Gambling Games With the Best Odds: Lowest House Edge Explained

The gambling games with the best odds are blackjack, baccarat and craps, with a handful of full-pay video poker machines sitting even higher on paper. Played with perfect basic strategy, blackjack carries a house edge as low as 0.28% on a six-deck game with player-friendly rules. The baccarat banker bet costs 1.06%, the craps pass line 1.41%, and a double-zero American roulette wheel takes 5.26% on every spin.

This page ranks the main casino games by house edge, explains the difference between odds, return to player (RTP) and house edge, and shows what each figure means for a crypto bankroll. Every number below is sourced, and the link to the underlying maths is given where the claim is made. This is part of our casino guides hub.

House edge, RTP and odds: what the terms mean

House edge is the share of every unit you wager that the casino keeps, on average, over a very long run. Return to player (RTP) is the other side of the same coin: it is the share the game gives back. The two always add up to 100%, so a game with a 1.06% house edge has a 98.94% RTP.

Both figures are theoretical and long-run. They say nothing about a single session, which swings up and down because of variance (sometimes called volatility). A game can carry a tiny house edge and still leave you down, or up, after a short session, because the edge only shows itself over thousands of hands.

Variance is why a low edge can still feel punishing in a short session. On that six-deck blackjack game the standard deviation is 1.142 units per hand, so a typical hand’s result sits more than a full unit away from the average. Over a hundred hands that swing dwarfs the 0.28% edge, which means a single evening tells you almost nothing about the true odds; they only emerge over tens of thousands of hands.

The word odds gets used two different ways, and confusing them is where most mistakes start. Payout odds are what a winning bet pays, for example 35:1 on a single number in roulette. True odds are the real chance of the outcome, which on a single-zero wheel is 36:1 because there are 37 pockets. The gap between the two is the house edge.

Worked example: a straight-up bet on single-zero roulette wins 1 time in 37 and pays 35:1. Over 37 spins of one unit each, you collect 36 units on the one win (your stake back plus 35 profit) and lose 36 units on the other 36 spins. That nets zero after 37 units wagered, so the game returns 36/37, or 97.30%, and the house edge is 2.70%.

Notice that a high chance of winning does not automatically mean good odds. The baccarat banker bet wins about 45.8% of the time, yet the house still keeps 1.06% because a winning banker bet pays less than even money. Blackjack wins 42.43% of hands, pushes 8.48% and loses 49.09%, but it holds one of the lowest house edges in the casino because basic strategy shapes how you play each hand.

The gambling games with the best odds, ranked

Here are the standard low-edge games and bets, ordered from best to worst on house edge. The chance of winning shows the single-bet win rate where one applies, while the house edge shows the long-run cost per unit wagered.

Read the table with care. The video poker returns assume you find the exact full-pay paytable and play perfect strategy, and the Deuces Wild figure is a player edge only on paper. The craps odds bet pays true odds but can only be made after you already hold a pass line or don’t pass bet. The blackjack figure assumes six decks, the dealer stands on soft 17, you may double after splitting, and late surrender is offered.

Blackjack: the lowest house edge of the main table games

Blackjack has the lowest house edge of the three big table games when you play basic strategy. On a six-deck game where the dealer stands on soft 17, double after split is allowed and late surrender is offered, the house edge is 0.28%, according to the Wizard of Odds blackjack appendix 4. The same analysis gives the outcome split: you win 42.43% of hands, push 8.48% and lose 49.09%, with a standard deviation of 1.142 units per hand.

That 0.28% only holds if you play basic strategy correctly. The rules printed on the table also move the number, and a 6:5 blackjack payout is the single biggest penalty, adding 1.39 percentage points to the house edge. Dealer hits on soft 17 adds 0.22 points and no double after split adds 0.14, while a single deck helps the player by 0.48 points compared with eight decks, per the Wizard of Odds rule-variation table. A 6:5 table, common on low-stakes games, turns one of the best bets in the casino into a poor one, so check the payout before you sit down. See our blackjack game guide and the blackjack odds explained page for the full strategy picture.

