Playing Casino Understanding 54227213685825
Bookmakers and casinos give themselves an edge and 99% of men and women fall into their "trap". How do they do this and what should be avoided?
Let's look at the example of roulette in a casino.
On the surface, it looks OK. 36 numbers, choose one and get 35-1 if you're correct right? Wrong. many people forget that you will discover actually 37 numbers including zero (or maybe 38 with a double zero on American roulette). This make a major difference when it comes to payouts. So just using European roulette, let's crunch the numbers.
If you choose one number, the actual odds of getting that number correct is 1 in 37 or 36-1. So by offering 35-1, the casino has instantly stacked the odds ever so subtly within their favour. Just the reduction of 1 point gives the house an advantage of around 2.7 percent. Not only a lot you may think but over the course of Ł100,000 that is Ł2700 in favour of the casino. A small margin but a margin nonetheless.
So what about red/black or odd/even? Again, it will appear to be a 50/50 bet. But with the inclusion of zero, you truly have an 18 in 37 chance (48.65%). That favours the house by 1.35% which over the course of one day, could equate to thousands of pounds.
But this is nothing compared to bookmakers.
As I have demonstrated, a "50/50" at a casino is actually a 48.65/51.35 against you. At bookmakers, the margin is significantly greater. A seemingly 50/50 bet will be priced up at 9/10 or 1.9 in decimal odds.
Therefore the bookmaker is giving themselves a huge 10% margin on these kind of bets, the most usual of which are called "handicap bets". The handicap bets are setup in such a way that there are actually only two possible outcomes, rated as equally likely. But regardless of what your decision is, the bookie stands to keep 10% of the actual odds. Not fair, you may think. Well, they're not going to give you anything for free. They're in the business of making money after all.
So how can you counter these edges?
It's possible with bookmakers to work with a system of "handicap doubles". I will explain this at another time. Otherwise, only good online bet fortune will counter a bookie's edge and which is not something to count on.