Casino Edge Calculator

The Casino Edge Calculator is a lookup, not a simulator. One field: Game, a select with five presets. Blackjack 0.50% house edge / 99.50% RTP. Roulette 2.70% / 97.30%. Baccarat 1.06% / 98.94%. Slots 4.00% / 96.00%. Craps 1.40% / 98.60%. Default is blackjack. Pick roulette and the same two outputs become 2.70% and 97.30%. RTP is always 100 minus edge; there is no third input.

These are typical published figures for common, well-played variants, not a survey of every felt. Blackjack 0.50% assumes roughly six-deck, S17 or a nearby mix, DAS, 3:2 blackjack, basic strategy — the “half a percent if you play correctly” classroom number. Deviate to H17, no DAS, 6:5 blackjack, and the edge is larger; this select will still say 0.50%. Roulette 2.70% is European single-zero (1/37). American double-zero is ~5.26% on even money; it is not in the select. Baccarat 1.06% is the Banker bet after 5% commission on an eight-deck shoe. Player is ~1.24%; Tie is ~14%. Slots 4% is a round marketing midpoint (96% RTP), not your specific title. Craps 1.40% is in the neighbourhood of a Pass Line plus taking odds in a blended sketch, not a hard-way prop.

Use the outputs as a unit of comparison. $100 handle at blackjack 0.5% is $0.50 expected loss; at roulette 2.7% it is $2.70; at slots 4% it is $4.00. Pair the edge with the Expected Loss Calculator if you have hours and a bet size. Pair roulette’s 2.70% with the heatmap’s 2.7 expected hits per 100 spins: same 1/37, different sentence.

If your table has a 0.28% blackjack edge (excellent rules, perfect basic strategy) or a 12% slot, type nothing — there is nowhere to type. The select is the model. Change games, read RTP, and remember that 99.50% RTP still loses 0.50% of handle in expectation. High RTP is not a positive expectation.

House edge is the casino’s expected profit as a fraction of the amount wagered, under specified rules, with specified strategy. RTP (return to player) is 1 minus that fraction, usually quoted for slots. The five numbers on this page are a pocket reference, the kind printed in the front of a gambling-math handbook: blackjack about half a percent, European roulette 2.70%, banker baccarat 1.06%, slots “around 4%,” craps near 1.4% on the good bets. They exist because players ask “which game is cheapest” before they ask “what is my actual rule set.”

The intellectual history is the same as expected loss: Huygens, then the twentieth-century computational catalogues. Peter Griffin and Stanford Wong for blackjack; the baccarat enumerations of Thorp, Griffin, and later computer counts of the eight-deck shoe; roulette as pure 1/37 or 2/38; slots as a certified laboratory RTP. A single select cannot carry Griffin’s full blackjack tables or a jurisdiction’s slot floor. It carries the headlines.

Blackjack’s 0.50% is the most abused. Without basic strategy the edge is several percent. With 6:5 payouts it jumps toward 2%. Continuous shuffle, restricted doubling, and mid-shoe entry each add. The preset is the advertising number for “played well.” Roulette’s 2.70% is the most honest, because the wheel has no strategy beyond avoiding the American layout and the five-neighbour bets. Baccarat Banker at 1.06% is honest for that one bet. Slots at 4% is a placeholder: UK and Danish licensed titles often sit 94–96%; some land-based floors sit 88–92%. Craps 1.40% is a compromise between Pass (1.41%) and Pass-plus-odds which can be lower on the combined outlay depending on how you define the denominator.

Limits: five games, one variant each, no side bets (those are often 10%+), no live-dealer speed, no commission variants beyond the baccarat 5% already baked into 1.06%. Do not use 4% to price a 96.34% Megaways title. Do not use 0.50% to price a 6:5 pitch game.

The educational punchline is RTP = 100 − edge, always, on this page. A 96% slot and a 4% edge are the same sentence. Marketing prefers the 96%. The calculator prints both.

A lecture on how to read a house-edge lookup begins by naming it as a dictionary, not a simulation. Five presets sit on the page. Blackjack: 0.50 percent edge, 99.50 percent return. Roulette: 2.70 and 97.30. Baccarat: 1.06 and 98.94. Slots: 4.00 and 96.00. Craps: 1.40 and 98.60. Return is always 100 minus edge; there is no third input. Default is blackjack. These are typical published figures for common well-played variants, the kind printed in the front of a gambling-math handbook, not a survey of every felt. Change the game, read both numbers, and remember that 99.50 percent return still loses 0.50 percent of handle in expectation.

Where the headlines come from, as identities. European roulette even-money or straight-up: edge = 1/37 ≈ 0.027027, stored as 2.70 percent to two decimals. American even-money 2/38 ≈ 5.26 percent is not stored. Banker baccarat, eight-deck, 5 percent commission: published chances about 0.4586 banker, 0.4462 player, 0.0952 tie, banker pays 0.95 to 1, edge ≈ 1.06 percent. Player is about 1.24 percent; tie about 14 percent. Blackjack 0.50 percent is not a one-line identity; it is a composition-dependent expectation under a rule set, then rounded. Off-the-top basic strategy often sits between −0.3 and −0.6 percent depending on hit-or-stand on soft 17, double after split, decks, surrender. Half a percent is the classroom round number for “played well.” Slots 4 percent is 96 percent return inverted, no reel math. Craps 1.40 percent sits next to Pass Line 1.41 percent and Don’t Pass about 1.36 percent.

Peter Griffin and Stanford Wong catalogued blackjack; Thorp and later computer enumerations catalogued baccarat; roulette is pure 1/37 or 2/38; slots are laboratory-certified averages. A single select cannot carry Griffin’s full tables or a jurisdiction’s slot floor. It carries the headlines. Without basic strategy the blackjack edge is several percent. With 6:5 payouts it jumps toward 2 percent. Continuous shuffle and restricted doubling each add. Roulette’s 2.70 percent is the most honest, because the wheel has no strategy beyond avoiding the American layout and the five-neighbour bets. Side bets are often 10 percent plus and are not in the select.

Assumptions: preset variants, no user-supplied rules. A 96 percent slot and a 4 percent edge are the same sentence; marketing prefers the 96. High return is not a positive expectation. Pair the edge with the expected-loss identity if you have hours and a bet size: 100 of handle at 0.50 percent is 0.50 expected, at 2.70 percent is 2.70, at 4 percent is 4.00. The conversion players search for is the subtraction. The substance is knowing which identity each preset is approximating. Type nothing for a 0.28 percent blackjack masterpiece or a 12 percent slot: there is nowhere to type. The select is the model.