Online Casinos – The House Edge And The House Drop
Every casino gambler knows that whenever one places a bet on any of the games offered by the house, he will have to deal with a negative long term EV (expected value) induced by the ever present house edge. The deal is simple. In order to make sure that it can turn a profit, the house only works with a mathematically induced edge. If it kept the odds 50-50 it would be stuck in a perpetual stalemate and it wouldn’t have the money to pay all the employees needed to run the operation. If it gave the player the edge, the owner would have to bring money from home, with which they could then pay the winners. The bottom line is, the house edge – though it may seem evil – is a must, without which gambling as we know it today would not exist. Despite that all that, there are ways to reduce and sometimes even to defeat the house edge. Online casinos run various sign-up bonus deals and rake rebate like loyalty promotions, which allow players to squeeze more value out of every single bet that they place, than what the house edge would allow them to get otherwise. There are various other short-cuts too, like learning proper optimal strategy in video poker and blackjack and learning the true house edge each of the roulette bets carry.
The house edge is treated as an integral part of the casino gambling experience, thus it’s never kept a secret. Every decent land based and online casino will have its payout rates displayed in various locations, so all comers can take a look at the numbers, and while they do put a positive spin on the issue (they tell you how much they pay you back not how much you lose), everything is quite plain for everyone. There’s just one problem with the payout rates (house edges) though: they don’t even begin to tell the true story that unfolds behind the scenes. The house edge is not the main adversary the player will encounter at the land based and online casino tables. The house edge merely serves to put a simple yet extremely efficient mathematical system into motion. Here’s how it all works out. Let’s consider a player who walks into a casino, with the intention of placing 10 $1 bets on a game which features a 5% house edge.
Before we get into this any deeper, let’s set a few things straight: to make the calculus simple, we'll apply the house edge to every single bet. In reality, the house edge is something which takes a while to seep into the equation. Players will win some bets and lose some before the house edge rears its head. For mathematical purposes though, considering that the house edge will show up unscathed in every single wager is pretty much the equivalent of the real McCoy. So here we go: our guy places his first wager ($1) and he gets 95 cents back. He does the same thing 9 more times, and he loses 5 cents every time. At the end of the 10-bet spree, he’ll have lost 10X5 = 50 cents. His initial $10 bankroll will have shrunk to $9.5. The math adds up perfectly: he loses 5% of his initial bankroll. Instead of leaving though, our guy decides to have some more fun with his remaining $9.5, and this is where things turn haywire. He makes 9 more bets and loses 9X5 cents= 45 cents. His losses are at 50+45= 95 cents, which is almost the equivalent of 10% of his roll. How does the 5% house edge look now? The problem (induced by the house edge) is a little something known as the house drop, and you will not see this baby advertised by any of the online casinos and live gambling operations anywhere.