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Casino House Edge by Game (2026): Cost Per Hour Ranked
Every casino game is priced against you, but the price you actually pay has almost nothing to do with the number everyone quotes. With perfect strategy, blackjack and full-pay video poker take about $0.50 of every $100 you bet — a house edge near 0.5%. American roulette takes $5.26, and keno takes $25–$30. But the house edge is a per-bet figure, and games run at wildly different speeds. Once you multiply edge by bets-per-hour by stake, the ranking of casino games flips almost completely. The game with the lowest edge on the floor (video poker, 0.46%) can cost you more per hour than the American roulette wheel. And slots — a middling edge of roughly 8% — are the most expensive seat in the building. This page has the full house-edge and RTP table for 2026, and then the number that actually matters: expected loss per hour, ranked.
Casino house edge by game 2026: key insights
- Lowest edge: video poker (9/6 Jacks or Better) ~0.46% and blackjack (basic strategy) ~0.5% — RTP near 99.5%.
- Baccarat banker bet: 1.06% — the lowest house edge of any standard one-bet wager.
- European roulette 2.70% vs American roulette 5.26% — the extra "00" nearly doubles the edge.
- Slots: 2%–15% (RTP 85%–98%), averaging roughly 8%; keno 25%–30%; big six wheel 11%–24%.
- Ranked by cost per hour rather than edge, the order flips: the big six wheel and slots top the list; blackjack sits at the bottom (16Best analysis).
- At a flat $5 bet, slots cost about $24/hr versus blackjack's $1.75/hr — nearly 14× more (16Best analysis).
- A $200 bankroll buys roughly 114 hours of blackjack but only about 8 hours of slots, on expected loss (16Best analysis).
- Video poker has the lowest edge on the floor, yet at 600 hands/hr its hourly cost (~$13.80) beats American roulette (16Best analysis).
- US casinos won a record $78.72 billion in 2025; slot machines alone produced over $37 billion — about 79% of slot-plus-table win.
- Americans wagered an estimated $464 billion on slots in 2025 to lose ~$37 billion — that gap is the house edge in dollars (16Best analysis).
What are house edge and RTP?
House edge is the share of each bet the casino expects to keep; RTP is what comes back to you, and the two always add to 100%. A game with a 5% house edge has a 95% RTP: for every $100 wagered, the casino keeps about $5 and returns about $95 over millions of bets. The two numbers are the same fact stated from opposite ends of the table.
16Best analysis: the single most misread thing about house edge is that it is charged per bet wagered, not per dollar you walk in with. Re-bet your winnings and the same money is taxed by the edge again and again. This is why "bets per hour" — not the edge itself — is the real driver of what a session costs, and why a 0.46% game played 600 times an hour can drain you faster than a 5.26% game played 40 times. RTP = 100% − house edge, but neither number means anything without the clock.
Two caveats set the whole page. First, for skill games like blackjack and video poker, the published edge assumes optimal strategy; play worse and the real edge climbs. Second, the edge depends entirely on the specific rules and pay table — a blackjack game that pays 6:5 instead of 3:2, or a short-pay video poker machine, quietly multiplies the house edge without changing how the game looks. For the full primer, see what RTP and house edge mean.
Which casino games have the lowest house edge?
Full-pay video poker (~0.46%) and basic-strategy blackjack (~0.5%) have the lowest house edge, with an RTP near 99.5%. Ranked from best odds for the player to worst, here is the typical house edge, RTP, and the loss per $100 wagered for the main casino games in 2026.
