Independent UK reference · Fri 2 Oct 2026
Casino odds for all games: the best bets and the house edge on each
Looking for the best odds in casino games? This page answers with one table: every main bet, what it pays, how often it wins and how much of each stake the house keeps. The casino games with the best odds are near the top; the worst are at the bottom. Nothing is sold here.
AI-generated images. A roulette wheel in close-up, and a roulette table in a quiet gaming room.
- Blackjack, best play0.57%
- Baccarat banker1.06%
- Craps pass line1.41%
- French roulette, even money1.35%
- European roulette2.70%
- A 96% slot4%
- American roulette5.26%
- Baccarat tie14.36%
- Craps any seven16.67%
- Lotto jackpot1 in 22,528,738
- EuroMillions jackpot1 in 139,838,160
Four figures from the table below
pockets on a European wheel, which pays a single number at 35 to 1
kept by the house on blackjack, if every hand is played right
on the baccarat banker bet, after the 5% commission
on the baccarat tie, one of the worst bets on any table
Casino odds and house edge, game by game: sorted from the best odds to the worst
Pick a game, move the stake and sort by any column. The cost is what each bet keeps on average, not what you lose on any one go.
| Average cost | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| BlackjackBest play, 3:2, dealer stands on soft 17 (infinite deck; moves with the table rules) | 0.57% | 43.3% | £0.57 |
| BaccaratBanker (5% commission) | 1.06% | 45.9% | £1.06 |
| BaccaratPlayer | 1.24% | 44.6% | £1.24 |
| RouletteFrench, even money with La Partage | 1.35% | 48.6% | £1.35 |
| CrapsDon't pass | 1.36% | varies | £1.36 |
| CrapsPass line | 1.41% | 49.3% | £1.41 |
| CrapsPlace 6 or 8 | 1.52% | 45.5% | £1.52 |
| BlackjackThe same table paying 6:5 | 1.92% | 43.3% | £1.92 |
| RouletteEuropean, red or black | 2.70% | 48.6% | £2.70 |
| RouletteEuropean, single number | 2.70% | 2.7% | £2.70 |
| SlotsA slot with 96% RTP (set by each game; UK slots mostly 94% to 97%) | 4% | varies | £4.00 |
| RouletteAmerican, red or black | 5.26% | 47.4% | £5.26 |
| RouletteAmerican, top line (0, 00, 1, 2, 3) | 7.89% | 13.2% | £7.89 |
| CrapsHard 6 or 8 | 9.09% | 9.1% | £9.09 |
| BaccaratTie (pays 8 to 1) | 14.36% | 9.5% | £14.36 |
| CrapsAny seven | 16.67% | 16.7% | £16.67 |
Chance to win counts a push or tie as not winning. Blackjack figures assume one player playing every hand by the book; slots vary by game.
Odds for every casino game: one page for each, with a simulator
The one idea behind every figure
How the house edge works.
A European roulette wheel has 37 pockets, but a winning single number pays 35 to 1. If the casino paid 36 to 1, the bet would be perfectly fair and nobody would profit over time. That one pocket of difference is the entire business: it keeps 2.70% of every stake, on every spin, whoever is playing and however the night goes.
Every game on this site works the same way. Find the true chance of a result, compare it with what the bet pays, and the gap is the house edge. The size of the gap is what makes some casino games good value and others very poor value.
Which casino games have the best odds?
The best odds in casino play belong to the bets where the payout comes closest to the true chance of winning. Measured that way, four casino games stand out. Blackjack comes first, with a house edge of about 0.57% on a six-deck table that pays 3 to 2 and lets the dealer stand on soft 17, but only for a player who makes the right move on every hand. Guessing, or copying the dealer by never busting, pushes the edge up to several per cent. Baccarat needs no decisions at all: the banker bet keeps 1.06% after the usual 5% commission, and the player bet keeps 1.24%. At craps, the pass line keeps 1.41% and don't pass 1.36%, and the free odds bet behind the line pays true odds with no edge whatsoever.
Casino games with best odds, in short: blackjack played by the book, the banker bet at baccarat, the pass and don't pass lines at craps, and even-money bets on a French wheel with La Partage.
