House Edge & RTP — The Number That Decides How Much You Lose

House edge is the player's negative expectation, as a percentage of the amount wagered. RTP is 100% minus the house edge. Both numbers are averages over millions of repetitions — not a forecast for a single session.

Blackjack (basic strategy) — about 0.5%

Baccarat Banker — 1.06% · Player — 1.24% · Tie — 14.4%

French roulette (La Partage) — 1.35%

European roulette — 2.70% · American roulette — 5.26%

Casino Hold'em — about 2.2% · Three Card Poker — about 3.4%

Craps (Pass Line) — 1.41% · Slots — 3%-8% (RTP 92%-97%)

Keno and wheel games — 10%-25%

Expected loss = average bet × hands per hour × house edge.

Example: 10₪ per spin × 60 European roulette spins per hour × 2.7% = about 16₪ per hour. The same 10₪ on a 94% RTP slot with 500 spins per hour = about 300₪ per hour. Same bet, 18 times the cost — because pace and edge differ.

House edge is an average; variance is the spread around it. You can absolutely win one evening on a high-edge game and lose a whole night at blackjack. As the number of hands grows, the result converges to the house edge — the same principle by which a skilled poker player wins over a large sample.

In poker the house does not play. It takes rake — a fee from the pot — and the players split the rest. That means your expectation is determined against your opponents, not a fixed formula. A player who is 2bb/100 better than the table is profitable even after rake. EV, pot odds and GTO are the tools that build that edge.

The 0.5% house edge in blackjack has a condition: playing exact basic strategy (a table of when to hit, stand, double and split based on the dealer's up card). A player who plays "by feel" without the table effectively raises the house edge to 2%-4%, because they misplay critical borderline decisions like doubling on 11 against a weak dealer card. It's the clearest example that even in a game against the house, concrete knowledge changes the outcome — but only down to the fixed edge floor, unlike poker, which has no such floor.