| Game (best rules / strategy) | House edge | RTP | Lose per $100 | Bets / hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video poker — 9/6 Jacks or Better (optimal) | ~0.46% | ~99.54% | ~$0.46 | ~600 |
| Blackjack — basic strategy, good rules | ~0.5% | ~99.5% | ~$0.50 | ~70 |
| Baccarat — banker bet | 1.06% | 98.94% | ~$1.06 | ~40 |
| Baccarat — player bet | 1.24% | 98.76% | ~$1.24 | ~40 |
| Craps — pass line / come | 1.41% | 98.59% | ~$1.41 | ~48 |
| Roulette — European (single zero) | 2.70% | 97.30% | ~$2.70 | ~40 |
| Sic bo — big / small bet | 2.78% | 97.22% | ~$2.78 | ~45 |
| Three Card Poker — ante & play | ~3.37% | ~96.63% | ~$3.37 | ~50 |
| Caribbean Stud Poker | ~5.22% | ~94.78% | ~$5.22 | ~50 |
| Roulette — American (double zero) | 5.26% | 94.74% | ~$5.26 | ~40 |
| Slot machines | 2%–15% (avg ~8%) | 85%–98% | ~$2–$15 | ~600 |
| Big six / wheel of fortune | 11%–24% | 76%–89% | ~$11–$24 | ~40 |
| Baccarat — tie bet | ~14.4% | ~85.6% | ~$14.40 | ~40 |
| Keno | 25%–30% | 70%–75% | ~$25–$30 | ~12 (live) |
The per-bet spread is enormous — the player loses roughly 60 times more per bet on keno than on optimal video poker. But per bet is the wrong lens, because those bets don't arrive at the same rate. Video poker fires ~600 hands an hour; live keno crawls at a dozen games. Hold that thought.
Typical edge under common rules and optimal strategy for skill games. Source: Wizard of Odds, UNLV Center for Gaming Research, Casino.org.
How much do you actually lose per hour?
Your expected loss is house edge × bets per hour × average bet — and once you run that math, the low-edge games are no longer safely at the bottom. To compare fairly, we hold the bet constant at a flat $5 per wager across every game, so the only variables left are edge and speed. This is our own calculation.
16Best analysis: at a standardized $5 bet, expected loss per hour reorders the casino floor completely. Slots (~$24/hr) and the big six wheel (~$38/hr) become the two most expensive games despite the wheel being a novelty bet almost nobody thinks of as dangerous. Meanwhile video poker — the lowest house edge on the entire floor at 0.46% — costs about $13.80 an hour, more than American roulette's $10.52, purely because it deals 600 hands an hour to roulette's 40. The edge is a price tag; the speed is how many times you pay it.
| Game | House edge | Bets/hour | Avg bet | Expected loss/hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big six / wheel of fortune | ~19% | 40 | $5 | ~$38.00 |
| Slot machines | ~8% | 600 | $5 | ~$24.00 |
| Keno (live) | ~27% | 12 | $5 | ~$16.20 |
| Video poker (9/6 JoB) | 0.46% | 600 | $5 | ~$13.80 |
| Roulette (American) | 5.26% | 40 | $5 | ~$10.52 |
| Three Card Poker | 3.37% | 50 | $5 | ~$8.43 |
| Sic bo (big/small) | 2.78% | 45 | $5 | ~$6.26 |
| Roulette (European) | 2.70% | 40 | $5 | ~$5.40 |
| Craps (pass line) | 1.41% | 48 | $5 | ~$3.38 |
| Baccarat (banker) | 1.06% | 40 | $5 | ~$2.12 |
| Blackjack (basic strategy) | 0.5% | 70 | $5 | ~$1.75 |
Expected loss/hour = house edge × bets per hour × $5. Figures are averages before variance; a single session can swing far above or below. (16Best analysis, from Wizard of Odds edges and Michael Bluejay / easy.vegas speed-of-play data.)
Why does ranking by cost per hour change everything?
Because ranking by house edge and ranking by cost per hour produce almost opposite lists. Sort by edge and video poker and blackjack are the "safe" games while slots sit mid-pack. Sort by the dollars that actually leave your wallet each hour and the picture inverts — this reorder is the whole point of the page.
16Best analysis. Loss per hour = edge x bets per hour x $5. This reordering is why the house edge alone misleads: video poker has the lowest edge on the floor yet the fourth-highest hourly cost.