Roulette sits in the middle. The European wheel, with one green zero, keeps 2.70% on every bet on the layout. French tables that offer La Partage return half of an even-money stake when the ball lands on zero, which halves the edge on those bets to 1.35%. The American wheel adds a double zero and nearly doubles the edge to 5.26%. The same bet on the wrong wheel costs about twice as much, which is why the choice of wheel matters more than the choice of number, as the roulette odds page shows with every bet on the layout.
Slot machines are set by their makers. Most UK online slots return between 94% and 97% of stakes over the long run, so the house keeps between 3% and 6%, but the published RTP only tells you the average. The slot machine odds page explains volatility, hit frequency and why the same RTP can feel very different from one game to another.
How to read casino odds
Casino odds are written in three ways, and they are easy to mix up. The true odds of a result compare the ways it can happen with the ways it cannot: a single number on a European wheel is 36 to 1 against. The payout is what the casino actually pays, written as "to 1": 35 to 1 for the same number, which returns your stake plus 35 times it. The probability is the chance as a fraction or a percentage: 1 in 37, or 2.70%.
The house edge is where these meet. Take the chance of winning multiplied by what a win pays, subtract the chance of losing multiplied by the stake, and the result is what the average bet returns. For a single number: 1/37 × 35 − 36/37 × 1 = −1/37, a loss of 2.70p for every pound. Every figure in the table above comes from the same short sum, and the how we calculate the odds page shows it for each game.
Two bets can have the same house edge and feel nothing alike. On a European wheel, red and a single number both keep 2.70%, but red wins almost half the time and the single number wins once in 37 spins on average. The edge measures the price of a bet; the chance to win measures how bumpy the ride is. A good way to use the table is to find a bet with a low edge first and then choose how often you want it to land.
What the house edge costs in pounds
The edge applies to every stake, not just to the money you bring. If you take £100 to a roulette table and bet £10 a spin for an hour, you might place 40 bets, which is £400 in total. At 2.70%, the average cost of that hour is about £10.80, even though you only brought £100. On an American wheel the same hour costs £21.04; at a blackjack table played well, nearer £2.28.
This is why fast games with a modest edge can cost more than slow games with a larger one. A slot that spins every three seconds settles hundreds of bets an hour, and a 4% edge applied to all of them adds up quickly. Speed, stake size and edge together decide what a session costs; the RTP calculator works this out for any slot and any budget.
Luck, streaks and the long run
No bet in the table can be beaten by timing or pattern. Each spin, hand and roll is independent of the ones before it, so a wheel that has shown black eight times in a row is no more likely to show red next. Believing otherwise is the gambler's fallacy, and it is the reason betting systems that raise the stake after a loss feel convincing and never change the edge.
What the long run does guarantee is that results drift towards the edge. Over a handful of bets, anything can happen, which is what makes gambling entertaining. Over thousands, the share the casino keeps settles very close to the figure in the table. Each game page has a simulator that plays thousands of rounds in a second, with no money involved, so you can watch that happen.
Fair games in the UK
Casinos licensed by the Gambling Commission must offer games that are fair and random, have their random number generators tested by approved test houses and publish the return of each game in its rules. The odds cannot be quietly changed after you start playing. That makes the figures predictable, but it does not make gambling a way to earn money: every bet in the table has a price, and the house collects it on average. Gambling should only ever be paid for from money you can afford to lose. If it has stopped being fun, free and confidential help is on our responsible gambling page.
Lottery odds: the jackpot, in one number
Lottery odds are far longer than any casino bet. Here are the jackpot odds for a single line on the main UK draws.
Free odds calculators: your hand, your bet, your ticket
Casino odds: questions people ask
Which casino games have the best odds?
Blackjack played with basic strategy has the lowest house edge in a UK casino, about 0.57% on a table that pays 3 to 2 and lets the dealer stand on soft 17. Next come the banker bet at baccarat (1.06%), the pass and don't pass lines at craps (1.41% and 1.36%) and even-money bets on French roulette with La Partage (1.35%). These casino games with best odds all share one thing: the gap between the true chance and the payout is small.
Which casino games have the worst odds?
Side bets and long-shot bets usually cost the most. The tie at baccarat keeps 14.36% of every stake, the any seven bet at craps keeps 16.67%, and most proposition bets sit above 9%. On the wheel, the American top line bet (0, 00, 1, 2, 3) keeps 7.89%. Lotteries are further out still: about 45p of every pound goes somewhere other than prizes.