Baccarat: the banker bet is the simple low-edge option

Baccarat gives you two low-edge bets and one bet to avoid. The banker bet has a house edge of 1.06% (98.94% RTP), the player bet 1.24% (98.76%), and the tie 14.36% (85.64%) on the eight-deck game, per the Wizard of Odds baccarat page. The banker bet pays 0.95:1 because of a 5% commission on wins, which is exactly why it still carries an edge despite winning more often than the player bet.

The tie bet is where baccarat gets expensive. It pays 8:1, but the true odds are far longer, which is why the house keeps 14.36% of everything wagered on it. If you want the lowest edge with the least thinking, the banker bet is the standard choice, and our baccarat game guide walks through how it works.

Craps: the pass line, don’t pass and the free odds bet

Craps mixes some of the best bets in the casino with some of the worst, all on one table. The pass line and come bets carry a 1.41% house edge, and the don’t pass and don’t come bets carry 1.36%, per the Wizard of Odds craps appendix. The difference is tiny, and the don’t bets are slightly better on paper but mean betting against the shooter, which some players find awkward.

The odds bet is the only bet in the casino with no house edge at all: 0%. It pays at true odds, but you can only make it after a point is established, and you must already hold a pass line or don’t pass bet. Taking or laying odds therefore lowers the combined edge on your total action rather than replacing the line bet.

Steer clear of the centre of the table. The any 7 bet carries a 16.67% house edge, big 6 and big 8 carry 9.09%, and the hard 4 and hard 10 carry 11.11%. A field bet costs 5.56% when 12 pays 2:1. These one-roll and long-shot bets are where the casino makes its margin, and our craps game guide separates the good bets from the bad.

Video poker: full-pay tables beat the house on paper

Video poker is the odd one out because the paytable, not the machine, sets the odds. A full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better machine returns 99.54% for a house edge of 0.46% with optimal play, per the Wizard of Odds Jacks or Better table. The 9/6 label means a full house pays 9 and a flush pays 6. Reduced versions such as 8/5 or 7/5 return less and raise the house edge, so the paytable name matters more than the game name.

A few full-pay machines return over 100%. Full-pay Deuces Wild returns 100.76%, which is a player edge of 0.76% on paper, per the Wizard of Odds Deuces Wild table. Those figures assume you play every hand perfectly, and full-pay Deuces Wild tables are rare. Treat the 100% plus returns as a theoretical benchmark, not something you will reliably find, and see the video poker game guide for the strategy detail.

Roulette: single zero beats double zero

Roulette’s house edge comes down to one thing: the number of zeros. A European wheel with a single zero has a 2.70% house edge on every bet. An American wheel with a single and a double zero has a 5.26% edge, almost twice as high, and the five-number 0-00-1-2-3 bet is worse still at 7.89%, per the Wizard of Odds roulette page.

French roulette uses the same single-zero wheel but adds la partage: on a zero, even-money bets such as red or black, odd or even, and high or low give back half the stake. That cuts the edge on those bets to 1.35%. Even-money bets on a plain European wheel carry the standard 2.70% unless the French rule applies, so the rule matters more than the table’s name. Our roulette game guide and the roulette house edge explained page cover the variants in more depth.

The games with the worst odds

At the other end, keno is routinely one of the worst bets in a casino. A 2001 survey of live keno in Las Vegas found returns of 65% to 80%, which is a house edge of 20% to 35%, and a 2012 Laughlin survey found returns of 50% to 74%, per the Wizard of Odds keno page. Video keno is less extreme but still weak, with surveyed returns of 84% to 95%.

Slots vary too widely for a single number. The house edge depends on the game’s return-to-player rate, which the provider sets and the operator usually publishes, and it generally runs higher than on blackjack or baccarat. A slot advertised with a 96% RTP, for example, carries a 4% house edge on every spin. Always read the game’s RTP before you spin rather than assuming the title tells you anything.

Poker is the exception to the whole ranking. In games such as Texas Hold’em you play against other players rather than the house, so there is no built-in house edge on your bets. The casino takes its cut through the rake, a small fee per hand or tournament, and your result depends on your skill relative to the table.

