Does Casino Always Win
Posted By admin On 02/08/22Albert Einstein supposedly once said: “No one can win at roulette unless he steals money from the table while the croupier isn’t looking.”
Although I wouldn’t normally question Einstein, this statement isn’t true. In fact, you can use Einstein’s specialist subject, physics, to help you win. Or you can find a biased wheel that makes some numbers more likely to come up.
What Einstein actually meant was that there is no mathematical trick that can help you win at roulette. Each spin is an independent trial and, in the long run, the casino will win. This is different to a game such as Blackjack where the probabilities change as cards are dealt.
But some believe that it is possible to exploit the way the roulette wheel, and the betting cloth, is laid out to give themselves an advantage. The idea is that you can make bets on the layout in a way that you are guaranteed to win. But is this really possible?
Roulette wheel layout
Like a dartboard, the layout of a roulette wheel did not come about by accident. It was carefully planned and exhibits certain properties. In fact, there are two different layouts. An American wheel and a European wheel. The two layouts are shown below.
This section is devoted to the analysis of some casino games rules to state their profitability for a casino. The following games will be considered: roulette, poker, and slot machines. Well then, we can now explore in details why the casino always wins. We all know the casino always win but still playing, we need adrenalin. Mar 04, 2016 Why Casinos Always Win in the End Episode 808. My $20 in nickels for a casino slot machine on a Friday night, or my $5 scratch ticket, or my one. Some games are way more of a ripoff than others — even by casino standards.
Notice that the American wheel has two zeroes. This is important as it doubles the advantage for the casino. On a European wheel you would expect to lose, in the long run, 2.7% of any money you bet with. On an American wheel you can expect to lose 5.26% (if you are interested in the mathematics of roulette, the video at the end will show you how these odds are calculated).
The numbers are arranged in a different order on each wheel but there are some similarities in the patterns. On both wheels, the red and black numbers alternate around the wheel, although if you removed the zeroes, the American wheel would have consecutive reds and blacks. The wheels are also structured so that the low numbers (1-18) and the high numbers (19-36) should alternate as much as possible.
On a European wheel, this is only violated where the 5 sits next to the 10 (both low numbers). On the American wheel, there are many examples where this rule is violated. It is for this reason that the American wheel is considered not as balanced as the European wheel. Both wheels also try to distribute odd and even numbers as evenly as possible. But again there are a number of violations of this rule on both wheels.
On the European wheel there are two other interesting symmetries. First, all the low red numbers and black high numbers are on one side of the zero, and the high red numbers and low black numbers are on the other side. Second, the sequence 29-7-28-12-35-3-26-0-32 contains no numbers between 13 and 24 (the second dozen). You can place a bet on the whole of the second dozen, with odds of 2-1.
So, can we beat the maths?
A simple search on Google will return many (possibly millions) of systems for playing (and supposedly winning) roulette. Some easy, some complicated, some well described, some not so.
A system should really be a combination of a playing strategy and a money management strategy. Perhaps the best known money management strategy is the Martingale system. This system is guaranteed to win money as long as you have enough of a bankroll to double your bet after every loss and you do not hit the table limit, which you will quickly do so. The Martingale system is probably the quickest way to bankruptcy known to man.
Whatever betting strategy, and money management strategy, you choose, they all suffer from the same fate. Assuming that each number on the wheel has the same probability of being selected – meaning the wheel is not biased – the maths means the casino will always win. The system may look good, and may work in the short term, but when one of the numbers comes up that you have not bet on you will lose and the casino will move towards its win expectation (2.7% or 5.26%).
Some systems involve betting on many numbers, perhaps 20. In this case, you will win quite often as you are covering more than half of the numbers. But when one of the numbers does not turn up (and it will almost half the time) you lose all of the 20 bets you have made. This will often wipe out any wins to date.
Any system, so far devised, can be analysed to show that there is a win expectation for the casino. The following video shows the maths.
You might as well place a single chip on the same number every time and hope that it appears more than it should during the short time that you are playing.
We can dress up the layout of the wheel, the layout of the betting cloth, our number selection and our money management system however we like, but the maths is always there, quietly working against us. You might as well just have fun, pick random numbers and trust to Lady Luck. Either that, or do as Einstein suggested and steal chips (not that we’d recommend it).
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
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.
Does Casino Always Win Cash
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.
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.
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 Casino
Final Take
Does Casino Always Win The Lottery
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.