Video poker has the lowest house edge (0.46%) yet outruns American roulette on hourly cost — 600 hands/hr.
16Best analysis: notice what leaves the "danger zone" and what enters it. Blackjack has the second-lowest edge and the lowest hourly cost — it wins on both lists, which is why advantage players love it. Video poker wins on edge but loses badly on speed. The big six wheel and slots aren't the highest-edge games (keno's edge is bigger), yet they cost the most per hour because they combine a real edge with real speed — or, for the wheel, a punishing edge on a bet people treat as harmless. The safest game to sit at is the one that is cheap on both axes, and only blackjack and baccarat clear that bar.
How long does a $200 bankroll last at each game?
A $200 bankroll buys roughly 114 hours of basic-strategy blackjack but only about 8 hours of slots — a 14-fold difference from the same money. Dividing $200 by the expected loss per hour turns the abstract edge into playing time. (This is expected-value time to zero, before variance; luck can end a session far sooner or stretch it far longer.)
| Game | Expected loss/hour ($5 bet) | Hours a $200 bankroll buys |
|---|---|---|
| Blackjack (basic strategy) | ~$1.75 | ~114 hrs |
| Baccarat (banker) | ~$2.12 | ~94 hrs |
| Craps (pass line) | ~$3.38 | ~59 hrs |
| Roulette (European) | ~$5.40 | ~37 hrs |
| Sic bo (big/small) | ~$6.26 | ~32 hrs |
| Three Card Poker | ~$8.43 | ~24 hrs |
| Roulette (American) | ~$10.52 | ~19 hrs |
| Video poker (9/6 JoB) | ~$13.80 | ~14 hrs |
| Keno (live) | ~$16.20 | ~12 hrs |
| Slot machines | ~$24.00 | ~8 hrs |
| Big six / wheel of fortune | ~$38.00 | ~5 hrs |
Hours = $200 ÷ expected loss per hour. (16Best analysis.) Note that video keno on a machine runs at slot speed, not the ~12 games/hr of live keno, which would cut its bankroll life to a couple of hours — always the fastest way to burn the same money.
How much more do slots cost than blackjack?
At the same bet, slots cost nearly 14 times more per hour than basic-strategy blackjack. A $5 flat wager loses about $24.00 an hour on slots versus about $1.75 an hour on blackjack — a ratio of 13.7×. Against the big six wheel the gap widens to about 21.7×. None of that comes from the headline edge alone; it is edge multiplied by the number of bets the game extracts from you every hour.
Slots cost nearly 14x more per hour than blackjack at the same bet — moderate edge, brutal speed.
This is exactly why slots dominate casino economics even though their edge is nowhere near the worst on the floor: they pack in hundreds of bets an hour. In the United States, slot machines generate the large majority of casino win despite a middling edge — the speed does the work. For the machine side of this, see our slot machine statistics, and for the industry totals, how much money casinos make.
Roulette: why is European so much better than American?
European (single-zero) roulette has a 2.70% house edge; American (double-zero) roulette has 5.26% — nearly double, for identical bets. The only difference is the extra green "00" pocket on the American wheel, which adds one more way to lose without changing any payout.
The math: on an American wheel, a $1 even-money bet wins 18 times and loses 20 times out of 38, for an expected value of (18/38) × (+$1) + (20/38) × (−$1) = −$0.0526 per dollar — the 5.26% edge. On a single-zero wheel it is 1/37 = 2.70%. Find a European wheel with la partage or en prison rules and the edge on even-money bets halves again to about 1.35% — competitive with baccarat. Same-looking game, three very different prices.
Baccarat and craps — which bets are best?
In baccarat, always bet banker (1.06%) or player (1.24%), never the tie (~14.4%); in craps, the pass line (1.41%) backed by free odds is among the best value in the house. Both games hide great bets right next to terrible ones.
The baccarat banker bet is the single lowest-edge one-bet wager on a standard floor, even after the 5% commission on wins. The tie bet, at ~14.4%, is one of the worst wagers in the building — a swing of more than 13 percentage points between two bets on the same table.
