge is also known by various other names such as: house advantage, the odds, or the percentage. House Edge is a way to put in mathematical terms the built in advantage your favorite online gambling site has on you. In one sense, you could call the house edge the casino players cost of admission.

Think about it, any casino whether its the most efficiently run online casino in the world or the top of the line luxury land based casinos in Macau have a cost of providing you all that gameplay. Of course if they can’t cover their costs and a little bit more, they will be out of business very soon.

In simple mathematical terms, the house advantage is the the long run percentage of the money bet that will be kept by the casino. Make sure you note the phrase long run. In the world of mathematical statistics, forecasts typically apply to the long run. For example, take a coin and toss it in the air. It doesn’t even matter if you get 10 tosses in a row with heads, in the long run the expectation is that the chance of a heads or a tails on a toss is 50-50.

The house advantage works exactly the same way. In the short term, you might be hot, you may be raking in piles of money. However, should you stay there long enough, in the long run, the casino will get all of their money back and then some.

All that being said, is there a way to work the house edge to your advantage (besides owning the casino)? Yes, a smart strategy is to know and understand the house edge for the various games you like to play. Then, try to concentrate your game play on those games where the house has the smallest advantage over you. Think of it like pushing a car. If you are flat ground, there’s a bit of resistance till you get rolling. That little bit of resistance is like a small house edge. On the other hand, what if the car you need to push is at the bottom of a small hill. Obviously, you are going to have work harder aren’t you?

Bottom line is this: know that every online casino you visit has a built in edge and know that a good strategy is to play games where the house edge is the smallest.

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