Yes we do play online casinos to have some fun but let’s be honest we do play because we want to win! Today we ask the experts what you can do to increase your chances of winning at online casinos.
Online casino is regulated by odds and probabilities and although not many gamblers analyse their winning chances when playing at casino, this is ultimately a very important topic to understand how many chances you have to come out with full or empty pockets.
It is not a secret that online casinos are not charities: they are businesses and in the long run they have to win in order to keep the show going. They make sure this to be the case with the house edge. But let’s look into this in more details as if we get this right we can really increase our chances of winning at online casino.
‘Some players believe that the casino game where the house edge is smaller is blackjack’ told us John Pentin chief editor at casino aggregator site Casino Biggest Bonus, ‘but if you use a bad strategy when playing online blackjack than the house edge will increase significantly. If you are not sure how to play blackjack than it is probably better in the long run to play a game where you are not required a strategy like baccarat or craps as you will probably have better chances of winning.’
Most gamblers believe that the house margin is deducted per hand or game played when they try to figure out the odds. For example if you know that the house edge stands at 2% you might think that after 100 games you will have an average loss of 2%.
Well, it doesn’t work that way. When you are looking at probabilities you first need to look at the wins to losses ratio and then you should calculate the cost of each bet. The best scenario for you would be to win the most on each winning game. There are some little tips you can use to improve your chances of winning and we are going to explore those now.
Better to play European Roulette instead of American Roulette
You can easily calculate what is the casino advantage over the player by looking at the house edge. This is a mathematically expected loss per bet and it is expressed as a percentage. Let’s do an example: a game that has a house advantage of 5% it means that you are expected to lose around £5 every time you make a £100 bet. The European roulette has 37 numbers when compared to 38 numbers of the American roulette: this means that in this case the house edge is only 2.70% instead of 5.26%. For no reasons, you should play the American roulette as you simply have less chances of winning. Simple as that.
Play more video poker
When we analyse gambling machines we need to focus on the payback percentage to understand our chances of winning. The payback percentage is calculating by deducting the house edge from 100%: in short is the amount of money you are expected to win back in the long run. Now if you compare video poker with other games you can see that they tend to pay a lot more. From the pay table you can also find out what is the payback percentage of a video poker.
Make sure you are following a precise strategy
As mentioned before one of the most popular games at online casinos is blackjack as it tend to have a smaller house edge. This is true but if you don’t have an effective strategy in place than you are risking to increase the house edge on this game to as high as 4% or even more. With the right strategy this can go well down between 0.5% and 1% depending on which blackjack variant you are playing.
But what is the best strategy to play at blackjack? Well it is important to always play the best mathematical move. If you make the wrong decision than the house edge will increase and you stand very little chance of winning in the long term.
Stick to the simplest bets
It is important when playing a game of online craps to stick to the most basic bets. The reason is that the inside bets have a significantly higher house edge. The best way is to bet on the pass and don’t pass bets as in this case the house edge is only 1.41% and 1.36% respectively.
Take a break
Even if taking a break from time to time won’t increase your chances of winning, surely it will reduce your chances of losing. Think that the house edge is like a tax on every bet you play. Every time you place a bet you are virtually paying that tax. Playing slowly is better as you can have more fun and also you will have more attention on what happening and eventually you will be making better decisions.
Keep on learning
One thing you should remember. The easier a game is to play and the higher will be the margin of the house. This is why games like blackjack where a good strategy is needed to succeed have the better odds for the players. With online slots: the more difficult the slot machine is to play the higher the margin of the house will be especially if there are extra features involved. An online slot with just 3 reels has more opportunity to win.
So in conclusion all online casino games have a mathematical house edge built on them. This is fluctuating from one game to another. In order to increase your chances of winning you have to first understand what the edge per game is and then adapt your playing style so that you have more chances over long time to win. A set loss limit is also very important as chasing your losses will not help you at all and can potentially bring you into the path of problem gambling. So keep calm and pick up the online casino games that have the lowest house edge: in this way your chances of walking away as a winner will increase significantly.