In craps, the pass line and come (1.41%) and don't-pass/don't-come (1.36%) are strong, and the game has a unique feature: the "odds" bet behind a line bet pays at true odds with a zero house edge. Backing a 1.41% pass line with full odds can drag your effective edge well under 1%. The trap is the centre of the table — proposition and "any seven" bets carry edges of 11% to 16.7%.
Which games have the worst odds?
Keno has the worst edge (25%–30%), followed by the big six / wheel of fortune (11%–24%) and side bets like the baccarat tie (~14.4%). These are the fastest ways to lose money per bet. But remember the reorder: the worst edge and the worst hourly cost aren't the same list. Live keno's brutal edge is partly offset by its glacial pace, while slots — a far gentler ~8% edge — out-drain it per hour on speed alone.
16Best analysis: the games casinos push hardest — slots and, online, high-RTP video slots — are precisely the ones where the edge looks reasonable but the speed is punishing. A 96% RTP slot sounds player-friendly next to keno's 72%, yet at 600 spins an hour it takes more of your money than the keno lounge does. Marketing leans on RTP because RTP hides the clock. This is the same handle-versus-revenue confusion that inflates crypto casino headlines — see our crypto gambling statistics.
What does the house edge actually earn casinos?
US commercial casinos won a record $78.72 billion in 2025, with slot machines alone producing over $37 billion — the house edge converted into cash. Total win has set a record for six straight years, recovering from the COVID-hit $30 billion of 2020. This is the only genuine time series on the topic: the per-game edge itself is static, but the dollars it extracts grow with the handle.
* projected by 16Best at the observed 2021-2025 CAGR of 10.4 percent. Source: American Gaming Association Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker.
| Year | US commercial gaming revenue | YoY change |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $30.0B | — (COVID closures) |
| 2021 | $53.0B | +76.7% |
| 2022 | $60.4B | +14.2% |
| 2023 | $66.5B | +9.9% |
| 2024 | $71.9B | +8.1% |
| 2025 | $78.72B | +9.5% |
| 2026* | $86.9B | +10.4% (projected) |
| 2027* | $95.9B | +10.4% (projected) |
* 2026 and 2027 projected by 16Best at the observed 2021–2025 compound rate. Source: AGA Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker. YoY figures (16Best analysis).
16Best analysis: stripping out the 2020 COVID trough, US commercial gaming revenue compounded at about 10.4% a year from 2021 to 2025 — (78.72÷53.0)^(1/4)−1. But the growth is decelerating: the post-rebound years ran +14.2%, +9.9%, +8.1%, then +9.5%, so a straight 10.4% extrapolation to 2027 is, if anything, optimistic. Either way, the engine underneath every one of these dollars is the house edge table above — and roughly 79% of the slot-plus-table win comes from the machines that cost players the most per hour.
Americans wagered an estimated $464 billion on slots in 2025 to lose $37 billion — the gap is the edge.
Why do the sources disagree on these numbers?
Two reasons: handle versus revenue at the industry level, and rules versus pay table at the game level. Both trip up casual coverage, and both are easy to untangle once you know they exist.
Handle vs revenue (GGR). This is the classic gambling reporting error. Handle is money staked; revenue (gross gaming revenue, or GGR) is money the casino keeps. They differ by the house edge and by how many times winnings are re-wagered. Slot machines in 2025 produced over $37 billion in revenue at an average hold of roughly 8%, which implies a handle — total coin-in — of about $37.1B ÷ 0.08 ≈ $464 billion wagered (16Best analysis). A headline that says "Americans bet $464 billion on slots" and one that says "slots earned $37 billion" describe the same activity; conflating them overstates the market more than tenfold. Any figure that looks impossibly large is almost always handle; any that looks modest is revenue.