What the house edge means for a crypto bankroll

The house edge is a rate you pay on turnover, not on your deposit. If you wager 1 BTC across a session on a game with a 1.06% edge, your expected loss is about 0.0106 BTC, roughly 1.06 million satoshis. These are illustrative round numbers, not a prediction, because any real session is dominated by variance.

Put the same turnover through a 5.26% American roulette wheel and the expected cost rises to about 0.0526 BTC. A 0.28% blackjack game costs about 0.0028 BTC on the same 1 BTC of turnover. The point of the comparison is not that you can win, it is that the house edge quietly scales with how much you bet, so lower-edge games and shorter sessions cost less on average.

The same maths applies to crypto-native games. A provably fair dice game with a published 1% house edge behaves like any other 1% edge game: the arithmetic is identical, only the way you verify the roll changes, because you can check the seed and the result yourself instead of trusting the operator’s word.

No strategy changes that arithmetic. Basic strategy does not beat the house edge, it only minimises it; the odds bet does not turn craps into a positive expectation; and a 100% plus video poker table only pays off with flawless play over a long run. The edge is the cost of playing, and it always favours the house. Because the long run runs against the player, set a limit before you play and treat losses as the price of entertainment, with help available at gamblersanonymous.org and gamblingtherapy.org, and see our responsible gambling page.

How to check a game’s odds before you play

1. Open the game’s info or help panel and look for the RTP, house edge or return percentage. Regulated operators publish it, and many games show it on the rules screen.
2. Compare that number with the provider’s published sheet. Game makers such as Evolution and Pragmatic Play list the theoretical RTP for each game, so a mismatch is a red flag.
3. For video poker, read the paytable, not the title. Confirm it is the full-pay version, such as 9/6 Jacks or Better, rather than a reduced table.
4. For blackjack, check the table rules. A 3:2 blackjack payout and the dealer standing on soft 17 are better than 6:5 and hitting soft 17.
5. For crypto games, verify the outcome is provably fair so you can check each result against the seed, as our provably fair guide explains.
6. If a game publishes no RTP at all, treat the edge as unknown and assume it is unfavourable until you see the number.

FAQ

What gambling game has the best odds of winning?

Blackjack has the best odds of the main table games, with a house edge as low as 0.28% when you play perfect basic strategy on a six-deck game where the dealer stands on soft 17 and late surrender is offered. Full-pay video poker machines can beat that on paper, and the craps odds bet pays true odds with a 0% house edge, but it can only be made after a line bet.

What casino game gives you the highest chance of winning a single bet?

The craps pass line wins about 49.29% of the time, the highest single-bet win rate among the standard bets. Even-money bets on European roulette win 48.65% of the time, and the baccarat banker bet wins about 45.8% of the time. A high win rate does not always mean a low house edge, because the size of the payout matters too.

What is house edge and how is it different from RTP?

House edge is the share of every unit you wager that the casino keeps on average over the long run. Return to player (RTP) is the share the game gives back, and the two always add up to 100%. A game with a 1.06% house edge has a 98.94% RTP. Both are long-run averages and say nothing about a single short session.

Do gambling games with the best odds still lose money over time?

Yes. A low house edge still means the long run runs against the player, just more slowly. No strategy beats the house edge: basic strategy minimises it, it does not remove it. Short sessions are dominated by variance and can end up or down, but over enough play the edge wins out.

Is blackjack or baccarat better odds?

Blackjack is better on paper, at about 0.28% to 0.5% with perfect basic strategy, compared with 1.06% on the baccarat banker bet. Baccarat is the simpler route to a low edge because the banker bet needs no strategy, while blackjack’s edge assumes you play every hand correctly.

What are the worst odds in a casino?

Keno is routinely one of the worst bets, with surveyed live-keno returns of 65% to 80% (a 20% to 35% house edge). American roulette carries a 5.26% edge, roughly double the single-zero European wheel. Slots vary by game, so the house edge depends on the published RTP, which is usually higher than on table games.