What is the difference between RTP and house edge?
They are the same figure seen from opposite sides. Return to player (RTP) is the share of all money staked that a game pays back over a very long run; the house edge is the share it keeps. A slot with 96% RTP has a 4% house edge, and a roulette bet with a 2.70% house edge has an RTP of 97.30%.
Does the house edge mean I lose that much every time?
No. The house edge is an average over a huge number of bets. In one session you can win, lose everything or break even. What the edge tells you is the price of playing: stake £100 in total at 2.70% and, on average, you will get £97.30 back, however the individual results fall.
Can a casino change the odds of a game?
A casino chooses which version of a game it offers: which roulette wheel, which blackjack rules, which slot RTP setting. It cannot secretly change the odds of a game once it has told you the rules. In Great Britain, the Gambling Commission requires games to be fair and random and requires operators to publish the return of each game, so the figure should be in the game rules or the help screen.
Does a bigger bet improve my odds?
No. The chance of each result and the house edge are the same whatever you stake. A bigger bet only makes the average cost bigger in pounds: the same 2.70% edge costs 27p on a £10 spin and £2.70 on a £100 spin. The one exception is a slot or jackpot game whose top prize needs the maximum stake, which the rules will state.
Are live dealer games better odds than digital ones?
The maths is the same when the rules are the same: a European wheel has 37 pockets whether it is filmed in a studio or drawn by a random number generator. Differences come from the rules, such as a live blackjack table that pays 6 to 5, or a digital roulette game with La Partage. Always compare the rules, not the format.
Do betting systems beat the house edge?
No system changes the edge on a bet. The Martingale, Fibonacci and d'Alembert systems only change how your stakes are spread across bets, so they reshape the pattern of wins and losses while the total cost stays the edge multiplied by everything you stake. A long losing run, or a table limit, ends every doubling system.
Do bonuses improve casino odds?
A bonus does not change the odds of any game. It adds money with conditions attached, usually a wagering requirement, and every bet placed to meet that requirement still pays the house edge. Read the terms as a cost calculation: wagering multiplied by the edge of the game you play.
How do I read casino odds such as 35 to 1?
A payout of 35 to 1 means a winning £1 bet returns £35 in winnings plus the £1 stake. The true odds of a single number on a European wheel are 36 to 1 against, because 36 of the 37 pockets lose. The house edge lives in that gap: the bet pays as if the wheel had 36 pockets when it has 37, which keeps 1 in every 37 pounds staked, or 2.70%.
Which casino odds are better, blackjack or baccarat?
Blackjack, but only if you play it well. With basic strategy on good rules the edge is about 0.57%, against 1.06% on the baccarat banker bet. Play blackjack by feel, standing too early or never doubling, and the edge rises to 2% or more, while baccarat asks for no decisions at all, so its banker figure is the same for every player at the table.
What are the odds of winning at roulette?
A single number wins 1 time in 37 on a European wheel (2.70%) and 1 time in 38 on an American one (2.63%). An even-money bet such as red wins 18 times in 37, or 48.65%, on a European wheel and 18 times in 38, or 47.37%, on an American wheel. The zero, and the double zero, are why no roulette bet reaches 50%.
Are online odds the same as in a land-based casino?
For table games the maths is identical when the rules are identical: a card is a card and a pocket is a pocket. The differences come from the rules each venue picks, such as a single-zero or double-zero wheel, a 3 to 2 or 6 to 5 blackjack payout, and from slot settings, which vary by machine and by game version. Compare the rules and the stated return, not the building.
What counts as a good house edge?
Below 1% is as good as casino play gets: blackjack with basic strategy, and the free odds bet behind the craps pass line, which has no edge at all. Between 1% and 3% covers most main table bets, including baccarat banker and player and European roulette. Slots usually sit between 2% and 6%, most side bets above 5%, and draw lotteries far higher.
How are the figures on this site worked out?
Each figure is calculated from the rules of the game: the true probability of every result against what the bet pays. Blackjack figures come from our own exact calculation of every hand and baccarat from the full count of an eight-deck shoe. The method, and the sources for lottery prize tables, are on the How we calculate the odds page.