Rules vs pay table. At the game level, a single "house edge for blackjack" doesn't exist — it depends on the rules. Basic-strategy blackjack ranges from about 0.28% (liberal Vegas Strip rules, 3:2 payouts) to over 2% once a casino switches to 6:5 payouts, adds decks, or lets the dealer hit soft 17. Video poker splits the same way: a "9/6" Jacks or Better machine returns 99.54%, but a visually identical "8/5" machine returns only about 97.3%. This is why two reputable sources can both be right and still quote edges twice as far apart — they are pricing different rule sets. Every figure on this page uses the common "good rules, optimal play" version and says so.
Key takeaways
- House edge is a per-bet price, not a per-session one. Speed — bets per hour — is what turns the price into a cost.
- Ranking by cost per hour inverts the edge ranking. Video poker has the lowest edge but the fourth-highest hourly cost; blackjack is cheap on both.
- Slots cost nearly 14× more per hour than blackjack at the same $5 bet — $24 vs $1.75 — entirely on speed.
- A $200 bankroll lasts ~114 hours at blackjack, ~8 at slots. Same money, wildly different playing time.
- The best bets are banker/player baccarat, basic-strategy blackjack, and pass-line craps with odds — all cheap on edge and speed.
- The worst edges are keno, the big six wheel, and side bets like the baccarat tie — but slots out-drain keno per hour on speed.
- The house edge earned US casinos a record $78.72B in 2025, ~79% of slot-plus-table win from machines.
- Sources disagree for two reasons only: handle vs revenue at the industry level, rules vs pay table at the game level.
Frequently asked questions
What casino game has the lowest house edge?
Full-pay video poker (9/6 Jacks or Better) at about 0.46% and blackjack with basic strategy at about 0.5% have the lowest house edge, both giving an RTP near 99.5%. Among one-bet games, the baccarat banker bet at 1.06% is the lowest.
Which casino game costs the most per hour?
Ranked by expected loss per hour rather than by edge, the big six wheel of fortune and slot machines cost the most. At a flat $5 bet, the wheel loses about $38 an hour and slots about $24, versus about $1.75 an hour for basic-strategy blackjack, because both combine a real edge with high speed.
How much more do slots cost than blackjack?
At the same bet, slots cost nearly 14 times more per hour than basic-strategy blackjack. A $5 flat wager loses about $24 an hour on slots against about $1.75 an hour on blackjack, a ratio of roughly 13.7 to 1. The difference is speed: slots run around 600 spins an hour, blackjack about 70 hands.
How long will a $200 bankroll last in a casino?
On expected loss at a $5 bet, a $200 bankroll buys roughly 114 hours of basic-strategy blackjack, about 37 hours of European roulette, about 19 hours of American roulette, and only about 8 hours of slots. These are averages before variance, so a single session can end much sooner or last much longer.
Is European or American roulette better?
European roulette is much better for the player: its house edge is 2.70% versus 5.26% for American roulette. The difference is the extra double-zero pocket on the American wheel, which nearly doubles the edge for identical bets. With la partage or en prison rules, the European even-money edge can fall to about 1.35%.
What is the house edge on slot machines?
Slot house edge typically ranges from about 2% to 15% (RTP of 85% to 98%), averaging roughly 8%. It is set in the software and usually not displayed, and online slots often show higher RTP than land-based machines. Because slots run around 600 spins an hour, even a moderate edge makes them the most expensive game per hour.
Which casino game has the worst odds?
Keno has the worst house edge, about 25% to 30%. Other poor bets include the big six wheel (11% to 24%), the baccarat tie bet (about 14.4%), and craps proposition bets. By hourly cost, however, slots and the big six wheel drain a bankroll faster than live keno because they run far more bets per hour.
Sources
- Wizard of Odds — House Edge of Casino Games Compared
- UNLV Center for Gaming Research — Beat the House: House Edge of Casino Games
- Michael Bluejay / easy.vegas — House Edge & Speed of Play
- American Gaming Association — Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker
- SIGMA — AGA: US gaming revenue hits $78.7B in 2025
- Casino.org — Casino House Edge Explained
- CasinoBeats — Casino Games With the Lowest House Edge