Casinos exist to make money and to entertain. The profit margin off a given game is the house advantage, while the payout is the percentage paid back in winnings over a certain length of time.

Business

Casinos are in business to make money, not to lose it. And they do, in fact, make billions of dollars every year. If they did not then behemoths like the Bellagio and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas would never have been constructed.

The House Edge

Historically, casino games have fairly typical odds associated with them. The house edge is the advantage a casino has in any game or part of a game. The figure represents the percentage of profits the casino earns off the game. Game strategists recommend that casino visitors know the house edge for the games they are interested in pursuing. Often those games vary from bet to bet, too, with the house edge climbing.

Best and Worst Odds

Blackjack has traditionally held the spot for best odds in the casinos, while most experts believe slot machines hold the worst odds. Compare the house advantage in blackjack at 0.2 percent to 0.65 percent with nickel slots at greater than 15 percent.

The lesser house edge in blackjack is at single deck games, which is perhaps why more and more casinos are allowing less space for those tables, while the higher is eight-deck games. Likewise nickel slots are the worst slot odds versus the higher dollar machines.

Craps and the Number 7

Any roll -- other than the shooter’s “come out roll” (first roll) -- in craps that comes up with a total of seven is a losing roll, called “sevening out.” However, there are more combinations of seven between the faces of the dice, making it a higher probability of being rolled. Craps still enjoys one of the better game odds when played wisely.

Casino Payouts

A “payout” refers to a percentage of a game’s take, paid back over the course of a period of time. While the payout of most casino games is fairly easy to determine, most sources are still confused about the payouts of casino slot machines.

While some experts claim to be able to wade through the morass of win figures and divine the randomness of computer generated random numbers, other sources argue the information is simply not a viable gambling tool.